Call & Jensen Shareholder Scott Hatch was named one of the top trade secrets attorneys in California in the latest edition of the Daily Journal. Scott joined Call & Jensen in 2008 after graduating from Yale Law School and beginning his career at Morrison & Foerster. Scott manages a range of commercial disputes alongside his trade secret cases. He recently achieved a significant trial victory, with plaintiffs securing over $40 million in…
On May 1, 2024, a 12-person jury in Orange County reached a verdict of over $300,000 in compensatory damages and $6.4M in punitive damages in favor of Call & Jensen client Ten-X. Ten-X, a commercial real estate auction platform owned by Co-Star, brought claims for breach of contract and fraud against Cody Lutsch and his related companies, who listed one of his commercial properties for sale on the Ten-X auction platform. A…
A 12-person jury reached a verdict of over $30 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages in favor Call & Jensen’s client Össur Americas, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Team Makena, LLC. The lawsuit was brought against a former officer of the subsidiary and his competing company. The former officer was found to be liable for a variety of claims, including breach of fiduciary duty, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach…
California employers should be aware that starting January 1, 2023, employers with 15 or more employees must include a pay scale in job postings. The Labor Commissioner recently posted FAQs about the new law, which include the following guidance: • In determining whether a business has 15 or more employees, all employees are included, regardless of the number of hours worked or location. This means that employees outside the state of California…
Ever since the emergence of companies like Uber and Lyft, businesses and labor advocates have engaged in an endless, largely theoretical debate about whether classifying workers as independent contractors—responsible for setting their own hours and paying for their own insurance, mileage, and other expenses—helps or hurts them. On one side are gig-economy employers, who say workers like the flexibility of being an independent contractor, and prefer working when and if they please. On the…
On any given day, you will find Southern Californians donning their favorite local brands. Whether eating In-N-Out Burger®, sporting Vans® shoes, Stance® socks, and a favorite SoCal surf-brand, or even dressing up in a St. John Knits® ensemble while scheduling Botox® treatments before going home to watch a Vizio® television, SoCal brands are undeniably woven into our lifestyle. We are accustomed to witnessing countless brands grow in our own stomping grounds. We…
It has been over twenty years since the Family and Medical Leave Act of 19931 went into effect, requiring certain large employers to provide job-protected and unpaid leave to employees for certain medical and family reasons, including bonding time with a new child. At the time of this article’s publication, however, there is still no federal mandate for paid parental leave, despite that dozens of other developed nations provide for such a…
Litigation in California is booming. More companies are being hit with lawsuits and many companies are moving their headquarters out of California. Therefore, it makes sense to consider ways to avoid costly litigation in California. Attorneys working in-house for California companies are often juggling a variety of tasks and the nature of the work can become reactive. To the extent that in-house counsel can be proactive in identifying potential legal issues and…
INTRODUCTION Unlike criminal cases, a defendant in a civil action is virtually certain to be afforded notice of his alleged misconduct long before he has to sit for a deposition, produce documents, or otherwise explain or justify his alleged misconduct. What happens then, if the defendant has the mind of a criminal with no reservations about destroying evidence? Especially in today’s digital age, when evidence can be destroyed with a few keystrokes…
Conventional wisdom instructs defense counsel, when dealing with “hide-the-ball” plaintiffs, to file all necessary motions to compel compliance with the area of law or discovery that is not being fearfully obeyed. The theory, of course, is that diligent defense counsel must not leave a stone unturned and must also bring its adversary’s improper tactics to the court’s attention at each and every instance. In trade secret litigation, the conventional wisdom is no…
