Author: San Diego County Bar Association

Current Topics

H-1B Visa: May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor

By Karine Wenger

It is that time of the year again. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) begins accepting petitions for new H-1B “CAP” visas during the first week of April 2018. Each year there is a cap on the maximum number of H-1B visas that will be issued — a 65,000 base cap, plus an additional 20,000 for beneficiaries who hold a U.S. master’s degree or higher. In recent years, the number of new H-1B petitions filed has greatly exceeded the number of available H-1B visas, which has resulted in the USCIS implementing a “lottery,” with only those randomly selected employer petitions being processed. In 2017, USCIS reported to have received over 199,000 H-1B petitions — more three times the number of H-1B visas available. Those fortunate enough to be selected in the lottery would begin employment in H1B on October 1, 2018. Read More

Legal Ethics

The Ethical Implications of Threatening Criminal, Administrative, or Disciplinary Charges

By Richard Hendlin

This Ethics in Brief will review California Rules of Professional Conduct [CRPC] Rule 5-100 which makes it improper for a California lawyer to “threaten to present criminal, administrative, or disciplinary charges to obtain an advantage in a civil dispute.” (CRPC 5-100(A).) The term “administrative charges” means the filing or lodging of a complaint with federal, state, or local governmental entity which may order or recommend the loss or suspension of a license. (CRPC 5-100(B).) A “civil dispute” includes “an administrative proceeding of a quasi-civil nature pending before a federal, state, or local governmental entity,” including administrative hearings for professional licenses. (CRPC 5-100(C).) Read More

Business & Corporate Law / Wisdom

Arbitration and Dysfunctional Drafting

By Carl Ingwalson Jr.

“A cautionary note – we spend too much time trying to make sense out of arbitration agreements precisely because litigants spend too little time drafting them. Increasingly, we have been presented with incoherent hybrids and bizarre mutations of supposed agreements for judicial or contractual arbitration.” National Union Fire Ins. Co. v. Nationwide Ins. Co. (1999), 69 Cal. App 4th 709, 717. Read More