State Bar & Bar Associations
Missed opportunity to make sense of discipline discrimination study
By Daniel Everett
Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature were duped earlier this month into signing off on Senate Bill 176, the li...
Labor/Employment, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Civil Rights
Legal ethics: The perils of playing down sexual harassment
By A. Marco Turk
It was recently reported that Ernst & Young subjected women employees to “training” that would keep the company’s men happy.
Law Practice
Will artificial intelligence please take the stand (part 2)
By Paul F. Rafferty
In this chapter, we will look at what others have said, or are doing in furtherance of AI testimony, introduces the concept of...
Government, Criminal
Less heralded than AB 392, SB 230 may have greater long term impact on police practices
By J. Scott Tiedemann, Paul D. Knothe
California’s Legislature passed two laws this year, Assembly Bill 392 and Senate Bill 230, which modernize the state’s use of ...
Law Practice, Insurance, Contracts
The unfortunate need to address mass shootings in contracts
By Richard J. Idell
For those in the live entertainment business, where venues have become targets, there has been a need to address operational i...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation, Civil Rights, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Takeaways from cert denial in website accessibility suit
By Kristina M. Launey, Minh N. Vu
When Domino’s asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuit’s decision to allow a website accessibility case filed ag...
Tax, Corporate
California’s FTB can collect 13.3% tax even from nonresidents
By Robert W. Wood
If you live in California, you probably know how aggressive California’s state tax agency can be. But even if you live somewhe...
To every current view we bring expectations from the past. So it is with a visit to London as part of a delegation during Lega...
Criminal
Extending SOL for sexual assault victims is an important step
By John C. Taylor, Sonya Ostovar
On Oct. 13, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 218, providing survivors of childhood sexual assault a significantly greater opportuni...
Civil Litigation, Intellectual Property, Entertainment & Sports
Does MMA preempt the Turtles’ California state law claim?
By Bruce Isaacs
On Oct. 17, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an unpublished decision that the issue of whether or not the Turtle...
U.S. Supreme Court, Judges and Judiciary
Oral arguments: A computational analysis
By Gregory M. Dickinson
Oral argument, it turns out, can be a remarkably powerful predictor of the justices’ votes.
This month, the Internal Revenue Service issued its first guidance on the taxation of cryptocurrency in five years. Revenue Ru...
Civil Litigation, Environmental & Energy
Decision on standing in PFAS cases raises serious concerns
By Jeffrey Dintzer, Nathaniel Johnson
A recent decision involving litigation over contaminants known as PFAS could potentially include every person in the United St...
Criminal, California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal
Shocks: after or fore?
By Brian M. Hoffstadt
The California Supreme Court’s strict circumscription of the “kill zone” theory in a recent case was no doubt designed to shor...
U.S. Supreme Court, Environmental & Energy, Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Is the Clean Water Act void for vagueness?
By Michael F. Wright
Recent CWA cases have produced fractured opinions, and circuits are split on how to interpret them — so can an ordinary layper...
Mergers & Acquisitions, Labor/Employment, Corporate
Retention bonus program considerations in M&A transactions
By Thomas M. Asmar
If your company or business is the target of a merger or acquisition, ensuring that key employees are retained is a critical c...
Transportation, Civil Litigation
Autonomous Cars: Who is responsible for collisions?
By Brian S. Kabateck, Nicole DeVanon
Conclusions in recent National Transportation Safety Board reports may provide a starting point in terms of developing theorie...
Tax
Charitable lead annuity trusts may make you yawn, but they work
By Bruce Givner, Owen Kaye
A CLAT can provide payments to a charity for fixed term of years. You can pick your favorite charity, which might be your own ...
In my salad days as an appellate lawyer, fresh off a clerkship with a California Supreme Court Justice, I believed my appellan...
Government, Administrative/Regulatory
Planning for CCPA compliance with shifting timelines
By Grant Davis-Denny, John W. Berry
Unfortunately, exactly when this massive regulatory regime becomes fully enforceable is unclear, leaving the business communit...
I have an opinion opposite that of the majority. I am not sure anybody thinks as I do anymore, that civil rights and free spee...
Labor/Employment, Appellate Practice
Appellate writs may be best route to clarifying AB 5 ambiguities early on
By Sharon Baumgold
There are a number of major ambiguities in AB 5 that suggest litigation will be complex and may require, at least in early day...
Private actors like SpaceX can contribute to formal lawmaking by standing in the shoes of national governments — they can be ...
U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Litigation
Looking back and forward: Class actions and the Supreme Court
By Kristina Azlin
With several key rulings issued by the U.S. Supreme Court last term, 2019 has already been a big year for the class action bar...
SB 645 is unreasonable regardless of the number of asbestos defendants sued in a lawsuit or present at the plaintiff’s deposit...
Tax fear? Careful if you get an IRS summons
By Robert W. Wood
Getting mail from the IRS — even a simple notice — can make your blood pressure rise. But what if you get something more threa...
Tax, Real Estate/Development
Treatment of lease termination costs for opportunity zones
By Phil Jelsma
How can opportunity zone investors grapple with the growing likelihood of lease termination costs?
Labor/Employment, Government
The legal norms are a-changin’ in the post #MeToo era
By Nancy E. Yaffe
What used to be OK, tolerated, and even justified as (i.e., “that’s just the way he is”) is simply not OK in workplaces in the...
Civil Litigation, California Courts of Appeal
A bad case for lawyers
By Timothy D. Reuben
In an anti-SLAPP case, the court inadvertently highlighted one of the linguistic challenges in anti-SLAPP jurisprudence — what...
U.S. Supreme Court, Judges and Judiciary, Books
Bridging two centuries of developing American law
By Michael L. Stern
A fresh, new biography of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) gives good reason to visit the lif...