eNews

While summer is often a time of rest, your Business Law Section Executive Committee and Standing Committees remain hard at work preparing the educational programs and in particular, the publications content, which make membership in the BLS so beneficial. For example, the Agribusiness Committee of the Business Law Section is updating its Agricultural Law Sourcebook, and the Insolvency Law Committee is putting the finishing touches on its updated California Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors Desk Guide. In addition, our Commercial Transactions Committee is working on an update to the extensive Hidden Liens Report available on the CLA website, and the BLS’ Partnerships and LLCs Committee is updating its Handbook for Incorporating a Business in California. It is the hard work and dedication of the Sections’ volunteers that enables the BLS to produce the quality publications that makes our Section so special. That is why I ask that you consider joining the Business Law News (BLN) Editorial Board. Read more

The California Lawyers Association Intellectual Property Law Section hosted the 2019 IP and the Internet Conference on Thursday, June 6, 2019, at the Luskin Conference Center, UCLA. The conference was a one-day event that began with a delightful breakfast and ended with a networking reception. It was a day packed with learning and sharing pertinent information about industry changes and advancements. Read more

Mike Masnick, founder of TechDirt, opened up the 2019 IP and the Internet conference by reassuring his audience that he isn’t actually anti-copyright. And to be sure, many of his entertaining slides clearly displayed Unsplash or Creative Commons attribution. But just in case his audience turned surly, one of those 487 (down from the original 489) slides showed the escape route he had mapped out to LAX. Read more

The July issue of our Section’s Labor & Employment Law Review will feature two articles on "PAGA 15 Years Later," one from the perspective of the employer by Laura Reathaford, and one from the perspective of the employee by Glenn Danas. The authors review recent and ongoing significant PAGA cases, including one filed by the California Business & Industrial Alliance against the State of California that challenges PAGA as unconstitutional on an “as-applied” basis. Read more

Kisor v. Wilkie (US 18-15 6/26/19) Agency Deference Doctrine. Upholding Auer deference doctrine, whereby courts defer to an agency’s reasonable reading of the agency’s own ambiguous regulations. Read more

We are less than 10 days away from our best and largest event of the year, our 9th Annual Advanced Wage & Hour Conference and 36th Labor and Employment Law Section Annual Meeting. As I mentioned last month, the combined conference will have something for everyone, and you can register to attend one or both days. Our Wage and Hour Conference, on July 18, will have an annual update, panels on Dynamex and PAGA, a wage-and-hour-ethics-themed trivia luncheon, and the much-loved judges panel with practical tips on litigating wage and hour class actions. Read more

CLA will be submitting formal comments to the Legislature on the proposed fee increase, pursuant to directions from the CLA Board given in closed session at its meeting on June 21, 2019. We are in the process of evaluating the impact of the LAO report on these comments. Read more

The State Bar of California has several options when administering discipline in ethics investigations where the lawyer is found to be running afoul of the ethics rules. Some of the disciplinary actions the State of Bar of California may take are private or public reprimand, sanctions, suspension, and disbarment. Additionally, the California Bar also has the discretion of placing a lawyer on probation. Read more

Regardless of the subject matter and whether it’s a criminal or civil issue, these four tips will help you draft the strongest brief possible. Read more

I am recently back from the first annual CLA Solo and Small Firm Summit. This year it was held in Huntington Beach and was a terrific event. It was intimate even with approximately 250 people attending. There was education, networking, sharing of business cards, vendors and a lovely environment in which to learn. The Solo and Small Firm section hosted an outdoor cocktail reception on Friday evening and sponsored a mobile truck providing free professional head shots. Read more