Court Of Appeal Holds Stock Options Are Not Wages, But Damages Need Not Be Measured At The Time Of Breach

As an employee of Skillz Inc., Gautam Shah received awards of stock options. Under the Skillz plan, Mr. Shah could exercise his vested options within three months of his termination of employment. However, his options expired on the date of his...

Court Holds That Arbitrator Must Decide Whether Partner Is An Employee

As discussed in this post from 2016, California Labor Code Section 925 prohibits an employer from requiring an employee who primarily resides and works in California, as a condition of employment, to agree to a provision that would do either of the...

Feeling Unsafe? California Bill Would Allow Employees To Leave Work Or Not Show Up Without Notice

California experiences states of emergencies all of the time due to a wide variety of events, such as wildfires, earthquakes, pandemics, and drought conditions. In many cases, it is not clear when these emergencies end and it may be difficult to get...

California Court Declines Full Faith And Credit To Utah's Compulsory Cross-Complaint Statute

In 2016, the California legislature enacted Labor Code Section 925 which prohibits an employer from requiring an employee who primarily resides and works in California, as a condition of employment, to agree to a provision that would do either of...

Can An Employee's Labor Be Stolen Property?

Section 496 of the California Penal Code makes it a crime to receive stolen property.  Any person who has been injured by a violation of the statute may bring an action for three times the amount of actual damages, if any, costs of suit, and...

More On Suing The CEO For Social Activism

The last few days, I've been writing about the legal issues raised by Jon L. Pritchett and Ed Tiryakian in a recent opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal.  To sum up the discussion so far, Professor Stephen Bainbridge responded to...

Does Work Product Belong To The Lawyer Or The Law Firm?

California has codified the attorney work product doctrine in Section 2018.030 of the California Code of Civil Procedure. That statute establishes two categories of protected work product. Under subdivision (a), a "writing that reflects an...

Why An Understanding Of Officers As Agents May Be Important

In several recent posts, I have noted that officers, unlike directors, are agents of the corporation.  Recognizing the agency status of officers can affect the legal analysis in a number of significant ways, including:

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