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Cannabis legalization has thrown California employers into a mire of complicated questions about permissible company cannabis policies. Can California employers maintain drug free policies in light of the legalization of recreational cannabis? What can employers do to maintain safety in the workplace and implement their policies on prohibitions of drug use, considering the new laws? Learn the ins and outs of California employers’ rights in the workplace now that cannabis use is legal in California.

How the Bench, Bar, and Media are Addressing the Intersection of COVID-19 and the Social Justice Movement.

The year 2020 first brought stay-at-home orders and unprecedented closures of the court system due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then sustained protests over police treatment of African-Americans. During this extraordinary year, the Bench has grappled with how to maintain access to the courts. The Bar has confronted COVID-related challenges to the practice of law and its role in ensuring equal access to justice. Finally, Media outlets have worked overtime to cover it all while managing unusual new obstacles to newsgathering. Panelists will discuss local efforts to confront these issues from their respective roles as legal community activists, journalists, and law enforcement officials.

With all of the protests and social unrest across the country, and the 2020 presidential election around the corner, California employers should take this opportunity to revisit their policies and guidelines relating to employees’ rights in the workplace and on social media (including remote workplaces). Employers need to consider what approach they will take when responding to complaints or scenarios involving potential political speech or expression. This program will address these issues, and more, to help employers stay compliant with constitutional free speech protections.

The financial impact to suppliers, however, may go far beyond mere non-payment. Suppliers may actually find themselves facing lawsuits seeking the return of payments they’ve already received. Please join Procopio attorney, Wiliam Smelko, for a virtual webinar to discuss crucial steps in how to protect yourself from lawsuits seeking the return of payments they’ve already received, including:

- The “Preference” or “Fraudulent Conveyance” process
- International suppliers of goods, products and inventory to U.S. companies should prepare now
- Get paid promptly for your invoices and keep clear, easily accessible and verifiable records
- And much more!

The trillions of federal dollars being spent under the CARES Act, much of which is flowing through US financial institutions, are sure to be the subject of federal and state investigations for years to come. This program will look at the enforcement landscape for financial institutions in the wake of the CARES Act. Any businesses that participated in, or received relief from, the funding programs under the Act, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), will benefit from this presentation.  

Topics include

• Lessons from the last major government lending effort – the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program – which led to thousands of enforcement actions, some of which are still being prosecuted today
• What we can learn from recent investigative priorities of the SEC, DOJ and state AGs
• The extent and limits of the CARES Act’s protections for financial institutions and businesses that received relief

California has seen a dramatic and sustained increase in representative wage and hour litigation over the past fifteen years – through both class actions and as representative claims brought pursuant to the Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (PAGA).  Attorney Tom Ingrassia will provide an in-depth analysis of issues driving the prosecution, defense, and settlement of representative actions pursuant to California and federal class action statutes and California’s Private Attorney’s General Act (PAGA).  Tom will also discuss best practices and recommended policies designed to enable employers to avoid and, when necessary, successfully resolve such claims.

A panel discussion addressing the lack of diversity in organizations and how legal departments can take steps to address this problem while  managing the legal risk associated with that effort.

In this program, Michele Goodwin, award-winning author, advocate, professor, and social commentator, will reflect on law as an institution and tool that historically protected and advanced racism. From the Antebellum period through Jim Crow, law’s role in advancing white supremacy and racial injustice was visible through the legalization of slavery, slave patrols, fugitive slave laws, laws that provided for the physical torture of enslaved persons on through Black Codes enacted during Reconstruction and “separate but equal laws.” Professor Goodwin will discuss why recognizing and reckoning with law as an accomplice and facilitator of discrimination and racism are overdue and urgent in protecting the rule of law. Her talk will close articulating why law’s role and responsibility in dismantling discrimination and racism are crucial in promoting the rule of law.

Participants will learn:

• History of law’s involvement in promoting and establishing racial discrimination
• Law’s direct role in undermining progress toward racial equality and ending racial discrimination
• Law’s role and responsibility in dismantling racism

In the coming months, the ACC SoCal D&I Committee, in collaboration with Ogletree Deakins, will launch a series of programming to foster learning and dialogue to build bridges. Titled “Social Justice in the Modern Civil Rights Era,” the programming will include specific opportunities for collective action so that together we can have a positive impact. 

The first episode in the Social Justice in the Modern Civil Rights Era series is a conversation with Civil Rights icon Reverend James M. Lawson, Jr. Reverend Lawson is the leading tactician of nonviolent protest, and in an interview available at 2 p.m. PT July 31, 2020, Reverend Lawson shares insights on how corporate attorneys can be a part of history. 

The legal landscape has changed radically since the start of 2020. While COVID-19 has profoundly impacted the Golden State, and the world, new employment laws are still driving change for California employers. Join Jackson Lewis P.C. for a mid-year employment law webinar, where we will share critical mid-year updates, provide an overview of key rulings, and discuss pending new laws for 2021.

Topics:

• Mid-year reminders about local minimum wage increases and paid family leave benefits
• New ordinances and requirements instituted as a result of COVID-19
• Employment case updates, including status of independent contractors and employment arbitration agreements
• Pending state legislation relating to employment and employee benefits