CLA eNews

In the latest season of Netflix’s intensely entertaining hit Ozark, Jason Bateman’s character, Marty Byrde, is kidnapped by the Navarro drug cartel and taken to Mexico, where he is tortured and beaten for several days before ultimately being allowed to return home to Missouri, and his family. Upon his return, his brother-in-law Ben notes that the ordeal seems to have changed Marty in profound yet barely detectable ways, keenly observing “that looks like Marty, walks like Marty, sounds like Marty, but that is 100% not Marty Byrde.” Read more

May lawyers accept and keep a client retainer payment even if no legal services are ever provided to the client? May they accept flat fees for legal services paid in advance, before any legal services are provided? If so, must the flat fee be deposited into a client trust account, or may it go directly into the lawyer’s operating account? Read more

“Nothing lasts forever.” “This too shall pass.” I know it. You know it. We all know, in our heads, that nothing lasts forever and at some point, many of the changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic will end. They will end either because we learn to live with the virus just as we have learned to live with flu, the common cold and HIV, or because there is a vaccine or a cure. Read more

The rapidly changing landscape we face poses opportunities as well as challenges for the CLA community in our work as professionals and in our service of the public. As a result, as attorneys we must make our maintaining norms an even more important and intrinsic part of our entire practice, including such activities as disparate as participating in remote hearings and depositions, integrating new technologies into our practices, or wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Read more

The California Lawyers Association is excited to announce its partnership with Legal Access Alameda on a program to help low-income Californians deal with COVID-19 related legal issues. Read more

The U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit has appointed Cuauhtemoc Ortega as Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California. Read more

California reportedly is home to the largest marijuana industry in the world, with nearly $3 billion in sales in 2019, according to market researchers. The state legalized medical cannabis in 1996, and then, in 2016, voters passed Proposition 64 and legalized recreational cannabis. Lawyers have been involved with the industry since the beginning, a practice area that only continues to grow. Read more

Here is the setting: A pandemic has changed the way we live and decimated our economy, coupled with protests calling for racial justice. Meanwhile, everyone seems to have a different opinion about how to solve these overwhelming challenges. Read more

The scope of state and county emergency orders for addressing COVID-19 are beginning to change with a gradual, and welcome, reopening of businesses. And under the steady and impressive leadership of our Chief Justice and the Judicial Council, the courts have continued to function and now are beginning the process of reopening fully for business. Read more

The death of George Floyd and others shows us how far removed we still are from justice for all in the 21st century. It is critical to safeguarding the rule of law, preventing discrimination, and ensuring fairness in the administration of justice, that all are treated with full respect and with full protection of our constitutional rights. Read more