Alternative Dispute Resolution
Arbitration of employment disputes today
By David P. Warren
In recent years, pre-dispute arbitration provisions employers use have gone from abysmal to enforceable, as employer's attorne...
Companies should keep transfer pricing compliance as a top concern as the IRS doubles the size of its transfer pricing practic...
Perspective
California courts need to recognize emerging family patterns
By Maya Shulman
It is long overdue that the court recognize that emerging family patterns include complex blended families in various forms. B...
With so much coverage of today's pro athletes, morals clauses are more important than ever. By Charulata Pagar ...
With its recent revisions, the Santa Clara County Bar Association's Code of Professionalism serves as an important reminder th...
U.S. Supreme Court
When officials enforce laws in bizarre ways, taxpayers pay
By Kenneth P. White
A recent case involving the display of a painting containing a Confederate flag at a county fair shows why Legislators, when c...
In the latest example of attempted legislation of micro-aggressions, at the August 2016 American Bar Association Annual Meetin...
Intellectual Property, Entertainment & Sports, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Artists: 'Blurred Lines' case hurts industry
By Edwin F. McPherson
In an recent amicus brief filed in the appeal of the $5.3 million judgment, hundreds of recording artists expressed their unmi...
Administrative/Regulatory
Can officials use vendors to push tax measures?
By Will Swaim
Californians going to the polls this November will find more than 300 measures to raise taxes. And despite multiple legal deci...
Consider this: A BMW X6 has a starting price of $61,900 in U.S. dealerships. In China, that MSRP is $171,000. By Jonathan Mich...
In a recent published opinion, the 9th Circuit demonstrated that it understands that insurance companies frequently use doctor...
GC Email
State high court asked to define 'occurrence' under CGL policy
By Michael R. Velladao
Courtesy of the 9th Circuit, the state high court has been afforded the opportunity to answer whether claims for negligent hir...
In three recent decisions, courts have held that an insured's own defective work may constitute an "occurrence" triggering co...
Administrative/Regulatory, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Beware 'common carriers' after ruling in AT&T data-throttling case
By Anita Taff-Rice
The 9th Circuit recently slammed shut the door on the Federal Trade Commission's ability to act as a consumer watchdog for dec...
Last month, the 9th Circuit became the first circuit to hold that CEOs and CFOs may be required to pay back bonuses after rest...
The case is exemplary of recent retrenchment by United States federal courts on jurisdictional grounds in high profile interna...
U.S. Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Open carry wary
By William Slomanson
California's federal judiciary has been targeted by a hail of recent gun suits. These Second Amendment volleys aim to relax th...
Law Practice, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Privacy or privilege: a clash of compelling interests
By Louie H. Castoria
Lawyers are entrusted with a great deal of private information about people who are not our clients. Are we obliged to exercis...
Bankruptcy
New law may extend time to challenge fraudulent transfers
By Evan W. Granowitz
For at least 20 years, transfers made more than seven years prior were not subject to challenge by a creditor as a fraudulent ...
Perspective
Tech companies: Are you acting as a financial intermediary?
By Dan Friedberg
Although money transmission is not a new or foreign concept, many technology companies fail to recognize that they are engaged...
A Florida judge's recent ruling shows that evolving technologies like cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and the blockchain do not alwa...
California's current death penalty has proven to be an arbitrary and unreliable government program that has cost taxpayers $5 ...
Perspective
Vergara plaintiffs were just the first to bring this issue to the courts
By Ralia E. Polechronis
All the judges who opined in Vergara agreed the facts were deplorable. It is only a matter of time until we see a majority opi...
Appellate Practice
We must break free from writing like, well, lawyers
By Jeffrey M. Fisher
In law school we struggled to grasp old, cryptic, monolithic judicial opinions. And many lawyers, trained to read those opinio...
Your reply brief might turn out to be the most important vehicle for influencing an appellate court. A few judges think the re...
The governor rightly vetoed AB 1766 — which would prohibit a criminal court and each party from referring to prospective juror...
If the court doesn't provide one, bring your own. There are alternatives, but they're rather unappetizing. By Paul Kujawsky ...
California Supreme Court
Bristol-Myers: Ruling thwarts divide and conquer strategy
By Sharon J. Arkin
The real motivation in challenging jurisdiction is not because litigating here would be difficult or unfair; the real motivati...
California Supreme Court
Bristol-Myers: Expansive view of PJ undermines precedent
By Paul F. Utrecht
Without jurisdictional limits, the confines of due process will be eroded and the predictability of litigation will be replace...
I am a strong proponent… No, I need a more forceful adjective. How about "obsessive"? Yes, …an obsessive proponent, advocate, ...