If your business is continuing to suffer, is there any way to get out from under what may now appear to be an unfavorable lease?

Attorneys should be careful when entering into business transactions with friends that have also been clients, as Rule 3-300 of the Rules of Professional Conduct provides that a member of the State Bar shall not enter into a business transaction with a client unless certain requirements have been satisfied.

In the recent case of Leek v. Cooper (2011) 194 Cal.App.4th 399, the court addressed the issue as to whether or not the sole shareholder of a corporation that was operating a car dealership could be held individually liable for age discrimination on the basis that the sole shareholder had actual control over the affairs of the business.

Just like most marriages, the beginning of most business partnerships are filled with hope, optimism, enthusiasm and a general feeling of future success. Unfortunately, as with some marriages, problems develop over time in partnerships and a dissolution or divorce is needed.

The Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Prop 215) and the Medical Marijuana Program Act (Senate Bill 420) decriminalized medical marijuana use and implemented a statewide identification card system for medical marijuana users and providers under California law. Since then, scores of medical marijuana “dispensaries” began operating throughout California.

As a tax attorney in California with tax season right around the corner, business owners and entrepreneurs regularly ask me which expenses can be deducted on their taxes as “business expenses” and which cannot. The basic question of whether an expense is personal or business is answered by the tax code under a three part test. [...]

California law provides broad immunity from civil liability for a social host who “furnishes alcoholic beverages to any person,” as many Californians do at their house parties. (Civil Code section 1714 (c).) However, a social host loses that immunity if he or she “sells, or causes to be sold, any alcoholic beverage, to any obviously intoxicated minor.” (Business and Professions Code section 25602.1.)

An added pressure to businesses can be the cost of responding to a subpoena requiring the production of documents. While many assume that only parties can be subpoenaed, a third party, also known as a non-party, can be subject to this power as well.