On January 9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor released the details of a long-awaited “final rule” addressing when employers can classify workers as independent contractors under federal labor law. Our overall assessment of the FLSA “final rule” (effective March 11, 2024) (the “2024 Rule”) is that it will not materially impact independent contractor misclassification […]

Everywhere you turn these days Artificial Intelligence, or AI as it is generally referred to, is in the news.  Whether it is an article talking about how AI will soon take over the world, or how it will free many of us from routine tasks we don’t want to do, it’s hard to escape the […]

Effective July 1, 2024, Senate Bill 553 (signed by Governor Newsom on September 30, 2023 and codified at California Labor Code Section 6401.9), California employers (with very few exceptions) must (1) establish, implement, and maintain an effective written workplace violence prevention policy / plan that includes specified information, training, and recordkeeping requirements and (2) provide […]

Effective January 1, 2024, California Business & Professions Code Section 16600.5 (via Senate Bill 699) was added to prohibit an employer from entering into or attempting to enforce a noncompete agreement regardless of whether the contract was signed outside of California.  Please note that nonsolicitation of clients and customers clauses have frequently been used by […]

In Alberto v. Cambrian Homecare (2023) 91 Cal.App.5th 482, a headline-grabbing April 2023 decision, the California Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court’s ruling invalidating an employee’s arbitration agreement. Notably, the Court found three separate provisions contained within three separate agreements signed by the employee in their hiring / onboarding materials—the arbitration agreement and two […]

Attention Corporate and LLC Clients: Effective January 1, 2024, there are new corporate reporting requirements for corporations and LLCs in the United States under the Corporate Transparency Act. Beginning on January 1, 2024, both domestic U.S. companies and foreign companies doing business in the United States will need to comply with reporting requirements under the […]

On September 8, 2023, the California Court of Appeal, in a case entitled Doe v. Superior Court of San Francisco (No. A167105)  issued another decision constraining an employer’s ability to enforce binding arbitration agreements against employees. The decision compliments a July 2023 Court of Appeal opinion, Cvejic v. Skyview Capital, LLC (2023) 92 Cal.App.5th 1073. […]

Both locally and nationally, a growing trend continues that disfavors confidentiality, nondisclosure, and nondisparagement provisions in settlement agreements and releases – even if such terms are part of a bargained-for-exchange between the parties.  On February 21, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision in McLaren Macomb in which it found certain nondisparagement and […]

While the world of trademark law and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is still in its infancy stage, some clarity can be gleaned from a recent federal ruling in New York. For those of you who do not know, NFTs are a unique digital identifier that can be used to certify authenticity and ownership, as well as […]

In light of recently enacted legislation, it is now never too early for common interest developments (planned unit developments, condominium complexes, stock cooperatives, and community apartment projects; collectively, “CIDs”) to plan for the next election of their respective directors. We previously wrote to you about Civil Code Section 5103 when it became effective on January […]