Litigation

07 Oct California’s New Fair Pay Act Makes It Harder For Employers To Justify Wage Disparities

Posted at 21:48h in Litigation by Karineh Tarbinian

California’s employee-friendly state legislature recently approved SB 358, the Fair Pay Act (“CFPA”), which is designed to reinforce the state’s existing equal pay laws and narrow exceptions that have historically made enforcement difficult. Governor Brown signed the bill into law, and the CFPA will be in...

05 Oct Recent Employment Law Developments May Signal a Union Comeback

Posted at 21:51h in Litigation by Laura Payne

The last 30 years has seen a significant decline in union membership by workers in the United States, with a resulting decrease in the political power of unions. But a recent legal shift toward empowering collective bargaining may point towards a recovery. The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”)...

30 Sep Can An Elected Official Claim A Right to Discriminate as a “Workplace Accommodation”?

Posted at 21:53h in Litigation by Caleb Mason

When Kim Davis, clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, got out of jail and went back to work, her first order of business was to announce publicly that while she’s not ordering her deputy clerks to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, she “want[s] the...

11 Sep A Litigator’s Lament in Probate: Why Am I Being Treated So Unfairly By A Court of Equity?

Posted at 22:11h in Litigation, Probate, Trusts & Estates by John Short

Imagine it: you’ve been practicing law for more than 15 years. You’ve completed a successful stint in the District Attorney’s office where you compiled an impressive 87% success rate at trial. You went to a big, downtown firm where you won 10 of 13 jury...

10 Sep How Netflix’s Generous Parental Leave Policy Supports Federal and California Law

Posted at 22:12h in Litigation by Karineh Tarbinian

A few weeks ago, Netflix announced its generous new paid parental leave policy, and Microsoft, Adobe Systems, Goldman Sachs, Nestlé and other industry leaders followed suit. Expanding paternity or maternity leave benefits attract employees with the promise of better work-life balance, and moves like this...

02 Sep Independent Contractor v. Employee: How Uber Shows the Risk of Misclassification

Posted at 22:15h in Litigation by Laura Payne

Worker classification — that is, categorizing workers as independent contractors or employees — has become a contentious issue affecting more and more companies in the burgeoning “1099 economy.” Uber is the leading example of a company that has based its business model on classifying its...

02 Sep Brown White & Osborn LLP Secures Free Speech Win For Client

Posted at 22:14h in Litigation by Ken White

For the past three years we’ve represented Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Frey, who writes a political blog under the name “Patterico.” Mr. Frey was the target of a federal lawsuit accusing him of defamation and violation of rights under color of law...

01 Sep Cease and Desist Letters As A Branding Opportunity

Posted at 22:16h in Litigation by Ken White

In my last post I discussed how an attorney ignorant of internet culture can harm a client’s reputation through a well intentioned but imprudent cease-and-desist letter. To balance that warning, there’s good news: a savvy attorney can use a cease-and-desist letter to help a client’s brand. People...

18 Aug Don’t Make It Worse: Responding to Online Defamation Without Triggering The Streisand Effect

Posted at 22:27h in Litigation by Ken White

Lawyers are supposed to make their clients’ lives better, not worse. But we can make things worse, much worse, when we rush into a realm we don’t understand. This is particularly a problem when a client comes to us enraged about something written about them on the internet. Most lawyers...