Small business owners must be constantly vigilant to ensure that their business is in compliance with state and federal regulations. One common issue for small businesses is ensuring that their websites are ADA-compliant. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted in 1990 to prohibit discrimination against accommodations for people with physical or mental disabilities. The ADA also extends to the digital realm, requiring businesses to ensure web content is accessible to all users. In addition to the federal law (the ADA), California businesses also must have compliant websites under state law (the Unruh Act). When it comes to ADA... READ MORE

Licensed professional fiduciaries, like other licensed professionals, may find that they want to form a corporation in order to further protect themselves and better serve their clients. Many professional fiduciaries believe that a professional corporation, which is the type of entity employed by other licensed professionals like lawyers and doctors, would best suit their needs. Most states impose restrictions on who may own a professional corporation and the work it can do, and California is one of them. Unfortunately, there is not currently a mechanism in California for forming a professional fiduciary professional corporation. Though professional fiduciaries are required to... READ MORE

The New Year brings a number of new, significant employment laws for California businesses. These rules range in topic from worker classification to privacy. Employers need to consider these developments, understand how the laws affect operations, and adjust their policies and practices to ensure compliance. Worker Classification One of the biggest, most attention-grabbing changes coming to the workplace in 2020 is AB 5, the new law that clarifies the test used to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or a normal W2 employee. AB 5 incorporates the “Dynamex ABC Test” into various parts of California’s labor statutes. From... READ MORE

Under the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act, employees in California who work for an employer for at least 30 days within a year (tracked from the beginning of their employment, rather than by calendar year) must be provided paid sick leave. This includes full-time, part-time, and temporary employees. Regulations like this can be confusing. Though the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act sets out specific paid sick leave requirements, the exact amount that you as an employer may owe to any individual employee can depend on a number of factors. One of these factors is which way you decide to calculate... READ MORE

By Jacqueline Schock Each state handles pregnancy and parental leave protections differently, and California has among the most robust collections of these laws. Some well-known federal laws (such as the Family Medical Leave Act) and state laws (such as the California Family Rights Act) set out requirements for larger employers in relation to their pregnant employees and their employees with families. Though these more well-known laws generally apply only to larger employers, there is some pregnancy and parental leave legislation that applies to small employers as well. As this post discusses, two of the most common forms of parental leave... READ MORE

In response to outcry from the business community, Governor Newsom signed into effect a law extending the deadline for employers to provide the newly required sexual harassment prevention training to January 1, 2021. At the prompting of the business community, the state legislature introduced and passed SB 778 to make some needed clarifications to the new sexual harassment prevention training law. Primarily, SB 778 would delay the changes made by SB 1343 – one of the many #MeToo laws passed in the 2018 legislative session – so employers would have an additional year to get up to speed with and... READ MORE

Whether you’re opening a new business in its first location, moving, or expanding, you’ve probably put a lot of thought into the location, building, and unit you’ve chosen. Before you receive a business lease to review, you’ve probably toured many options and spent a lot of time negotiating with the property owner. While you may be tempted to think you’ve already negotiated all the important details and that you can proceed with executing the document, it’s important to take time to carefully review the lease with an experienced real estate attorney, who can help negotiate the lease terms which can... READ MORE

Setting up a nonprofit corporation in California is a complex process that involves the intersection of federal and state laws. If you want to set up a nonprofit, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the process and to work with your business attorney to ensure that no detail slips through the cracks. The specific type of nonprofit that most people think of when they hear the word “nonprofit” is called a “public benefit nonprofit corporation,” formed under the IRS’s 501(c)(3) tax exemption. To take advantage of this exemption, you first need to form an entity in California. After successfully completing... READ MORE

Consulting agreements are like most other agreements for services—they create the terms under which a consulting company will provide said consulting services to its clients. Consulting services can run the spectrum from code audits to financial advising to site selection to staffing, and the agreements should be customized to reflect the nuances of each different business. Beyond the usual contract clauses, and beyond the clauses that should be customized by your attorney to reflect the specific nature of your business, there are a few provisions most consulting agreements should make sure they cover. Scope of Work: Clearly defining the scope... READ MORE

As a business owner, there are many steps you will need to take when hiring employees including finding a payroll system that works for your business, drafting an employee handbook outlining your business’ policies and procedures, and purchasing workers compensation insurance. Some of these steps, like purchasing workers compensation insurance, may seem insignificant or something that can be put off but they are critical to avoiding government fines, costly audits, and being left with a financial burden if an employee is injured on the job. To help you better understand what your workers compensation policy means for your business, we’ve... READ MORE