Practice Area Corner Archives

Court Refused to Buy Estate’s Dirty Art Valuation

The Estate of Eva Franzen Kohlman included two Old Master paintings, Village Kermesse with Dance Around the Maypole (“Maypole”) and Orpheus Charming the Animals. Both were filthy on the day of death. The Estate’s expert appraiser, George Wachter, claimed that the dirt…

Solo and Small Firm Attorneys Connect and Build Community at Fourth Annual Conference

The Solo and Small Firm Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) hosted its Fourth Annual Solo & Small Firm Conference: Connecting and Community Building. The conference took place on January 23 at BASF. The keynote speaker, James…

Equifax: The New Standard in Cybersecurity Settlements?

In January, a federal grand jury indicted four members of the Chinese army for hacking into the computers of Equifax in 2017 and stealing sensitive information on 145 million Americans. News about the charges overshadowed another legal milestone in the…

Is Everything We Think About Child Custody Wrong?

California law notably avoids stating any preference for any particular type of parenting plan. Instead, our courts have the “widest discretion to choose a parenting plan that is in the best interest of the child… .” (Family Code § 3040(d).)…

Cannabis Litigation from a Paralegal’s Perspective

Cannabis business litigation is largely the same as other types of civil litigation: a pleading is a pleading, and a deadline is a deadline, regardless of your client’s profession. There are, however, a few nuances worthy of note. Should your…

Kids Prevail Over Christian School, Church, Ole Miss, and Boykin Spaniels

Barry Blackburn was fighting late-stage cancer when he asked his aide for a will to preserve his “family legacy”: hundreds of acres of farmland and lakefront properties in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee that had been in the Blackburn family since…