Expert Analysis

• Politics In California Workplaces: What Employers Must Know

  

  As the election looms, it is critical that California employers ensure their compliance with state laws providing robust protections for employees' political activity — including antidiscrimination laws, off-duty conduct laws, employee voting leave laws and more, say Bradford Kelley and Britney Torres at Littler.

• Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

  

  Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

• Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI

  

  While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.

• Series

  Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

  

  In the third quarter of the year, California continued to be at the forefront of banking regulation as it enacted legislation on unfair banking practices and junk fees, and the state Department of Financial Protection and Innovation notably initiated enforcement actions focused on crypto-assets and student loan debt relief, say Stuart Richter and Eric Hail at Katten.

• Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception After Key Trump Cases

  

  Evidence issues in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and classified documents cases involving former President Donald Trump offer an opportunity to restudy elements and implications of the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, noting the courts' careful scrutiny of these matters, say Robert Hoff and Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.

• Enviro Policy Trends That Will Continue Beyond The Election

  

  Come October in a presidential election year, the policy world feels like a winner-take-all scenario, with the outcome of the vote determining how or even whether we are regulated — but there are several key ongoing trends that will continue to drive environmental regulation regardless of the election results, say J. Michael Showalter and Samuel Rasche at ArentFox Schiff.

• 2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules

  

  In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.

• What 2 Key Rulings Mean For Solicitation Under TCPA

  

  Two recent rulings from federal district courts in New York and California — each of which came to a different conclusion — bring to light courts' continued focus on and analysis of when an alleged communication constitutes a solicitation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, say Felix Shipkevich and Jessica Livingston at Shipkevich.

• Series

  Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

• Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

  

  About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

• Payward And The Secondary Crypto Transaction Confusion

  

  Following orders in cases against Coinbase and Binance, the recent California federal court ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Payward raises even more questions about regulation of secondary transactions involving crypto-assets, as it tries to sidestep fundamental flaws in the SEC's legal theories, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

• Opinion

  AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

  

  The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

• Takeaways From Texas AG's Novel AI Health Settlement

  

  The Texas attorney general's recent action against a health tech company marks another step in rapidly proliferating enforcement against artificial intelligence and privacy issues across multiple states, and highlights important risk mitigation considerations for health companies that implement AI systems, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

• What To Know About Latest Calif. Auto-Renewal Law Update

  

  While businesses have about nine months to prepare before the recently passed amendment to California's automatic renewal law takes effect, it’s not too early to begin working on compliance efforts, including sign-up flow reviews, record retention updates and marketing language revisions, say Gonzalo Mon and Beth Chun at Kelley Drye.

• Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: September Lessons

  

  In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy identifies practice tips from four recent class certification rulings involving denial of Medicare reimbursements, automobile insurance disputes, veterans' rights and automobile defects.