Los Angeles Business Law Blog

The word "strike" is not one that employers want to hear from their employees. However, it is one that Uber-faced earlier this year.

Los Angeles Uber drivers organized the strike to protest their low wages and benefits, which spread to several cities nationwide. Some California employers may worry that their own company could suffer the same fate, so here is a brief primer on union employee strikes, which are governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

There are three fundamental things that employers should do if they are facing an employee strike.

California boasts various unique terrains. The landscape and climate are often major factors that draw many new residents here, and with more people comes more building projects - particularly during a strong economy.

Developers and contractors are typically under severe pressure to complete a project as quickly as possible due to lender required milestones and contractual requirements among the many subcontractors and suppliers. Generally, the longer a project takes, the greater the chance it will cause delay penalties and the smaller the profit. However, this should not distract from following proper building procedures.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of bringing a real estate development to the market. After you’ve arranged all the financing, licensing, design and construction, you’ve finally hit the last stretch. You’re almost ready to realize your profit. But the recent hacking of one developer’s Zillow listing shows this last stretch may come with new dangers of its own.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the developer of a $150 million luxury home sued Zillow for falsely reporting two sales that were nearly $60 million below the property’s list price. The phantom sales were “self-reported” by someone with a Chinese IP and fake phone number who claimed to be the former homeowner. And as the developer claims the forged records will cost him tens of millions of dollars, the hack reminds us that developers often take great risks in pursuit of their rewards.

A couple months ago, we wrote about SB 826 - a new California law requiring publicly traded companies to include at least one woman on their board of directors. The law is intended to address gender inequality in the workplace and is the first of its kind in the nation. According to the California Secretary of State’s office, as of the end of 2018, nearly one-quarter of the State’s 445 publicly traded companies did not have a woman on their boards.

The law went into effect on January 1, 2019. All public companies based in California must be compliant by December 31, 2019. The legislation does not stop there. By July 31, 2020, public corporations with five directors must have at least two women on their board, and those with six or more directors must have at least three women on the board.