Executive Committee: Message from the Chair

• Publication year: 2019
• Author: Monique D. Jewett-Brewster

Executive Committee: Message from the Chair

Monique D. Jewett-Brewster

As we bid adieu to 2018, we can look forward to the many ways that the Business Law Section (BLS) will continue in its goal to improve the practice of California business law, for all of its members, as part of the California Lawyers Association (CLA). Each of the major methods in which the BLS engages in its constituency outreach—whether directed to the general public, the section's seasoned attorneys, or the BLS' NextGen lawyers—deserves its own detailed discussion, and the BLS' involvement with each of them.

In this issue, I will begin with a synopsis of the Publications outreach the BLS offers to the public and the bar. First, if you are reading these words, you must be aware of the Business Law News (or BLN), the quarterly, scholarly publication that informs its readers of important developments in the California business legal landscape. In just the past few volumes alone, BLN authors have addressed the enforcement of arbitration agreements in bankruptcies; explained the stock option tax rules business lawyers should know; discussed California marijuana licensing requirements; and provided practical guidance about the representation of nonprofit entities.

In addition to receiving the BLN, and its companion Annual Review summarizing the major developments in annual business, the BLS offers published specialized content generated by one or more of the section's fifteen standing committees. These "e-updates" (or e-Bulletins) are as varied and diverse in content as the standing committees that produce them.

For example, the BLS Corporations Committee and Insolvency Law Committee recently published respective e-Bulletins on case law updates ranging from the enforceability of forum-selected bylaws adopted by a Delaware corporation headquartered in California without stockholder approval, to the issue of whether a junior creditor may have a duty of inquiry where a senior creditor's collateral description in its financing statement could be interpreted as ambiguous. Also consider the e-Bulletins recently published by the Partnerships and LLCs Committee about the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal's interpretation of "investment contracts" under federal securities laws, the Nonprofit Committee's announcements of free MCLE credit programs on topics ranging from fiscal sponsorship to live charity webinars offered by the California Department of Justice, and the AgriBusiness Committee's "Save...