KPA's monthly update is now available. our June featured articles are:
- Court of Appeal Finds Green Water Drop on Bottled Water in not Greenwashing, by Roxanna Tabatabaeepour
- Class Actions after ATT Mobility v Concepcion, by Robert Drexler
- What Will the California Supreme Court’s Decision in Brinker Mean for the Future of Meal and Rest Break Cases?, by Launa Adolph
Khorrami Pollard & Abir's May Newsletter is out.
Featured articles:
- Medical Device Approval and the Future of the 510(k) Process
Khorrami Pollard & Abir Associate Robert Drexler was selected as one of the 2011 Southern California Super Lawyers in Class Action/Mass torts, by Super Lawyers Magazine. See page 71 of this months' edition. His profile is also available online here. Congratulations Bob!
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KPA attorneys and support staff came together to collect toys for all the 2 years old children at the Buckner Educational Academy this year. A small group of employees had the chance to meet with the children to give them their gifts and make their holiday special.
This past weekend the KPA attorneys attended the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) Annual Convention in San Francisco, where they learned about the latest developments in consumer litigation.
The next CAOC event is The Hawaii Travel Seminar in Maui, Hawaii!
There will be a great line up of panels - Shawn Khorrami presents on Wednesday, Dec.1st: "Creating a Paperless Office"
For more information , visit the CAOC website.
KPA attorneys and support staff came together to collect food for the Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC) this year. We provided all the essentials to make a home-cooked Thanksgiving Dinner for 5 less fortunate families.
In a previous article for the KPA newsletter, I wrote about the Third District’s decision in Kirby v. Immoos Fire Protection, Inc., 186 Cal. App. 4th 1361 (2010) and its implications on plaintiffs including meal and rest break claims in misclassification cases. Today, the California Supreme Court granted review of the Kirby decision.
In Kirby, the court upheld a fee award in favor of an employer who successfully defended a rest period claim, concluding that meal and rest period claims were governed by Labor Code section 218.5’s two-way fee shifting provisions, rather than the one-way fee shifting of Section 1194.
As Matt Bailey discussed in a post today on the Bailey Dailey, this holding poses a significant issue, as two-way fee shifting would severely chill private enforcement of an employee’s statutory right to recover meal and rest period premium wages. The thrust of the argument in opposition to the court’s ruling in Kirby is that Section 226.7 premium wages should be governed by Section 1194, not only because Section 226.7 proscribes a statutorily mandated wage, but also because the California Supreme Court concluded in Murphy v. Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc., 40 Cal. 4th 1094 (2007) that meal and rest break premium pay is itself a form of overtime compensation.
According to the California Supreme Court’s website, the issues on review are as follows:
(1) Does Labor Code section 1194 apply to a cause of action alleging meal and rest period violations (Lab. Code, 226.7) or may attorney's fees be awarded under Labor Code section 218.5, (2) Is our analysis affected by whether the claims for meal and rest periods are brought alone or are accompanied by claims for minimum wage and overtime?
Botox Shots Approved for Migraines, article in the Wall Street Journal. On Friday, the FDA approved Botox from Allergan as a treatment to prevent migraines, a little more than a month after the company agreed to pay $600 million to settle allegations that it had illegally marketed the drug for unapproved uses like headaches for years. Another article on this topic was published in the New York Times on October 15th.
When Drugs like Avandia Cause Problems they are suppose to Prevent, Oct.16th New York Times. In the past weeks, the FDA has noticed that two types of drugs that were suppose to prevent serious medical problems were, in fact, causing them.
The Court’s Pre-emption Test, article published on October 18th in the New York Times. Where state efforts to protect citizens and compensate victims don’t conflict with federal law, pre-emption should not be used as a weapon.
Breast Cancer seen as Riskier with Hormone, October 19th Wall street Journal and New York Times articles. Research found that hormone therapy for breast cancer speeds up the growth of the tumor.
Judge signals she’ll let Ruling on Military Policy stand, October 19th in the New York Times. Do we give the military the power to have absurd rules for fear of preventing a slippery slope or is there a way to have the military follow the constitution and still operate?
Payments to Doctors by most Pharma Companies still remains secret, published in Pro Publica on Oct. 20th. Consumers hoping to know more about the Doctor payments by Pharmaceutical companies will have to wait until 2013 for such disclosures to be made industry-wide.
Wall Street Journal article, MySpace apps leak user data, October 23rd. A Wall Street Journal investigation found that MySpace and popular applications of the networking site have been transmitting data to outside advertising companies that could be used to identify users.
For-profit Colleges Oppose Tighter Regulations. Part of a government plan to more closely regulate the for-profit education sector in the United States has been delayed, following an outcry from school supporters. Article in the New York Times, Oct.24th.
KPA employees joined together to raise funds and walk in the AIDS Walk on Sunday, October 17th in support of APLA. Team Khorrami was among the groups to raise $2,000 or more, Congratulations!
30,000 participants walked the 6.2 miles last Sunday through West Hollywood, raising a total of $2,787,711.00 for APLA.
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My Q&A with Bahar Dejban:
Q: What's on your ipod right now? A: Everything from Cat Stevens to Rihanna or The Animals
Q: What is your TV character personality? A: Monica from Friends
Q: What is the last blog you checked out? A: Bailey's Daily
Q: What's your work drink of choice? A: Iced Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks
Q: What's your favorite book? A: King of Torts. I read it in 2 days.
Q: Tell me about your involvement with CAOC? A: I was recently elected to be Secretary of the Women's Caucus and will be playing an active role in forming the New Lawyers Committee.
Q: Why did you chose to take on these roles? A: I enjoy being involved with CAOC, the people in the organization are great and it is important to have a platform for attorneys to be heard. This is one of the best ways for attorneys to stand out and create relationships they may not otherwise have had the chance to build.
Q: What do you hope to walk away from these roles with? A: Long lasting relationships - personal and professional.
Q: What is your advice to new lawyers? A: Get involved. The reason I want to be involved with the New Lawyers Committee is to provide new attorneys and students an opportunity to be involved earlier in their career.
Matt Bailey was published on Friday, September 3 in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. He provided readers with a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the professional class action objector. As co-head of KPA's class action team, Matt handles all class actions within the firm and has several years of experience, and success, with this type of complex litigation.
Deborah Gutierrez was published today, September 14, on LawDragon.com. Her article "Limiting the Preemption Doctrine" provides an update to the 2009 Wyeth v. Levine decision, and it's affect on consumer's over the past few months. This is one of several articles Deborah has had published on this topic.
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