Business Law Corporations Committee

In response to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to “alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people,1” the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released an interim final rule that substantially narrows the scope of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) by requiring only entities previously defined as “foreign reporting companies” to file beneficial ownership information reports (BOIR). Read more

California has passed two laws requiring businesses to disclose their carbon emissions and climate-related financial risks. Senate Bill 253 (“SB 253”), known as the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (“CCDAA”), was signed into law in 2023 and will require large businesses operating in California to publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions. Read more

A California corporation enjoys the same attorney-client privilege protections as individual clients. But what happens to that privilege when a corporation dissolves? Like in many areas of law, the answer depends. Read more

The Nonprofit Organizations Committee and the Corporations Committee of the Business Law Section of the California Lawyers Association are pleased to announce that, on July 18, 2024, Governor Newsom signed their sponsored bill, AB 2908 (Assemblymember Chen). It had previously passed the Assembly and Senate unanimously and without opposition. Read more

Generative AI (“GAI”), applied across a variety of industries, provides powerful tools to access large volumes of data, and its functions and capabilities have increasingly become more specialized in natural language processing, logical inferencing, machine learning, and image recognition technology. Read more

In a move to raise transparency regarding California business ownership, the California Senate passed SB 1201 on May 16, 2024. This bill, if enacted into law, would impose on all domestic and foreign limited liability companies and corporations the obligation to provide certain information about the beneficial owners of those entities.  Read more

Since July 1, 2022, the filing fees required to be paid for the registration of new corporations, limited liability companies (“LLCs”) and limited partnerships (“LPs”) with the California Secretary of State (the “Secretary of State”) have been waived. Read more

Effective January 1, 2023, most California employers will now need to comply with expanded rules for disclosing pay range information to job applicants and employees and new recordkeeping and reporting requirements.  Senate Bill 1162 (“SB 1162”) was signed into law in September 2022, with the aim of improving pay equity, and carries with it some potentially stringent penalties for employers who fail to comply.  Read more

Governor Gavin Newsom has signed SB 218 (sponsored by Senator Jones), which was proposed by the California Lawyers Association’s Business Law Section Corporations Committee and adds an important new Section 119 to the California Corporations Code (CCC) providing for corporate ratification and judicial validation of noncompliant corporate actions. Read more

On May 13, 2022, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis issued a bench trial verdict in a widely-watched case—Crest et al. v. Padilla, C.A. No. 19STCV27561 Cal. Super. Ct. (Crest I). Read more