Law Blog

On September 26, 2024, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against extending California's strict noncompete ban to agreements executed outside of California and governed by another state’s law. This decision highlights the limitations of California’s noncompete statute—Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 16600-16607—which broadly prohibits noncompete agree...

You grow or stay stagnant. My point is that you either are taking action to improve yourself and your business or you are not. This is like being all talk and taking no action or being fully engaged.  Action matters and there is no time like the present to put yourself out there, meet people, and try to expand your network. Another component of this is continuall...

Taking the step to schedule a meeting with an estate planning attorney can be difficult. Many people procrastinate taking this important first step which can create problems for loved ones who may be unexpectedly left behind.  To help lessen some hesitation, the following five actions will help taking the first step less intimidating. 1.  Find Important Document...

As the name suggests, the United Services Employment and Reemployment Act (“USERRA”) requires employers of active-duty service members to hold open the employee/service members job while deployed—whether overseas, for training, or otherwise. We often call this the “FMLA” provision of USERRA, referring to the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, because the s...

Management is about execution. More specifically, management is about executing the visions of your company’s leadership. Managers work in the present while leaders work in the future. Managers of people need to focus on how to get the people they manage to execute. Like many roles, there are any number of ways to manage people. Some people micromanage their tea...

We all have stress. I picture an empty room where challenges keep coming at me from straight in front of me, the top left corner, the middle right corner, or wherever. You get the idea. The point is that challenges keep coming at us from all angles as if we are in a video game trying to move forward. Some challenges are exciting and invigorating while others are ha...

During the first decade of my career, I had one formal mentor and several informal mentors. Most of my mentors were attorneys or judges, which makes sense given my chosen profession. Others were in different professions or businesses. The string running through all those relationships was the professional and life lessons I learned from each one, many of which I fo...

Arbitration is an underutilized tool in Arizona family law cases. Put simply, arbitration is a dispute resolution process where an agreed-upon third party—the arbitrator—resolves a family law dispute outside of a traditional courtroom. The parties jointly select a neutral, third party to consider the facts and evidence in the dispute, the arbitrator makes an aw...

Success comes from constantly assessing the results from actions you take and adjusting, depending on what is or is not working. If something you’re doing is not successful, you need to change it or try something new. The funny thing is that the flip side is the same: if something you’re doing is successful, it helps to tweak or change it to see if it can be ev...

You may not think it, but it is good to be the dumbest person in the room.  Knowing and acknowledging it to others lets you learn. This allows you an opportunity to learn what otherwise would be lost. The room may be full of people or just one other person. The point is all of us can learn no matter whether you view yourself as a leader or not. You know we all ar...