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Tips on how to best negotiate, renew, or protect your lease terms

Allen Matkins attorneys will outline current trends that both tenants and landlords should be aware of when negotiating, renewing, or maintaining lease terms. It’s an interesting yet opportunistic time for renters and owners; learn how to best protect your property, your business, and your existing or upcoming lease contracts.

The Judicial Diversity Summit has been held every five years since 2006 to assess the efforts to increase judicial diversity in California, and to make recommendations for future activities and initiatives to diversify the judiciary. This year, the summit is titled Stronger Together: Judicial Diversity Summit 2021, and will be held remotely on three Tuesday evenings on September 14, 21 and 28. The intended audience for the summit is judicial officers, attorneys, and law students.

Summit Day 3: Judicial Diversity Tomorrow
 

The Judicial Diversity Summit has been held every five years since 2006 to assess the efforts to increase judicial diversity in California, and to make recommendations for future activities and initiatives to diversify the judiciary. This year, the summit is titled Stronger Together: Judicial Diversity Summit 2021, and will be held remotely on three Tuesday evenings on September 14, 21 and 28. The intended audience for the summit is judicial officers, attorneys, and law students.

Summit Day 2: Sharing What Is Working - "Side Bars"
 

The Judicial Diversity Summit has been held every five years since 2006 to assess the efforts to increase judicial diversity in California, and to make recommendations for future activities and initiatives to diversify the judiciary. This year, the summit is titled Stronger Together: Judicial Diversity Summit 2021, and will be held remotely on three Tuesday evenings on September 14, 21 and 28. The intended audience for the summit is judicial officers, attorneys, and law students.

Summit Day 1: Judicial Diversity Today
Opening remarks by Hon. Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, Chief Justice of California

There is a plethora of research that shows the benefits of diversity and inclusion in companies.  Diverse teams are more adaptable, offer more creative ideas and solutions, make decisions twice as fast, produce more revenue, and, according to some studies, deliver up to 60% better results.

Panelists in this webinar will discuss the importance of workplace diversity and inclusion; the benefits for clients, employees, and the community of having a diverse workforce; the importance of recruiting, retaining, and promoting a workforce with diverse backgrounds and perspectives; and recognized best practices to help diversity and inclusion programs achieve successful results. 

Panelists will also examine newly enacted legislation in California aimed at increasing corporate diversity and the anticipated Constitutional challenges to recently enacted sections of the California Corporations Code. 

How Do Employers Respond?

All of us have biases, informed by our history, lived experiences and cultural influences. Unconscious biases affect our decision-making and can have a profound impact in the workplace on personnel decisions, retention, morale, productivity and equal opportunity. In this session, we will discuss how unconscious bias can impact the workplace, as well as corporate responsibility to recent social movements that have brought bias, equity and inclusion to the forefront of the conversation. 

Is arbitration really more speedy, efficient, flexible and economical than litigation?  In this discussion our panelists will consider the benefits as well as the downsides of arbitration, in the context of a variety of disputes.  We will examine the in-house counsel’s role throughout the arbitration process from the contracting stage through the point of dispute, and through the arbitration hearing and beyond.  We will discuss the design of arbitration clauses, and their implementation and enforcement.  We will consider dispute resolution providers and their rules and policies, including the merits of the use of private judges vs. lawyers as arbitrators.  We will address early determination of issues through dispositive motions, discovery, and whether to preserve a right of appeal in connection with the arbitration process.  Our panelists will also provide insights concerning their experiences with arbitration of diverse corporate, commercial and employment related disputes, including the importance of establishing a realistic schedule, creativity in the arbitration setting, as well as coordinating the settlement process with the arbitration process.

Mediation has become an extremely popular method of settling legal disputes. Our highly experienced panel has seen it all and will break it down and consider the who, what, when, and where of mediation from all angles, including the role of corporate counsel. We will discuss the upsides of having a mediation clause in your contracts and what it should say. We will consider the benefits of pre-dispute mediation and the challenges of mediation during various stages of arbitration and litigation. We will also examine service provider options and the choice of the use of retired judges or lawyers serving as mediators, and compare online vs. live mediation. We will discuss the roles of the parties, in house and outside counsel, mediator, and insurance carrier representatives during the mediation and techniques for breaking through impasse. How should you as corporate counsel prepare to go into a mediation most effectively to get the most out of the mediation? Our program will give you insights from multiple veteran perspectives.

Successful Alternative Dispute Resolution for Your Company  | Part 2: Arbitration (August 11, 11:30 AM)

Is arbitration really more speedy, efficient, flexible and economical than litigation?  In this discussion our panelists will consider the benefits as well as the downsides of arbitration, in the context of a variety of disputes.  We will examine the in-house counsel’s role throughout the arbitration process from the contracting stage through the point of dispute, and through the arbitration hearing and beyond.  We will discuss the design of arbitration clauses, and their implementation and enforcement.  We will consider dispute resolution providers and their rules and policies, including the merits of the use of private judges vs. lawyers as arbitrators.  We will address early determination of issues through dispositive motions, discovery, and whether to preserve a right of appeal in connection with the arbitration process.  Our panelists will also provide insights concerning their experiences with arbitration of diverse corporate, commercial and employment related disputes, including the importance of establishing a realistic schedule, creativity in the arbitration setting, as well as coordinating the settlement process with the arbitration process.

Alcoholism has long been a challenge for many in the legal profession in particular and the stress and social isolation from the pandemic has resulted in increased alcohol abuse. Shannon Petersen, the managing partner of Sheppard Mullin’s Del Mar office, will tell his personal story of alcoholism and share valuable insights for how to help colleagues, friends, and family dealing with addiction.