The battle between Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio has shown that the Latino community is anything b...
Criminal
Fine line between improper coercion and acceptable interrogation
By Kacey Mcbroom
In a recent case, the California Court of Appeal deemed a defendant's confession involuntary when law enforcement officers mad...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
The dos and don't of professional liability insurance
By Jody Harris
Law firms in the market for liability insurance should approach the process like a business deal; it is an ongoing relationshi...
Law firms in the market for liability insurance should approach the process like a business deal; it is an ongoing relationshi...
Ethics/Professional Responsibility
How to survive your next cocktail party
By Heather L. Rosing
Prudent practitioners need to be aware of the law of ethical rules governing "cocktail party" situations to avoid inadvertentl...
Intellectual Property
Street artists increasingly asserting rights to works
By Scott Alan Burroughs
Once considered a symptom of urban blight, graffiti is now a respected art form. As the popularity of street art has increased...
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Is mediation the practice of law? Bar won't give a straight answer
By A. Marco Turk
In 2009, I wrote a column based on a letter from the State Bar stating that they do not consider mediation as the practice law...
Mergers & Acquisitions, Law Practice, Law Office Management, Ethics/Professional Responsibility
What to consider when negotiating a hire or merger
By J. Randolph Evans, Shari L. Klevens
In previous generations, attorneys stayed at one law firm for their duration of their career, but as firms grow and expand, at...
Perspective
Religious freedom law likely provides individual liability
By Daniel P. Bane
In broad terms, the RLUIPA prohibits religious discrimination or imposition of "substantial burdens" on religious exercise and...
Street art, to quote "Zoolander," is "so hot right now," with artists like Banksy, Basquait and Fairey fetching millions. By P...
U.S. Supreme Court, Criminal
Conservative and liberal justices unite in Florida death penalty case
By Karen M. Gottlieb
In Hurst v. Florida, the court held that Florida's death penalty scheme, which it has repeatedly upheld since 1976, was...
Perspective
To preserve democracy, decrease the influence of Super PACs
By Nicholas Warshaw
James Madison provided the framework to fix the financing of campaigns over 250 years ago. By Nicholas Warshaw ...
Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article about homeowners' resentment of San Francisco's "relinquishment pr...
You just agreed in principle to settle a big case for your client. Whether you represent the plaintiff or defendant, your clie...
I feel like "a patient etherized upon on a table." Sorry, but lately T.S. Eliot has been on my mind. ...
With growing bipartisan support, Congress is inching towards the passage of legislation that would provide litigants a federal...
What is the job description for litigators? It is to get the best results they can for their clients within the facts and the ...
Conflicts of interest continue to be the most common alleged legal malpractice error, as well as a basis for disciplinary acti...
Administrative/Regulatory
Dangerous herbal supplements continue to go unregulated
By Brian S. Kabateck, Laura Kelly St. Martin
As famed NBA Lamar Odom rebounds from a life-threatening overdose of "herbal Viagra," his ordeal raises important legal issues...
Government, Corporate, Administrative/Regulatory
Recent decision may change FTC authority to regulate
By Jonathan C. Sandler, Makan Delrahim
In a decision late last year that went largely under the radar, Judge D. Michael Chappel, the chief administrative law judge f...
U.S. Supreme Court, Criminal, Constitutional Law
Ban on mandatory LWOP for juveniles retroactive
By Hadar Aviram
The high court'sMontgomery v. Louisiana decision is the latest development in two trends in criminal justice. ...
Over the last year, California appellate courts have issued several decisions dealing with the anti-SLAPP statute. By Steven G...
The Northern District recently applied the California Court of Appeals' ruling that, employers are obligated to reimburse thei...
Real Estate/Development
Beware misleading disclosures as housing costs rise
By Roger C. Haerr
Buyers often develop remorse after they move into their home and discover one or more problems that the prior owner failed to ...
Until last week, most California courts have held parties in a strict product liability action can never use a competitor's pr...
No one likes receiving Internal Revenue Service Forms 1099, those pesky little tax forms you receive this time of year to repo...
Few provisions of the U.S. Constitution are as controversial as the Second Amendment. While the NRA argues that the Second Ame...
As consumers suffer from escalating premiums and reduced services from their health insurers, they face a simple truth — a lac...
To be sure, the Sunshine Act has important business and legal ramifications, and there are several ways that consumers, the pr...
While it is common for paralegals to oversee case management once a matter is assigned, rarely does a paralegal case manager p...