Practice Area Corner Archives

Estate Planning: Lawyer Regrets Divorcing Without Inheritance Agreement for Kids

Divorce is difficult, and even successful lawyers sometimes jeopardize their children’s inheritance by failing to make adequate agreements about it as a part of the divorce settlement. Attorney Debra Karlstein is a recent example. She divorced Hank Goldsmith, a big-name…

Legal Ethics Corner: Ethical Issues in Accepting Credit Card Payments

As anyone who has paid for vegetables at the farmers’ market on a merchant’s smartphone knows, the use of credit cards as a form of payment has become a universal convenience. Credit cards can now be used for the purchase…

Four Steps to Maximizing the Effectiveness of Your Mediation

Mediation is an important component of the civil justice system. Mediation allows a neutral third party who is in a unique position of seeing both sides to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the parties’ arguments, and perhaps suggest creative…

Family Law Corner: $325K in Unpaid Spousal Support to Pay Leaves “Hustle & Flow” Star Strapped for Legal Options

Terrence Howard (“Iron Man” and “Hustle & Flow”) may be realizing that multiple marriages have a price to pay–spousal support. Howard has moved on to wife #3, but he continues to pay child support and spousal support to his first…

Interesting News from the World of Estate Planning

The 1855 Prenup for Women’s Rights In most mid-nineteenth-century American states, a married woman had little legal standing. For starters, she didn’t have the right to use her own name, as her identity was subsumed under her husband’s in the…

Legal Ethics: Some Thoughts On Issues Raised, But Not Resolved, By Cassel v. Superior Court

The Supreme Court in Cassel v. Superior Court (2011) 51 Cal.4th 113, 244 P.3d 1080, held that evidence of what occurred during or in preparation for mediation in a case is, pursuant to Evidence Code § 1115, et seq., inadmissible…

“Keep Up With Your Divorce, or Kick It to the Curb,” Judge Tells Kardashian Sister

Keeping up with Khloe Kardashian’s divorce from NBA star Lamar Odom is not difficult as long as Odom refuses to respond to Kardashian’s Petition for Dissolution. However, ten months after Kardashian filed for divorce, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge…

BASF’s Mediation Program Just Got Better for Members

This year The Bar Association of San Francisco’s Mediation Services was selected for The Recorder’s Best “Hall of Fame” for five continuous years of excellence. Attorneys like you ranked the program high for the superior quality of its mediators, the…

Discharging Student Loans

A recent opinion, namely In re Hedlund, 718 F.3d 848 (9th Cir. 2013), may make it easier to discharge student loans. In Hedlund, the debtor borrowed approximately $85,000 for college and law school. He failed the bar examination three times…

San Francisco Begins Transition to Gross Receipts Tax

Prior to the November 2012 general election, many San Franciscans viewed the City’s Payroll Expense Tax as providing a disincentive for businesses to locate in the City because taxes would increase as the businesses moved employees into the City. In…

Legal Ethics Corner: Revisiting the “No Contact” Rule

Attorneys are generally aware that they are prohibited from directly or indirectly contacting an opposing party that is represented by counsel without that counsel’s consent. This prohibition is found in California Rule 2-100 of the Rules of Professional Conduct (“Rule…

Destination Australia and Cambodia: Construction and ADR

During August I had a wonderful adventure in Australia and Cambodia lecturing at Melbourne University and researching construction and dispute resolution. As guest lecturer for a “Risk in Construction” class for Melbourne University’s Architecture Department, I conveyed my experience representing…

Blog Category

Practice Area Corner