California

Expert Analysis

• Corporate Compliance Through The Lens Of Calif. Privacy Law

  

  While businesses are preparing for the California Consumer Privacy Act they can pull from the U.S. Department of Justice's recent guidance on compliance programs to establish controls that not only protect consumer information, but also enhance overarching corporate compliance, say Robb Adkins and Shawn Obi at Winston & Strawn and Stephanie Douglas at Guidepost Solutions.

• State Net

  A Look At How States Are Experimenting With Health Care

  

  The fate of the Affordable Care Act is currently pending in federal court, but states are proceeding on the premise that the law will survive its latest legal challenge as they consider competing Democratic and Republican visions of health care, says Lou Cannon of State Net Capitol Journal.

• 2 High Court Admiralty Cases Diverge On Common Law's Role

  

  Although the U.S. Supreme Court's recent admiralty ruling in Air & Liquid Systems v. DeVries indicates success in expanding the availability of common law protections to mariners, its decision in Dutra Group v. Batterton — decided just months later — counsels that new classes of remedies will now be harder to obtain under the common law, says Brian Maloney of Seward & Kissel.

• Opinion

  Time To Heed Justice Stevens' Criticism Of Gun Decision

  

  Justice John Paul Stevens was right that the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 gun rights decision in Heller desperately needs to be overruled, but while he viewed revision or repeal of the Second Amendment as the easier course for correction, only the court can clean up the mess it made, says Robert Ludwig​ of the American Enlightenment Project.

• The Potential Effects Of Calif. Contractor Reclassification Bill

  

  If enacted, California’s Assembly Bill 5 would codify the so-called ABC test for independent contractors established in the California Supreme Court's Dynamex decision. Notably, the bill goes beyond the scope of Dynamex and could have an extraordinary impact on the state's economy, say attorneys at Littler.

• Remembering Justice Stevens As A Law Firm Leader

  

  Rothschild Barry's John Coffey, who joined Justice John Paul Stevens' law firm in 1965, shares what it was like to watch Justice Stevens practice law, mentor younger lawyers and land a malfunctioning plane.

• Keeping Conventional Power Going Until Renewables Mature

  

  The U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state regulators have a handful of tools to compel generators to delay the retirement of nuclear, coal and gas plants until greener options are more reliable, but their scope has not yet been tested in court, says Gordon Coffee at Winston & Strawn.

• Calif. Privacy Law's 3 Limited Exemptions For Health Cos.

  

  So that health and life sciences companies can better determine whether the information they collect is subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act, Jason Linder and Libby Jelinek of Irell & Manella address the scope of certain CCPA exemptions and identify the main areas of ambiguity.

• Community Solar Needs Clear, Flexible State Regulations

  

  As states adopt and expand third-party solar development programs, regulators should streamline rules and avoid prescriptive requirements for developers, say Elliot Hinds and Diana Jeschke at Crowell & Moring.

• Answers To Key Legal Finance Ethics Questions

  

  While there is discussion in some quarters about new regulations on commercial legal finance, the hands-off approach taken by the majority of courts and legislatures is an implicit recognition that it is already sufficiently regulated, says Danielle Cutrona of Burford Capital.

• Federal Agencies Need A Uniform Record-Keeping Process

  

  The administrative record is very important to federal agency litigation — as showcased in last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census — yet there is no set of consistent principles to guide agencies in compiling these official records, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

• California Tax Takes: San Francisco Tax Litigation Heats Up

  

  On July 5, the San Francisco Superior Court held that two local taxes passed by voter initiative are valid because they are not subject to the two-thirds voting requirement for special taxes codified in the California Constitution. Attorneys at Reed Smith discuss the implications for San Francisco taxpayers who must now pay the taxes despite continuing litigation in the case.

• State Net

  Local Governments Push To Regulate Public Surveillance

  

  San Francisco's Board of Supervisors recently approved an ordinance banning the use of facial recognition technology by all city departments. The law is part of a growing movement among localities and states to increase oversight of the use of surveillance technologies by government entities, says Korey Clark of State Net Capitol Journal.

• The Role Of Dictionaries In Last Term's High Court Decisions

  

  Since 32 of the 67 decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court during its October term cite dictionaries, it’s worth reviewing the opinions to learn which dictionaries the justices consulted and how they used them, say Bruce Wessel and Brian Weissenberg of Irell & Manella.

• How To Evaluate The Rise In Legal Employment

  

  Although the rate of employment for law school graduates — which had been falling steadily — saw a small increase over the last year, other factors, such as fewer graduates overall and potential future job growth stagnation, temper the good news for those pursuing law degrees, say Tiffane Cochran and Tyler Grimm of AccessLex Institute.