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Recently, Jessica Berg and Michael Scharf, Co-Deans at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, contacted me to highlight the uniqueness of their first-year students’ required participation in a pro bono legal experience. Students assist in the provision of free legal services by, for example, conducting client intake interviews for the law school’s Legal Aid Brief Advice Clinic.  Jessica and Michael’s communication made me wonder if Case Western is alone in implementing a…
Today’s post is on securing gubernatorial appointments. The Governor has the authority to appoint several thousand individuals to serve in his or her administration during his or her four-year term of office. Some of these positions require the advice and consent of the Senate. There are two aspects to these types of gubernatorial appointments. First, securing the appointment from the Governor and then secondly, getting the appointee confirmed by the Senate. The likely more difficult…
During my craft beer law class this summer at McGeorge, many students were surprised to hear about the many ways that Big Beer seeks to restore lost market share. One way in particular that seemed to rankle their eager minds is how Big Beer quietly impacts the supply chain that independent craft brewers (and home brewers) rely on. There are several ways that Big Beer uses the market to continue to dominate production. But there…
Erin Evans intewrview
On today’s episode of The CAP·impact Podcast we talk with Erin Evans-Fudem – a Legislative Representative at the League of California Cities, and McGeorge class of 2012 – about the wildfires across California, some of the factors that have led to the surge in wildfires recently, and the issue of liability – specifically as it pertains to shareholder owned utilities like PG&E. On that liability front, we walk through the legal doctrine called “inverse condemnation”…
Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, a California Supreme Court Case, dramatically shifts the standard for employees and independent contractors in California. Before Dynamex, courts determined worker classification on the multi-factor test from the S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v Dept. of Industrial Relations decision, a balancing test of multiple factors such as the method of payment, length of service, required skills, etc. This new standard, called the “ABC” Test, is…
Regular vs. Special Sessions (transcript) Today’s podcast is on the differences between regular and special sessions of the California Legislature. As you may be aware, the California Legislature can be in regular, or special, or even joint sessions. A session is the designated period of time in which the Legislature meets. There are three types. Our state constitution provides the dates for convening and adjourning the regular session. Other than that, the Legislature has the…
In July I had the honor of teaching for the inaugural Legal Technology and Operations summer program at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany. The program attracted 33 students from all over the globe: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Estonia, Egypt, Germany, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and Ukraine. About 75% of the students were professionals taking leave to participate in the program, including two judges and…
professor maya steinitz
Maya Steinitz, Professor of Law at the University of Iowa College of Law and Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School
The consumer litigation finance industry in the state of New York is currently unregulated. The industry is not new, it has been around for about two decades, but it is starting to gain increased scrutiny. Companies in the industry help litigants make ends meet while they wait for settlements to be paid out, and only collect on their loan if the litigant is successful. However, there are reports of these companies charging interest rates…
On today’s show we are giving you the rundown on what the biggest issues facing the California Legislature are in its final month of session. August is going to be a four week sprint to the finish line, so brought on CAP·impact podcast regular – as well as lobbyist, capitol observer, McGeorge alum, and McGeorge adjunct professor – Chris Micheli to help distill which of the roughly 1,400 remaining bills the California Legislature has to…
As I discussed yesterday in my post “How California Municipalities are experimenting with voting,” cumulative voting is an electoral process in which voters have a number of votes equal to the number of seats to be elected. For example, if in an election there were three seats up for election, voters would have three votes that they could cast however they chose to – all for one candidate, or divided among multiple candidates.…