A small storefront on Grant Avenue is bringing a taste of Amsterdam — and ancient Egypt — to San Francisco. Professor Seagull’s Smartshop, which opened in North Beach this April, is a cross between an art gallery, a witchy herb shop and a modern cannabis dispensary (except you can touch the products).

Psychedelic art covers the walls and sleek Scandinavian-inspired shelves hold a tightly curated selection of loosely controlled herbs. But instead of the typical variations of cannabis, the shop is devoted to lesser known psychoactive and psychedelic sacred plants from all over the world. 

While the first of its kind in San Francisco — and according to the owners, the entire country — “smart shops” are ubiquitous in Europe, especially Amsterdam, and refer to stores that sell herbal remedies, hangover cures, botanical samples and “nootropics,” or brain-enhancing substances. Although there are other stores selling herbal supplements such as kratom, owner Benjamin Manton says his store is different since the focus is solely on the use of plants and products with psychoactive properties.

The chalkboard sign in the shop window advertises items such as San Pedro and Peruvian torch cacti, which you might be familiar with if you’ve ever embarked on a vision quest in the desert. But the first product to catch my eye is a bag of brilliant blue and yellow petals, which I’d soon try myself, in addition to experimenting with damiana, wild dagga and Mexican dream herb tea.

The exterior of Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Benjamin Manton is the owner of Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop, works on a display inside his store in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Professor Seagull’s Smartshop. Credit: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Manton, who owns the shop with his wife and looks a tad like a younger version of the store’s namesake/logo (if you squint and are on psychedelics), tells me the petals are from an Egyptian blue lotus. 

“The ancient Egyptians would steep it in wine and drink it during religious ceremonies and parties,” Manton says. “But you can also make it into a relaxing tea.” 

The flower, which some call the sacred blue lily of the Nile, is depicted in countless ancient temples and writings throughout Egypt, Greece and parts of Asia. Its ubiquitous depictions suggest that the lotus helped the ancients connect with the divine through its hallucinatory effects and was an important part of ceremonies around sexuality. Given that it increases circulation, the petals are thought to be powerful aphrodisiacs. It also has reported health and psychological benefits, thanks primarily to the apomorphine compound found in the plant that stimulates the body’s dopamine receptors. Historians believe the ancient Egyptians used the flower as traditional medicine, and in more modern times, its active compounds have been utilized to treat anxiety and even Parkinson’s disease. 

Benjamin Manton is the owner of Professor Seagull’s Smartshop in San Francisco on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Plant medicine for the psychedelic-curious

In the U.S., blue lotus has not received FDA approval, but it’s also not a controlled substance, so it is legal to grow and sell. The same goes for the rest of Professor Seagull’s inventory: Everything is legal in California and most other states — at least in the form it’s displayed and sold in the store and online shop. 

The mescaline that can be extracted from San Pedro and Peruvian torch cacti is illegal, but in their cactus form, they’re just attractive house plants. There’s also Mimosa Hostilis root bark, a major ingredient of ayahuasca, which doubles as a popular natural dye for soaps and fabric. 

“We are providing these products in the form they are legally allowed to be presented,” Manton tells me over email. “Some items we can talk openly about in terms of historical use and dosage. And some things are sold explicitly for growth as a houseplant or for arts and crafts supply.”

Of course, what you choose to do with your house plants and art supplies is your own business.

“It is our hope that the city or the state will decriminalize psychedelic plants soon so that we can begin to have more open and honest discussions with our clients about the history and potentials of these plants,” Manton writes. 

Benjamin Manton, the owner of Professor Seagull’s Smartshop, shows off some recent cuttings of San Pedro cactus in San Francisco on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Manton sees potential in the store to serve as part of the solution to San Francisco’s (and the country’s) mental health and addiction crises. 

“In the future we hope to be a place where therapists can send their clients for information and access, and where practitioners can come for local access to sustainably sourced plant medicine.”

For now, the Mantons are focused on providing transformational experience through plant medicine and art, as well as being a resource for harm reduction. In addition to providing safer alternatives to party drugs, such as Kanna, which Manton says is being used in place of cocaine and MDMA, the shop offers test kits from DanceSafe to test recreational drugs for adulterants, such as fentanyl. 

Manton gave me a tour of the shop with a matter-of-fact, professorial air that is so knowledgeable and nonjudgmental, and I end up leaving with four bags (and more than 100 grams) of various teas and smokeables that promise to ease anxiety, aid sleep and dream recall and invoke euphoria. At just $40, a similar haul at a cannabis dispensary would cost at least three times that, yet many of the items I purchased boast similar effects and benefits. 

Some of the herbs that can be consumed in a tea or smoked at Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Mimosa Hostilis Root Bark available at Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Several different Yerba Matte products available at Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

Some mushroom infused coffee available at Professor Seagull?•s Smartshop in San Francisco, Calif. on May 19, 2022. The shop specializes in obscure and legal psychedelics.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

A selection of products at Professor Seagull’s Smartshop. Credit: Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

My week of plant discovery

Back at home, I begin a week of plant- and self-discovery. The first order of business is making blue lotus wine, which just requires adding 15 to 20 grams of petals to a bottle of wine (after you pour a little out or have a glass to make room), setting it in the refrigerator and giving it a shake every day until you’re ready to drink it (anywhere between two days and two weeks). I used half a bottle of grocery store cabernet that I had lying around, but any kind will work. Manton suggests not using anything special, since the lotus will alter the taste.  

Then I roll up joints of damiana, which is native to parts of the U.S., Mexico and Central America, and wild dagga, which grows abundantly in southern Africa. Both are said to produce a light, cannabis-like high. Wild dagga can enhance color perception, so tonight I turn to these while I paint instead of my usual sativa. 

As I prep the canvas and the light floral-smelling smoke fills the space, I feel a familiar buoyancy, like I’ve taken a baby hit of weed. The taste is reminiscent of black tea and the psychoactive effects are decidedly subtle. It’s really all I need though — just a slight nudge into flow state. It’s nice to avoid some of the side effects of cannabis, such as misplacing the paintbrush I’m holding or randomly obsessing over something embarrassing that happened seven years ago. 

Next I light up the wild dagga. The bright orange dried petals don’t grind that well, so it makes for a looser joint. The spicy smoke burns the back of my throat slightly, but I’m too lost in mixing satisfying globs of paint to care much. I’m a little bit more excited by the way the paint drips down the canvas and my strokes seem a bit bolder and more confident. The day’s worries wash off my brush in vibrant swirls.

Then it’s time for a cup of Mexican dream herb tea and bed. The mixture is unpleasantly bitter on the back of my tongue, so I add honey. A few minutes later I feel deeply relaxed, like I’m hovering at the doorway of sleep with none of my usual effort to get there. Soon I easily drift off into a land of chaotic dreams. 

A display shows some of the obscure and legal psychedelics available at Professor Seagull’s Smartshop in San Francisco on May 19, 2022.

Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE

I drank the tea before bed a few more nights this week, and each time my sleep was filled with cinematic dreams, some of which took on the quality of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. Dreaming of surfing atop trash cans and other oddities was an interesting journey, but I was ready for a vibe change. And a glass of wine. So on the sixth day, I decide the blue lotus wine is ready. Internet searches tell me two weeks produce the most potent effects, but I figure one week is the correct level for a Thursday evening of horoscope writing (and my personal emotional state). 

I’ve done enough plant medicine to know that set and setting are major components. So as I run the seductive purple liquid through a strainer, I regret not making plans to take the concoction to a party, or at least share it with a close friend. 

But Mercury is retrograding hard, I’m riding a grief wave, and deadlines are looming, so the best I can do is spend a night in with a blank Google doc and my feelings. 

Taking cues from the ancient Egyptians, I say a meditative prayer to the blue flower, asking it to lift my spirits enough to let me write what I need to, or at least just enjoy my own company, achy heart and all. 

The wine tastes extra floral, but I don’t mind it. With a few summer fruits added in, it’d make a good sangria.

Half a glass and 20 minutes later, I’m crying over nothing and everything. The ancient Egyptians used this concoction for sex rituals, and crying is its own kind of release, so maybe it’s working. Then for a reason I can’t pinpoint, my tears just as quickly turn to belly laughs. 

Maybe it’s the moon, the wine or the lotus, but suddenly I’m buzzy with phrases and so many nonlinear thoughts that I write rough drafts for two separate articles almost simultaneously. Something like euphoria, or just momentary relief from heartache, moves me to dance. Alone in my home studio, I’m filled with love for myself and the plants that are there for us through all of life’s chapters. 

Amy Copperman is a writer and artist based in Oakland, Calif. Find her on Instagram.

More psychedelic San Francisco

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Mendocino County Superior Court executive officer Kim Turner believes that people of color, women and other citizens who happen to fall into a category on a diversity wheel should be represented in their home.

Court CEOs essentially conduct court business like corporate CEOs.

“This is a very diverse branch (of the state court system) with a workforce that is very reflective of the California population,” she said.

Turner, who has served as chief executive officer of Northern California courts for nearly half a century, has noted a growing list of district courts with diverse staff and leadership. Out of 11 counties in the Greater Bay Area, from Santa Clara to the middle of the Emerald Triangle, only one courthouse is occupied by a white, heterosexual male.

“Kind of remarkable, isn’t it?” Turner asked.

And California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye is a Filipino woman of Portuguese descent.

For a long time, people walking to courthouse counters saw women as clerks. Now more women are running the legal show.

“The dynamics in public administration have changed. In the last 25 years, there are more women in leadership positions in bailiff positions,” Turner said.

The Mendocino County Court Superintendent said she made a concerted effort to urge her workers to learn other languages ​​and cultural differences in different populations. For example, there are 10 Native American tribes in Mendocino County.

It’s difficult enough for Turner to fully understand the legal language.

This “legal language” is what Turner refers to as “$28 words” that attorneys use to get a point across. Sometimes these legal eagles aren’t even there to explain what the terminology means. For example, lawyers are no longer required to handle a divorce or civil partnership dissolution unless it is complicated. Still, the process requires a general understanding of how the legal system works.

Turner said her staff — who are made up of Black, Asian, Hispanic, gay and transgender workers in the small county — are willing to provide factual information, not advice. But she thinks there is a level of comfort in having these diverse employees explain complicated legal issues.

“Our cultural services are very sensitive. We try very hard to connect with people,” she said, further stressing that the need is exacerbated when court users are feeling stressed or even in psychological anxiety. “Very few happy things happen at our courts. I think it’s very important that people go to court and see people who look like them.”

Turner cited a 2006 study entitled “Trust & Confidence in California Courts,” which assessed the need for diversity in courthouses to better understand the plight of members of minority groups because it makes “a big difference.” to get through to people navigating the legal system with no regrets.

“We found that people leave the court not remembering whether they won or lost, but whether they were heard,” she said.

The study found that trust in the courts varies widely across the state’s ethnic groups.

“Blacks and Latinos showed lower self-confidence,” says the report, with undocumented immigrants tending to avoid the legal system for fear of deportation.

Of the survey participants, 31% were born outside the United States. The statistic aligns with the 2000 US census, which shows that more than half the state’s population is from an ethnic minority group — with the three largest groups being Latino, Black and Chinese American.

Court users in the focus groups indicated that many of these minorities and recent immigrants seek to bypass the legal system altogether.

“Some worry that if they have records of any kind, they are more likely to have legal issues with the system in the future,” the study adds.

Susan Wood covers law, cannabis, manufacturing, biotechnology, energy, transportation, agriculture, and banking and finance. Susan has worked for a variety of publications for 25 years, including the North County Times, now part of the Union Tribune in San Diego County, along with the Tahoe Daily Tribune and the Lake Tahoe News. She graduated from Fullerton College. Reach her at 530-545-8662 or susan.wood@busjrnl.com

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San Francisco announced vaccination requirements for some indoor gatherings Thursday, asking the question, is this legal?

From August 20th, you must first show proof of vaccination when entering a bar, restaurant, gym, or indoor area where food and drink are served. San Francisco was the first major city to require a full vaccination against such activities. The order does not apply to anyone ordering takeaway food or drinks, or to children under 12 who are unsuitable for the vaccines.

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, a law professor at UC Hastings who sits on the Vaccine Working Group on Ethics and Policy, said San Francisco’s latest health ordinance appears to meet legal requirements.

Jurisdictions can mandate vaccines for as long as can be reasonably expected. This is a finding from Jacobson v Massachusetts, a 1905 Supreme Court case that upheld states’ powers to enforce vaccine mandates. The San Francisco rule, formulated in the context of increasing cases, does not apply to children under the age of 12, maintains personal school attendance, and allows religious and medical exemptions.

The mandate is similar to that in New York City, which issued requirements last week to prove that customers had at least one dose of a vaccine.

But despite the nationwide history of vaccine needs, that type of mandate is new to experts like Rubinstein Reiss. Many companies may have been afraid to enforce vaccination restrictions without placing responsibility on the city, she said. However, some businesses and customers may wish to bring legal actions based on undue encumbrances or civil liberties.

“I think we’ve never seen that before,” said Rubinstein Reiss. “Before COVID-19, I was not aware of any such mandate. I assume that we will see litigation. “

Some companies started asking for proof of vaccination in July to prevent further closures and give customers a sense of security. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce welcomed the idea, as did the San Francisco Independent Fitness Studio Coalition on the Thursday following Breed’s enactment.

“It gives our customers an added reassurance that they can experience the mental and physical benefits of fitness in a safe and healthy environment,” said Dave Karraker, board member of the coalition that represents small gyms. “We believe that whatever can be done to avoid the capacity limits or the complete shutdown of indoor fitness that we have seen over the past year is in the best interests of all, especially the small businesses in the neighborhood who have suffered so badly since the beginning of the pandemic. “

San Francisco requires that all city workers be vaccinated once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives full approval. The San Francisco Unified School District, urged by its unions, will also require that staff be vaccinated or regularly tested. The City College of San Francisco will require proof of vaccination starting October 1st.

“Vaccines are our way out of the pandemic and our way back to a life where we can be safe together,” Mayor London Breed told Thursday. “Many companies in San Francisco are already pioneering the need to provide proof of vaccination for their customers because they care about the health of their employees, their customers, and this city. This mandate builds on their leadership role and will help us meet the challenges ahead and keep our business open. “

However, students in K-12 schools are different. The federal government isn’t allowed to enforce vaccination regulations, but since the 1970s all 50 states have largely implemented school vaccination regulations for polio, measles, and other diseases.

But today at least nine states, including Arizona and Arkansas, have already passed or enacted laws banning coronavirus vaccine mandates. There’s also the fact that vaccines are currently approved under an emergency license and not all children are eligible. While emergency mandates prove viable, school institutions and jurisdictions may not want to fight the same battle over and over again.

“It was always a fight,” said Rubenstein Reiss. But today: “We have a problem with people who have different political views and different sources of information. [Some] People don’t like vaccination regulations. “

imojadad@sfexaminer.com

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF / AP) – Foiled by a federal court backlash, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered staff to use Texas’s successful legal arguments in the Supreme Court to defend its ban on abortion to draft law that it would prohibit possession of assault weapons in California.

In a statement released Saturday night, Newsom expressed outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision on the Texas case.

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“I am outraged by yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling allowing the ban on most abortion services in Texas to be upheld, and I broadly support Texas’s plan to amend its Roe v. Basic Protection Act. Isolate Wade, ”he said. “But if states can now protect their laws from scrutiny by federal courts that liken assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives while Texas has used them to put women at risk. “

“I have directed my associates to work with the Legislature and Attorney General on a bill that will create a right of action that allows individuals to seek injunctive relief and legal damages of at least $ 10,000 per violation, plus costs and attorney’s fees assert anyone. ”Who manufactures, distributes or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts thereof in the US state of California. If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits, that’s exactly what we should be doing. “

California has banned the manufacture and sale of many assault weapons for decades. A federal judge lifted the ban in June, ruling it unconstitutional and drew the wrath of the state’s democratic leaders by comparing the popular AR-15 rifle to a Swiss Army knife as “good for home and combat”.

The state ban remained in place while the verdict is being appealed.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in Texas passed law earlier this year banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which usually occurs about six weeks after pregnancy. Texas law allows private individuals to enforce the ban and gives them the power to sue abortion clinics and anyone else who “helps and assists” with the process.

On Friday, the US Supreme Court allowed Texas law to remain in effect while abortion clinics block it.

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The Texas Abortion Act litigation has centered on its unusual structure and whether it inappropriately limits the ability to challenge the law in court. Texan lawmakers left responsibility for enforcing the law to private individuals, not state officials.

The case raised a complex set of questions about who, if any, can sue in federal court, the typical avenue for contesting abortion restrictions.

Newsom’s gun proposal would have to pass California lawmakers before it could become law. The legislature is currently not in session and is due to meet again in January. It usually takes around eight months for new bills to pass through lawmakers, unless there are special circumstances.

Senator Brian Dahle, a Republican from Bieber, would oppose the plan but predicted it could likely pass California’s Democrat-dominated legislature. He said the proposal was most likely a stunt for Newsom to attract its progressive electorate ahead of a possible future presidential run.

“The right to bear arms is different from the right to have an abortion. The right to abortion is not a constitutional change. So I think he’s far from the base, ”said Dahle. “I think he’s just using it as an opportunity to be in the stands.”

But Newsom’s Saturday night statement is a fulfilled prophecy for some gun rights groups who had predicted that progressive states would try to use Texas’ abortion law to restrict access to guns. Because of this, the Firearms Policy Coalition, a nonprofit group that campaigns for gun rights, has filed a lawsuit against Texas law in the US Supreme Court.

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“If Texas is successful in its move here, New York, California, New Jersey and others will not be far behind making equally aggressive moves to not only deter but to freeze the right to keep and carry weapons,” Lawyer Erik Jaffe wrote on behalf of the Arms Policy Coalition.

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SAN FRANCISCO, November 9, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – The Board of Directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBank San Francisco) has appointed Anne Segrest McCulloch as Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary August 2021. Ms. McCulloch, a seasoned financial services and housing lawyer with more than 30 years of industry experience, will take over the position following the departure of current Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary Suzanne Titus-Johnson.

“I am very happy to welcome Anne to the team. Anne’s understanding of the legal and regulatory landscape of the housing industry combined with her long history of leveraging legal strategies to expand affordable housing will benefit the bank and our entire membership base, “said Teresa Bryce Bazemore, President and CEO of FHLBank San Francisco.

Ms. Titus-Johnson has been with the bank since 1986 and has made countless contributions to the bank’s mission to provide members with reliable access to affordable liquidity, essential financial services and expertise, and resources for affordable housing and economic development.

“Suzanne has been an integral part of the bank’s management team for 35 years. Throughout her tenure, she has provided solid legal advice and problem-solving strategies that have set us up for the future, ”said Bazemore. “On behalf of the Board of Directors and the management team of the bank, I would like to thank Suzanne for her excellent leadership and trusting partnership during her tenure.” Titus-Johnson will retire on December 17, 2021.

As Chief Legal Officer, Ms. McCulloch will be responsible for providing legal advice to the bank’s management and board of directors, including advising on regulatory matters relating to the development and implementation of the bank’s business strategies, policies and practices. She will also lead and lead the bank’s legal department, outside lawyers and the public affairs team.

Ms. McCulloch is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Housing Partnership Equity Trust, a national public real estate investment trust focused on the preservation and maintenance of affordable rental housing in the United States. A recognized authority on housing, she has held senior positions at Fannie Mae, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Resolution Trust Corporation. McCulloch holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies and a law degree from Tulane University. She will report to Mrs. Bazemore.

About the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco is a member-operated cooperative that helps local lenders in Arizona, California, and Nevada build strong communities, create opportunities, and change lives for the better. Our member financial institutions – commercial banks, credit unions, industrial credit companies, savings institutions, insurance companies and community development financial institutions – rely on us to provide quick access to low-cost financing, risk management tools and resources for affordable housing and community economic development. Together with our members and other partners, we make the communities we serve more resilient and vibrant.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e2339723-44bd-4d81-bf04-c9e3a380c2df

Contact: Mary Long, Senior Director, Marketing Communications longm@fhlbsf.com, 415-572-6717

Copyright 2021 GlobeNewswire, Inc.

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Home service companies Alfred Club Inc., TaskRabbit Inc., and Shef Inc. have appointed in-house judges as the Biden government is considering working rules that could change the way the gig economy works.

Alfred, who provides concierge services to apartment buildings and landlords, has hired Matthew Kane as General Counsel. He joins Alfred from Z Capital Group LLC, where he served as Managing Director, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.

TaskRabbit, a mobile workforce provider founded in 2017 by Swedish household goods giant Ikea Group Corp. was acquired, hired new General Counsel Benjamin Edelhart this month, who most recently served as Senior Director, Legal and Corporate Products at Uber Technologies Inc.

Shef, an on-demand cooking company that has dubbed itself “Airbnb for groceries,” hired Danielle Merida as general counsel. She comes to Shef from TaskRabbit.

The internal additions come when the Biden government thinks about a new labor policy. The Department of Labor last month removed a Trump-era rule that would have made it easier for companies to legally view workers as independent contractors. The repeal enables the Biden administration to decide whether the federal wage law applies to gig companies.

Alfred

Alfred, also known as Hello Alfred, confirmed Kane’s hiring in an email to Bloomberg Law. He comes after the company announced last month the acquisition of HOM, a convenience and community service provider that Alfred reportedly expects to help expand into commercial buildings.

The HOM deal, the value of which was not disclosed, comes after Alfred closed a $ 42 million financing round last October, organized by the family office of the former co-founder of WeWork Cos. Inc. Adam Neumann and several previous investors.

Alfred differs from his contemporaries in the gig economy in that he classifies his workers as employees rather than independent contractors. Bloomberg Law reported this year on Alfred’s decision to introduce a full employment model for those who deliver groceries, do laundry and handle maintenance requests for their customers.

“Any of the 1099 platform companies currently running can be change agents by coming around the table to see how to balance the need for great jobs with a business model that works well on Wall Street,” said Marcela Sapone, co-founder and Alfred CEO, in an interview with Bloomberg Law earlier this year. “There is a really sustainable business model at Uber and it’s hidden in companies like TaskRabbit.”

Alfred is a separate entity from Stay Alfred Inc., a Spokane Valley, Washington-based hospitality startup that hired a new legal chief in early 2020, only to go bankrupt a few months later due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Alfred, other than confirming his hiring of Kane for his newly created General Counsel role, did not respond to a request for comment from his outside legal counsel. According to public filings, the company turned to Fenwick & West for branding work.

Z Capital declined to comment on Kane’s departure. Kane spent nearly seven years with the privately held investment manager who promoted him to Chief Legal and Compliance two years ago. Z Capital hired Erik Kreutzer, associate of Goodwin Procter, as director and assistant general counsel in New York last month.

Earlier this month, Z Capital announced that it would merge two of its portfolio companies, Affinity Gaming LLC and Sports Information Group LLC, to create a new company valued at $ 1.3 billion, including debt. Sidley Austin and Massumi + Consoli are advising Affinity and SIG respectively on the transaction.

TaskRabbit

Founded in 2008 and based in San Francisco, TaskRabbit operates an online marketplace for errands and other one-time jobs performed by freelance workers.

Edelhart, a 21-year-old legal veteran at Visa Inc. before joining Uber in mid-2018, didn’t respond to a request for comment on his move to TaskRabbit.

In a LinkedIn post this week revealing his new job, Edelhart said he looks forward to joining the TaskRabbit executive and legal team as we help this incredible company solve everyday problems for consumers, taskers and retailers to solve”.

TaskRabbit spokeswoman Ariel Rothbard confirmed Edelhart’s hiring to succeed Merida, whose departure in April after Shef prompted the company to appoint in-house attorney Marjan Mashhadi as deputy general counsel. Mashhadi has now returned to her previous role as director of law, Rothbard said.

Mashhadi, a former Morgan, Lewis & Bockius employee who once served as the director of industrial relations for the city of New Haven, Connecticut, where she earned an MBA from Yale University, was hired by Merida at TaskRabbit in 2019.

Merida, who spent five years at TaskRabbit, began her career working at Bingham McCutchen, most of which was taken over by Morgan Lewis.

cook

Shef was founded in 2019 by Alvand “Alvin” Salehi, a lawyer and former White House chief technology advisor, and former Facebook Inc. employee Joey Grassia.

Salehi confirmed in an email that Merida has come on board as the first General Counsel and Head of People. Merida recently announced jobs at Shef on LinkedIn for a Senior Counsel and Head of Global Politics and Government Affairs.

Since the company’s inception, Salehi and Grassia have expanded business to seven markets – the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York, Seattle, and Austin, Texas. Earlier this month, Shef closed a $ 20 million financing round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Other investors in Shef include technology incubator Y Combinator, M13 Ventures Management LLC, celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez, professional basketball player Andre Iguodala and other well-known figures such as Padma Lakshmi, Tiffany Haddish, Katy Perry and his fiancé Orlando Bloom.

In a LinkedIn post earlier this month, Salehi, a first-generation American, said he was “deeply grateful” to those who support Shef, and recalled that he and Grassia stayed at the from a one-bedroom apartment in Washington DC Idea for the company worked.

Salehi, who was also a research partner at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, said in his email that Shef uses a variety of outside law firms, depending on the company’s needs.

Public records indicate that Holland & Hart is doing branding for the San Francisco-based company Shef, which has been scrutinized by outside chefs for its use of third-party chefs.

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Home service companies Alfred Club Inc., TaskRabbit Inc., and Shef Inc. have appointed in-house judges as the Biden government is considering working rules that could change the way the gig economy works.

Alfred, who provides concierge services to apartment buildings and landlords, has hired Matthew Kane as General Counsel. He joins Alfred from Z Capital Group LLC, where he served as Managing Director, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.

TaskRabbit, a mobile workforce provider founded in 2017 by Swedish household goods giant Ikea Group Corp. was acquired, hired new General Counsel Benjamin Edelhart this month, who most recently served as Senior Director, Legal and Corporate Products at Uber Technologies Inc.

Shef, an on-demand cooking company that has dubbed itself “Airbnb for groceries,” hired Danielle Merida as general counsel. She comes to Shef from TaskRabbit.

The internal additions come when the Biden government thinks about a new labor policy. The Department of Labor last month removed a Trump-era rule that would have made it easier for companies to legally view workers as independent contractors. The repeal enables the Biden administration to decide whether the federal wage law applies to gig companies.

Alfred

Alfred, also known as Hello Alfred, confirmed Kane’s hiring in an email to Bloomberg Law. He comes after the company announced last month the acquisition of HOM, a convenience and community service provider that Alfred reportedly expects to help expand into commercial buildings.

The HOM deal, the value of which was not disclosed, comes after Alfred closed a $ 42 million financing round last October, organized by the family office of the former co-founder of WeWork Cos. Inc. Adam Neumann and several previous investors.

Alfred differs from his contemporaries in the gig economy in that he classifies his workers as employees rather than independent contractors. Bloomberg Law reported this year on Alfred’s decision to introduce a full employment model for those who deliver groceries, do laundry and handle maintenance requests for their customers.

“Any of the 1099 platform companies currently running can be change agents by coming around the table to see how to balance the need for great jobs with a business model that works well on Wall Street,” said Marcela Sapone, co-founder and Alfred CEO, in an interview with Bloomberg Law earlier this year. “There is a really sustainable business model at Uber and it’s hidden in companies like TaskRabbit.”

Alfred is a separate entity from Stay Alfred Inc., a Spokane Valley, Washington-based hospitality startup that hired a new legal chief in early 2020, only to go bankrupt a few months later due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Alfred, other than confirming his hiring of Kane for his newly created General Counsel role, did not respond to a request for comment from his outside legal counsel. According to public filings, the company turned to Fenwick & West for branding work.

Z Capital declined to comment on Kane’s departure. Kane spent nearly seven years with the privately held investment manager who promoted him to Chief Legal and Compliance two years ago. Z Capital hired Erik Kreutzer, associate of Goodwin Procter, as director and assistant general counsel in New York last month.

Earlier this month, Z Capital announced that it would merge two of its portfolio companies, Affinity Gaming LLC and Sports Information Group LLC, to create a new company valued at $ 1.3 billion, including debt. Sidley Austin and Massumi + Consoli are advising Affinity and SIG respectively on the transaction.

TaskRabbit

Founded in 2008 and based in San Francisco, TaskRabbit operates an online marketplace for errands and other one-time jobs performed by freelance workers.

Edelhart, a 21-year-old legal veteran at Visa Inc. before joining Uber in mid-2018, didn’t respond to a request for comment on his move to TaskRabbit.

In a LinkedIn post this week revealing his new job, Edelhart said he looks forward to joining the TaskRabbit executive and legal team as we help this incredible company solve everyday problems for consumers, taskers and retailers to solve”.

TaskRabbit spokeswoman Ariel Rothbard confirmed Edelhart’s hiring to succeed Merida, whose departure in April after Shef prompted the company to appoint in-house attorney Marjan Mashhadi as deputy general counsel. Mashhadi has now returned to her previous role as director of law, Rothbard said.

Mashhadi, a former Morgan, Lewis & Bockius employee who once served as the director of industrial relations for the city of New Haven, Connecticut, where she earned an MBA from Yale University, was hired by Merida at TaskRabbit in 2019.

Merida, who spent five years at TaskRabbit, began her career working at Bingham McCutchen, most of which was taken over by Morgan Lewis.

cook

Shef was founded in 2019 by Alvand “Alvin” Salehi, a lawyer and former White House chief technology advisor, and former Facebook Inc. employee Joey Grassia.

Salehi confirmed in an email that Merida has come on board as the first General Counsel and Head of People. Merida recently announced jobs at Shef on LinkedIn for a Senior Counsel and Head of Global Politics and Government Affairs.

Since the company’s inception, Salehi and Grassia have expanded business to seven markets – the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York, Seattle, and Austin, Texas. Earlier this month, Shef closed a $ 20 million financing round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Other investors in Shef include technology incubator Y Combinator, M13 Ventures Management LLC, celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez, professional basketball player Andre Iguodala and other well-known figures such as Padma Lakshmi, Tiffany Haddish, Katy Perry and his fiancé Orlando Bloom.

In a LinkedIn post earlier this month, Salehi, a first-generation American, said he was “deeply grateful” to those who support Shef, and recalled that he and Grassia stayed at the from a one-bedroom apartment in Washington DC Idea for the company worked.

Salehi, who was also a research partner at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, said in his email that Shef uses a variety of outside law firms, depending on the company’s needs.

Public records indicate that Holland & Hart is doing branding for the San Francisco-based company Shef, which has been scrutinized by outside chefs for its use of third-party chefs.

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Yikes, what a year for the fire service and America. A major pandemic, lockdowns, quarantines, changing leadership at all levels, and fire departments weathering legal issues that have a bad habit of returning year after year in spite of the fire lawyers efforts to educate fire departments into changing their behaviors. It was a bonanza year for attorneys.

The COVID-19 pandemic has departments scrambling to “do the right thing” for your firefighters both in career and volunteer agencies. There has been many educational sessions and published material available from Lexipol (Coronavirus (COVID-19) Training & Policies for Individual Access (lexipol.com)), IAFC | International Association of Fire Chiefs, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | CDC and your local health department among others. I encourage fire chiefs and administrators to review these sites for information and direction especially in pay and benefits when your firefighters required quarantine and does the department use sick leave, time off with or without pay and what the pay issues are under FLSA.

The new issue is COVID-19 Vaccines and the current issue is, can you require your firefighters to obtain the vaccine? This site outlines the issue in layman’s terms as to the EEO’s position on mandatory vaccinations (The EEOC Releases Guidelines on Mandatory Workplace Vaccinations). In a union environment that has a bargaining agreement, departments must negotiate the effects of mandatory vaccine requirements. Please listen to the Fire Attorneys discuss this issue in their last podcast on Fire Engineering (1).

Switching gears and reviewing court cases in 2020, I am seeing the same level of social media tomfoolery, discrimination and workplace harassment and there are numerous cases involving infringement of your firefighter’s legal rights and privileges. Much of this can be attributed to a lack of or absent enforceable policies; inherent bias towards others that don’t look like you mainly affecting women and firefighters of color; poor training by departments in recognizing and stopping discrimination, harassment and bullying.

There is a general attitude among women and firefighters of color that administration is not going to do anything if they report bad behavior and IN FACT, I will be singled out and sometimes treated worse. The silence is deafening.

I believe the fire department is the institutional form of our collective personalities by in large does the honorable thing by respecting the rights and privileges of our firefighters and the community we protect. Remembering, the fire service is a homogenous group of primarily white men, that is ripe for these types of legal conflict. The culture of the organization needs to change to prevent many of the lawsuits affecting the fire service.

Unfortunately, we have a history of suing each other and a majority of the largest lawsuits with large payouts to the aggrieved firefighter involve our own people in the form of harassment, discrimination, bullying and violations of Constitutional protections under the Civil Rights Acts and its sub parts to include Age Discrimination under ADEA, Pregnancy Discrimination under PDA, rights to return to work after military deployment under USERRA, Gender or Sex Discrimination, pay under FLSA, family leave under FMLA including gender identity or transgender status under the Civil Rights Act, Title VII and other violations of the law. These claims against the department costing our industry millions of dollars in settlement claims or court decisions and polarizes the members of that particular fire department.

I know that I have a tendency to repeat myself but much of Preventing Legal Fires has to do with the creation and enforcement of your department policies preventing such behavior. “If only” is an often heard statement when the department is sued for violating its own policies or trying to sweep bad behavior “under the rug.” “If only we had acted sooner”, “if only we listened to that firefighter” or “if only we had a policy”. Create your “if only” statements and fix the issue. Let’s change the “if only” response and replace it with a proactive attitude by recognizing bad behavior and let’s actually recognize and accept the differences in your fellow firefighters and act responsibility.

We also have a smattering of embezzlement and theft from the department from its own employees at all levels. Firefighter to fire chief have been caught stealing from their departments. It’s a good time to stop this career destroying activity.

Let’s look at some of the cases from 2020 affecting the fire department as they are far reaching.

COVID-19 litigation: The good news is, as of this writing there are no Covid 19 related lawsuits against fire departments, however we will soon see litigation based on breaches of pay under FLSA related to overtime or quarantine pay for firefighters sent home after testing positive for the disease; and the use of FMLA for this time off. Is this a proper use of FMLA or your PTO? Some departments are sending Covid positive firefighters home “with pay” for 14 days with no drawdown on their leave bank and other departments are sending firefighters home with a drawdown on their leave bank and no pay. Stay tuned this year for litigation based on these claims.

Lega Fire Prevention: Social Media Policy

Firefighter Social Media Use During the Black Lives Matter Movement

Social Media: People, people, people…how many warnings does one need to stay off of social media with your opinions, pissing contests, or other egregious comments> Now I know a certain former elected official got away with a lot by using his social medial platforms to air grievances and ultimately got banned from its use. You, on the other hand, cannot and should not use your social media platform in this manner and these are a few (of many) examples of firefighters and other public officials getting terminated.
• A South Carolina firefighter has been terminated over several social media posts that were found to be racist. The Georgetown County firefighter was fired one day after county officials were informed of the posts.
• From Dave Statter’s and Curt Varone’s blog sites you find: In New York, a Hillcrest Fire Chief faced backlash following a post that discussed following rioters home and burning their properties. The fire company announced it was “looking into” the allegations and the Chief posted a mea culpa but was it enough? Would that have been enough to get you off the hook if you did the same?
• In Florida, a battalion chief with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue was been placed on administrative leave following remarks he posted on social media. The firefighter was accused of having posted “We have reached levels of ludicrous. It’s unbelievable—Leaders kneeling, white people kissing the boots of black people. It’s the great capitulation”. A reminder to you firefighters, we are in the 21st century and racial equality should be the norm. Please leave your bias at home no matter how angry you are or unjust you believe the issue to be.
• In California, a Modesto area firefighter is facing a pushback and outcry from the community over their social media comments: “All Lives Splatter” and “Nobody cares About Your Protest” along with a police officer (in a different state) was terminated from his employment after making and wearing “T” shirts with the same or similar slogan on them.
A simple guide for fire service leadership related to social media manner:
1. Create a sound, legally-enforceable social media policy that passes muster in the First Amendment, and where applicable, collective bargaining laws;
2. Train your personnel on the policy so that they understand what they can safely post, and what types of posts are likely to get them in trouble; and
3. Teach effective supervision and enforcement of the policy so that our most valuable asset, our people, are treated in a fair and reasonable manner.

Discrimination: The fire service continually finds itself discriminating against their firefighters in many but not novel ways. Violations of our established laws and provisions of the Constitution ultimately result in a “win” for the firefighter and a “loss” for the fire department with major large money judgments. The reality is, it is a loss for the firefighter AND the fire department. Qualified men and women have left their jobs based on this litigation and all they really wanted to be is a firefighter. Someone or many someone’s have ruined those dreams.

Several examples of many examples:
• A veteran San Francisco firefighter claims to have endured decades of harassment on account of his race and sexual orientation, is suing the city in state court on six state law counts. The firefighter filed suit late last year in San Francisco County Superior Court. The firefighter also filed a First Amendment Complaint. The complaint lists numerous examples of offensive and inappropriate conduct he endured dating back to 1999, but the claims in the suit arise out of the treatment he received most recently in his assignment as Firefighter Recruitment Coordinator that lead to a loss of pay and a reduction in work classification. The litigation can be summed up in the following manner: 1) Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation under state law; 2) Race discrimination under state law and 3) sexual orientation and or racial harassment under state law
• An Everett (WA) firefighter filed suit alleging race discrimination and retaliation. The firefighter filed suit in US District Court for the Western District of Washington alleging one count of race discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and one count of retaliation. The firefighter claims he was subjected to a variety of derogatory comments and names during his eighteen-year career. When he reported the conduct, the city took no action and his colleagues shunned him, a common practice in fire departments when an allegation or complaint is filed against it due to non-action based on a complaint.
• A bit of free legal advice to fire department administrators and rank and file, take the complaints serious and make meaningful inquiries, investigations or some affirmative action and stop this behavior.
• A Montebello (CA) fire captain who sued the department for race discrimination in 2013 and 2017, has filed his third race discrimination lawsuit. The fire captain filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging for retaliation, disability discrimination, and violation of the California Firefighter Procedural Bill of Rights. The Captain was placed on administrative leave last summer when the department began investigating him. The department issued him a notice of intent to terminate, and his Skelly Hearing (aka Loudermill Hearing for non-Californians) was held. The complaint alleges the current discipline is attributable to his earlier lawsuits as well as his complaints about racism in the department. The Captain prevailed in his first lawsuit, with a jury in 2015 awarding him $935,150 in damages, $185,150 in lost wages and $750,000 for emotional distress. Do the math on this one. The 2017 suit alleged he was wrongfully passed over for promotion to battalion chief. That case is schedule to go to a jury trial in April 2021.
• Last but certainly not the least, an Asian-American firefighter is suing his fire department and a deputy chief for discrimination over comments the chief made related to COVID-19. The Firefighter filed suit against the City of Plainfield, New Jersey and the Deputy Fire Chief. The suit was originally filed July 23, 2020 in Union County Superior Court, but it was dismissed on August 14, 2020. The firefighter’s attorney filed a motion on August 25, 2020 that resulted in the case being successfully reinstated. The firefighter, a 2-year veteran, claims that the Deputy Chief “mockingly” asked him if he had recently traveled to Wuhan, China “while he squinted his eyes so that they narrowed in a racist caricature of Asian facial features and left his mouth open.” This incident occurred during a training session on COVID19, and the remark was made in the presence of at least 19 firefighters, including five lieutenants and a battalion chief.

Theft: Although this recently happened in 2021, I thought it is pertinent to provide this advice – DO NOT STEAL COVID 19 vaccinations and I place this in the category of “what were you thinking?” Polk County (FL) Sheriff’s office has arrested Paramedic Joshua Colon and says it will soon arrest Captain Anthony Damiano in connected with the theft of three vials of coronavirus vaccine. Damiano’s arrest is pending his return from an assignment in California. Polk County Fire Rescue named Colon its 2020 paramedic of the year a few weeks ago. Sheesh.

Finally, we have all heard the old saw of “not dead until cold and dead.” A $50 million dollar lawsuit was filed against a fire department when after a resuscitation was called off after 30 minutes and the patient transported to a funeral home was found to be ALIVE. The family of a disabled 20-year-old Michigan woman who was declared dead by EMS personnel, but later determined to still be alive, has filed a $50 million suit against the City of Southfield, two paramedics and two EMTs. This occurred on August 23, 2020 when personnel from the Southfield Fire Department found the patient not breathing. Personnel performed CPR and other ALS interventions for 30 minutes, but after checking with medical control, resuscitation efforts were ended. The patient was later transported to the James H. Cole Home for Funerals where employees discovered she was still alive.

Unfortunately there are thousands more of these cases of all categories affecting our fire service and there are too many to list in this article. Let’s learn from the mistakes of others and avoid them.

In closing, I am noting that a majority of firefighter deaths in 2020 and now 2021 are from Covid 19. It’s not the old or the infirm that are dying, it’s our healthy firefighters. The numbers are staggering and what’s predicable is preventable. Use the precautions that are available, wear PPE on every EMS call, wash your hands and socially distance yourself. Almost impossible in a fire station but do the best you can. Get tested and above all GET THE VACCINE and be a hero and live to fight another day.

End Notes – listen and read
1. Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccinations for Firefighters? – Fire Engineering
2. Fire Service Court 01/14 by fireengineering | Education (blogtalkradio.com) – Mandatory Vaccine discussion
3. Curt Varone Fire Law Blog – Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
4. Dave Statter Statter911.com – Firefighter Videos, Firefighting News, Fire Department
5. Gordon Graham – Lexipol.com
6. Most importantly, Firefighters who like to discuss scuttlebutt around the coffee table – listen and learn.

This commentary reflects the views of the author and not necessarily the views of Fire Engineering.

It should not be construed as legal advice or counsel.

The post Fireplace Authorized Points in Evaluate: Yr 2020 appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

[author: James Drimmer]

A little over a year has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic led the legal community to look to remote depositions to fuel litigation. In the months following the first shift, I wrote two blogs about remote deposition. The first focused on the details of removed deposits and how to perform them, as well as best practices for preparation. The second looked at how things went after six months with remote access. This blog examines how remote deposition has evolved in widespread practice in relation to a “note” after a full year of widespread practice, and further anticipates how things will evolve from here, including the introduction and use of remote technology for dispositive procedures such as arbitration, arbitration and now even legal proceedings.

Predictions about remote stay technology appear accurate – Note = A.

Saying the words “new normal” when it comes to remote debris is just … well, 2020. It is no longer time to recognize that debris should now be recognized as “normal” in this way. The uniform acceptance of distant deposits was certainly the minority’s early prediction. Their opinions have been tacitly rejected by their peers on the grounds that the “distant matter” will go away as soon as we can get back to face-to-face procedures. When everyone finally realized that the delay in legal disputes could possibly take an undefined and lengthy time, many lawyers stepped in with both feet. Everyone has accepted one or more invitations from remote deposit providers in their inbox to test the options available. You tried and guess what? It worked! ”Expected problems and practical challenges regarding the handling and connectivity of exhibits have been addressed, addressed and resolved by knowledgeable vendors – and the process now seems smoother than ever. It is an exaggeration to say that at this point everyone is out of it more technological View “understands.” However, the awareness and visibility of the remote separation process has made it accessible to even the most technologically demanding people.

A colleague recently reported on LinkedIn about the lifting of some COVID-19 restrictions. He was pleased to see some of his clients in person in his office for the first time in over a year and to give a personal presentation over lunch. What was the topic for this “face-to-face” meeting? Ironically, remote deposits! Even if we reopen our offices to do business in person, this is anything but a retreat to old methods. This is back to the future in all its glory. Based on the foregoing, we can expect the removed deposit to remain here, and those who predicted it would appear to have been entirely correct. Grade = A.

Some less obvious practical advantages and disadvantages of remote separation – Grade = B +

Some obvious advantages to remote separations are the extreme flexibility that has been added to the process for all participants, including lawyers, witnesses, and court reporters. This flexibility also leads to cost savings for everyone involved, with fewer travel-related costs. Likewise, there are equally obvious drawbacks to the process that can never really be overcome, such as assessing the credibility and conduct of a witness that lawyers benefit from personal observation. There are some interesting and less obvious subtle benefits and burdens to the process that everyone should consider, including the increased courtesy between attorneys, the unique helpful application that remote segregation provides for certain types of cases, and the handling of the new concept emerging the zoom fatigue.

In order for remote depositions to work, an increased level of cooperation is required from all parties to the proceedings. As a result, when filing a deposit remotely, it is easier for lawyers to collaborate than with a face-to-face procedure. Exhibits are often swapped out in advance, schedules worked out in advance rather than one-sided notice of debris, and attendees must work with third party witnesses to ensure they can appear. These budgetary issues are now very cooperative matters. While in the past such planning problems were often the subject of game art. Well, that kind of capricious jockeying for position has no place in this new, aged arena for the discovery of distant facts. Even during the proceedings, lawyers have to behave more collegially than ever. One of our clients recently described the level of professionalism and courtesy shown by all lawyers in his most recent multiple remote separations case. Although the case was controversial, he mentioned that all opposing lawyers were paying so much attention to each other as if there were technical difficulties or if one party lost their connection they would shut down the case immediately so that the lawyer could be reconnected and avoid it any ex parte communication with the witness.

In addition to being more courteous, remote tipping is especially helpful in certain cases that you may not expect. For example, the document-intensive case is now safer from a health point of view and less complex thanks to the use of a remote procedure. The security issue is obvious as lawyers, witnesses, and reporters don’t have to constantly pass documents back and forth to risk a possible COVID-19 infection. It also makes the process smoother because witnesses can be referenced directly to sections of documents on the screen instead of the witness looking through a hard copy. Every attorney has had the experience of handing a document to the witness during a deposit and referring it to a specific line or paragraph on a specific page. What happens? Invariably, the witness takes the document from the attorney, turns the pages, compares sections, sometimes over long periods of time, and reviews the material so that he or she is not caught off guard by the question at hand. Opposing attorneys are quick to raise objections asking for the witness to be given the opportunity to “review the entire document.” In these remote proceedings, when a subsection of a document is displayed on a screen, be it psychological or otherwise, neither the opposing attorney nor the witness argue about its authenticity or the ability to read the entire document. This is a tremendous advantage in jurisdictions where the ability to depose a witness is subject to time limits and where there is a lot of material to discuss.

One drawback to the world of remote separation is the growing authority over zoom fatigue and the tedious effects of video calls. This is not ideal in an environment where, as a lawyer, you want your witness or client to put their best foot forward and appear sharp, present and engaged. Since video calls put a special strain on our cognitive abilities, the witness and attorney must take this effect into account. A recent study published by Stanford University observed that zoom fatigue occurs because video calls make unnatural and excessive eye contact. You see yourself all the time and how you appear on camera as you speak. Their mobility is restricted and the cognitive load during video chats is much higher. All of this results in the higher level of concentration required for the Witness to communicate effectively in the deposit environment, which is already a nerve-wracking and highly unnatural experience. This challenge results in the attorney taking additional time and action to offset the effect of zoom fatigue in preparing his witnesses for testimony, and the attorney who does not take the time does so at their own risk.

Practitioners should weigh these subtle pros and cons when considering remote deposition. Since the news is not all good, these matters deserve a solid but incomplete note. Note = B +.

Arbitration, banking and … litigation? – Degree = TBD

It was not a problem that shortly after the widespread adoption of distant testimony, the litigants used the same technology for mediation and even trial. In recent times, entire arbitration proceedings with full testimony, the introduction of exhibits and arguments have been conducted almost every day. Remote technology has performed well in these dispositive procedures, and now cases can be advanced through arbitration rather than legal proceedings, while pandemic issues such as vaccine distribution and security measures in local courthouses take care of themselves.

However, the next piece of the puzzle to consider is how remote jurors will conduct legal proceedings. Is that even possible? There are so many points to consider: presence of jurors, attentiveness from jurors, court rules, who handles the technology and is responsible for it, etc. While virtual banking trials have already taken place because they are practically the same as arbitration, the judicial process is very much much a new concept. There have been isolated reports of virtual trials taking place in New Jersey on brief matters. Riverside County California recently enacted local court rules for conducting trials against virtual jurors displayed in its courthouse. At least one case recently settled prior to trial in San Francisco County conducted a hybrid Voir Dire in which the jury was placed in a virtual “jury box” and interviewed while the rest of the pool watched the interview. When the jury was released, others were put into the virtual “box” to complete the interview.

It is unclear how these early experiments with virtual jury processes will go. There are many concerns about the jury’s attention, divided between the court and what is going on in their immediate vicinity. Time will tell and we will surely report on it as soon as more data and practical experience on the subject is gathered and analyzed. Therefore we can only rate this problem as “to be decided”. Note = TBD.

Conclusion

The widespread success of using remote technology to conduct legal proceedings such as depositions, hearings, and now even legal proceedings is a welcome improvement in the legal landscape. All actors in the system will feel the efficiency that comes from greater flexibility in planning the lowered cost barriers that arise when lawyers are not limited to litigating in person. This in turn will give more people better access to our legal system, which can only be good. We look forward to future technological advances and their application to other procedures such as legal proceedings. The future of remote access is certainly looking bright and deserves an “A” in this sense. Grade = A..

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The type of insurance to protect employees requires more environmental protection, according to experts.

“D&O” insurance provides directors and officers of a company liability protection by relieving them of responsibility in the event that the insured company suffers legal damage.

Attorney David Goodwin, who practices law in Covington and Burling, San Francisco, estimated that rates rose 30% from 2019 to 2020. This is a doubling of the previous year’s increase. The number of claims seems to be in line with increasing rates.

Prices go up because airlines pay more claims. Some even hesitate to sell the unique type of insurance.

Goodwin, who specializes in commercial policyholder coverage, says this made it harder to obtain coverage. There are more than 20 airlines in the San Francisco Bay Area that manage specific coverage, most of which are not based in the area. An estimated 50 insurance companies run it across the country.

“To do the industry justice, (the freight forwarders) try to offset the money they had to pay for significant claims. And many customers are seeing a significant increase in premiums, ”he told the Business Journal.

The rise in interest rates is putting additional pressure on companies to provide them to their top executives. This type of insurance is expected to be included in employment contracts and statutes.

“It’s hard to spend money on it, but you can’t find good people without it,” he said.

Dereick Wood of ABD Insurance and Financial Services, headquartered in San Mateo and with offices in Petaluma, said the surge in rate hikes wasn’t necessarily due to COVID.

“Prices are based on loss from carriers,” said Wood, an insurance broker with 15 years of industry experience.

Companies may need to compensate their executives for a variety of reasons. For private companies, D&O insurance often covers cases of unlawful termination. Fiduciary violations are common among public companies. Managerial misconduct is also a factor for both of them.

In Wood’s eyes, one of the most egregious cases was a Wells Fargo scandal in which managers pressured bank employees to create fake accounts in order to increase their sales. The case brought by the bank’s customers was settled four years ago for over $ 100 million.

Due to such high profile cases resulting in significant payouts to victims, the award prices can fluctuate widely depending on whether a company is private or public and how big it is. For example, a private company with about 100 employees can spend about $ 50,000 on annual rewards. A large public company like Pacific Gas & Electric may have to shell out “several million,” said Wood.

I’m counting on holding top managers accountable

The utility could see these rewards being used in negotiating the firestorm of lawsuits it has faced as a result of the surge in northern California wildfires over the past four years.

Top executives are facing one such lawsuit filed in the San Francisco Supreme Court on February 24 against 22 former executives. The complaint alleges they were responsible for their role in starting the 2017 North Bay flames, including the Tubbs Fire and the 2018 Camp Fire Inferno. In the fire victim lawsuit cited by trustee John Trotter, the released defendants are accused of “breaching their fiduciary duties to act in the best interests of PG&E”.

More than 100 people were killed and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed in those two years.

“It is our duty to hold the former officers and directors accountable for grossly neglecting their jobs in the lead up to the North Bay fires and the campfire,” Trotter said in a statement.

The campfire mowed the town of Paradise as a result of centuries-old “C-hook” equipment on a transmission mast along the Feather River, which did not stabilize the power lines in the wind. The utility had not installed a shutdown system in the North Bay.

The Fire Victims Trust will gain at least $ 200 million from the lawsuit, which will allow the funds to be reclaimed from the policy.

“They knew about the company’s exposure. They were more concerned about the bottom line, “Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy attorney, Mark C. Molumphy, told the Business Journal. “It was a recipe for disaster.”

A perfect storm

According to Tom Griffith, senior vice president of Don Ramatici Insurance, a Petaluma brokerage firm, if the claim involves a lawsuit, insureds will have to pay other incidental expenses from the insured in addition to increasing rates.

“We are certainly seeing a hardening of the market, which depends on the frequency of claims and the severity of claims based on litigation costs,” he said.

Beyond the well-known case of the trust of PG&E fire victims, much of the spike in costs and litigation has resulted from a growing number of cases emerging from the “Me Too Movement”, in addition to the more well-known fiduciary violations.

As these types of cases are on the rise, top executives are even more careful to ensure that their companies have this type of coverage.

“Today one of the first questions anyone asks themselves – how well are you protected?” Said Griffith.

A snowball effect

And when costs go up, actuaries keep track of trends in the market, which leads to the number of airlines choosing to stop selling.

“It’s not just the payouts that are driving interest rates up. It could just be the increased frequency (can cause that). You have to make up the cost, ”said Jeff Okrepkie of the George Peterson Insurance Agency in Santa Rosa.

The agent has found that the past year has resulted in tense situations – in the workplace and beyond.

“Any allegation that one or more officers failed to do their job can lead to the allegations we see,” he said. “Emotions are increased.”

An insurance company in the Bay Area calls the market “desperate”.

According to Woodruff Sawyer’s Priya Cherian Huskins, who works in the insurance company’s San Francisco office as senior vice president of management liability, the company recently produced a report and found that “litigation rate is still increasing from 2019 to 2020,” wrote Huskins.

The report found that class action lawsuits in the nation hit an all-time high of 268 in 2019 and continued to increase to 210 in 2020. For comparison: in 2011 there were 141.

In addition, Huskins said it was “more worrying” how many “unsolved cases” the carriers have.

“Airlines are concerned about how these losses will affect them,” she wrote.

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