Articles

03.16.17

Transfer Tax on Ground Lease Assignments

Documentary transfer taxes collected on the transfer of real property interests are a major source of revenue for counties and municipalities in California. As local governments endeavor to refill their coffers, depleted in the wake of the recession, many have taken a closer look at the tax ...


03.10.17

New California Single-User Restroom Law in Effect

Why it mattersCalifornia employers, take note: the state's single-user restroom law took effect on March 1, 2017. The new law requires all single-user toilet facilities in any business establishment, place of public accommodation or government agency to be identified as available to all ...


03.09.17

Draft Budget Would Slash Legal Aid Funds

President Donald J. Trump's first draft budget includes the elimination of funding for the Legal Services Corporation. This has renewed the ongoing national debate over LSC and whether government should fund legal assistance to the poor. The conservative Heritage Foundation, which now holds ...


03.05.17

How to Keep Toxic Substance Inventories EPA Compliant

Included in the 2016 amendments to the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is a one-time reporting requirement for industry, designed to bring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) list of chemicals in commerce—referred to as the “TSCA Inventory”—up ...


03.03.17

Can a Tenant Really Protect Against Inefficient Operating Costs?

In today’s competitive real estate market, where the cost of utilities and infrastructure use are always rising, shopping centers (whether mall or strip), industrial and office building leases frequently require that the tenant pay all or some portion of the landlord’s operating ...


02.24.17

The 'Whole Parcel' Takings Conundrum

"Takings law is not for the faint of heart. It is contrived of rules that have been described variously as 'arcane,' 'mystical' and 'confused.' And that is how people who know and understand the rules describe them. Much of the problem undoubtedly arises ...


02.17.17

CFPB Fines Real Estate Entities Over RESPA Violations

Targeting violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) by a mortgage lender, two real estate brokers, and a mortgage servicer, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced almost $4 million in penalties and consumer relief.What happenedAccording to the Bureau, a ...


02.17.17

Jury Hits Dish With $20M TCPA Verdict

A federal jury has awarded $20.5 million against Dish Network for calls made by a third party in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action.Although he was included on the federal Do Not Call Registry, Thomas Krakauer claimed that he received multiple phone calls from authorized Dish dealer ...


02.16.17

UC Berkeley Unfairly Criticized in Wake of Protest

After the violence that shut down the speech of the provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley, the University has come under substantial criticism—including from President Trump, who tweeted a threat to defund it. Many have trotted out the old yarn that the University is nothing more than ...


02.15.17

Criticism of CalPERS Is Often Misplaced

If you didn’t know any better, you’d think CalPERS is the source of all California’s ills: higher taxes, bankrupt cities, reduced public services, lavish pensions—the list goes on. We’ve even been blamed for failing to catch the fact that Wells Fargo employees were ...