Business Law

On July 20, 2020, the State Bar published its First Annual Report on the Diversity of California’s Legal Profession. Read more

Former BLS Chair Uzzi Raanan has been elected by the California Lawyers Association Board as the CLA Secretary for 2020-21. He also serves as the BLS Representative to the CLA Board. Read more

On Friday, June 19, 2020, the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section approved the formation of a working group to consider whether—and if so, how— California business lawyers should or could support stakeholder capitalism and the investment trend known as ESG (Environment, Social, Governance), a standard used by a number of investors to screen investments based on those factors. Read more

The California Lawyers Association (CLA) Business Law Section (BLS) is looking forward to participating in the CLA Annual Meeting, which will be virtual this year, between September 24-26, 2020. The Annual Meeting includes MCLE courses and opportunities to network over coffee with other attorneys practicing in business law and other fields. Read more

On July 23, 2020, in Speier v. Brace, __ P.3d __, __, 2020 WL 4211750, 2020 Cal. LEXIS 4642 (July 23, 2020), the California Supreme Court issued an opinion answering questions posed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Brace v. Speier (In re Brace), 908 F.3d 531 (9th Cir. 2018). Read more

In Brace v. Speier (In re Brace), 566 B.R. 13(9th Cir. BAP 2017), the United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Ninth Circuit (“BAP”) affirmed a ruling by the bankruptcy court holding that, where the avoidance of transfers of interests in real properties restored title to a married couple as joint tenants, California’s community property presumption (California Family Code § 760) (the “Community Property Presumption”) prevailed over California’s record title presumption (California Evidence Code § 662) (the “Record Title Presumption”). Read more

This session will address Internal Revenue Service audits (examinations) of nonprofits, including the “new” data-driven approach to selecting which Forms 990 will be audited, new procedures being utilized by the IRS during the course of an audit, how the IRS enforcement team has reacted to the global pandemic, and war stories related to IRS audits of nonprofits. Read more

Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) prohibits discrimination in the healthcare system by incorporating four nondiscrimination statutes—including the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits certain types of disability discrimination. Andrea Schmitt, who has a severe hearing loss disability, filed a class action against Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, alleging that it unlawfully discriminated against her and other hearing-disabled plan members by excluding all hearing loss treatments except cochlear implants. Read more

The Nevada Supreme Court determined, based on a Nevada statute, that directors and officers of a corporation are not liable for acts or failures to act unless there is a breach of fiduciary duty involving intentional misconduct, fraud or a knowing violation of law. The Nevada Supreme Court did not address exclusions listed in the Nevada statute based on articles of incorporation or corporate governance documents providing for the liability involving other acts. Read more

The United States District Court in New York ruled that Amazon, as an online marketplace operator, was not liable for damages caused to an online buyer by a defective product sold by a third-party vendor based on strict liability, negligence, or breach of warranty claims. Philadelphia Indemnity Ins. Co. v Amazon.com, Inc., 2019 WL 6525624 (E.D. NY 2019). Read more