I’ll be posting some short clips of a recent presentation I conducted on complying with California’s paid sick leave law. In this first video, I discuss some general rules California employers need to consider to comply with the July 1, 2015 deadline to offer paid sick leave to employees. Topics include:
You may recall from your college business law class of the “American rule” regarding attorney’s 
fees: generally in the United States each side is responsible to their own attorney’s fees, and unlike other countries, the loser does not have to pay the other party’s attorney’s fees. Employers can basically ignore this general rule
You’ve set up a successful company and begin hiring employees. 
To be a successful operator in California, a company’s management needs to be familiar with the critical legal concepts in order to successfully navigate California’s complex employment laws. You never wanted to go to law school, but time to hit the, ahem, books (or the
Recently I published a list of common exemptions under California law. This list of exemptions did not 
delve into the details of each exemption in detail, so I will be returning to a few of the exemptions to add more explanation about each exempt classification. I’m currently reading Paul Graham’s Hackers and Painters, Big
1. CEOs and founders need to be involved in the hiring process.
This is simply something too important for a company to leave to other people. Sam Altman, of Y Combinator, wrote:
The vast majority of founders don’t spend nearly enough time hiring. After you figure out your vision and get product-market fit,
1. What is a class action?
To understand what a class action is, it is better to start with the basic individual litigation concept. Normally, parties bring their own disputes to court and litigate the case against the other parties who have been officially designated a parties and served with process and understand that they
Uber and Lyft have been sued in separate class action lawsuits in California by drivers challenging
the two companies’ classification of the drivers as independent contractors. The plaintiffs in the two cases argue that the drivers should be classified and paid as employees, which triggers many additional Labor Code provisions for the drivers than if
I just discovered How to Start a Startup, which is a series of videos published by Stanford University on YouTube with some outstanding speakers. The problem is that the class videos are so great, I have a hard time turning them off. Case in point, this week I watched Ben Horowitz’ lecture: How to
Colin Cochran brought a putative class action against his employers, Schwan’s Home Service, on
behalf of 1,500 customer service managers who were not reimbursed for expenses pertaining to the work-related use of their personal cell phones. He alleged causes of action for violation of Labor Code section 2802; unfair business practices under Business and Professions
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the California Supreme Court to clarify three 
questions pertaining to California’s little known, and very rarely litigated, laws regarding a day of rest every seven days. The case is Mendoza v. Nordstrom. The California Supreme Court’s clarification could result in a new-found focus on these laws,