Southern California Chapter Advocacy

ACCA-SoCal Advocacy Committee

Recent Activities (as of July 8, 2003)

ACCA-SoCal's Adovcacy Committee is on the move! This summer we advocated in two matters we believe of importance to our members and their employers.

1. Personal Liability for Individual Corporate Agents

On June 27, 2003, ACCA-SoCal filed an amicus brief in the matter of Reynolds v. Bement (2003) 107 Cal.App.4th 738, urging the California Supreme Court to decline review of the published opinion. The request by the petitioner and his amici for review of the Reynolds v. Bement opinion threatens to undermine the fundamental relationship between California employers and their employees. The petitioners seek to do away with certain key protections properly afforded to corporations, allowing employees to pursue legal actions directly against individual agents of the corporation (officers, supervisors and other employees) who directly or indirectly exercise control over employees' wages, hours, or working conditions. ACCA-SoCal urged the Supreme Court to maintain the traditional principles that the corporate employer has the primary responsibility to comply with the state's wage and hour laws and that an employee must look solely to the corporate employer for any remedies arising out of violation of the wage and hour laws.

2. Multijurisdictional Practice (MJP) in California

On July 7, 2003, ACCA-SoCal joined in the comments of ACCA responding to the California Supreme Court's request for comments on proposed rules that will govern out-of-state lawyers practicing in California. Commonly referred to as the Multijurisdictional Practice of Law, or MJP, the proposed rules permit four categories of lawyers who are licensed to practice in a U.S. jurisdiction other than California to engage in the practice of law in California in limited circumstances. These four categories are:

* Lawyers temporarily in California to pursue litigation-related matters (including pre-litigation and ADR matters) for an existing client;
* Certain kinds of employed lawyers working full-time in California for a public interest organization;
* Lawyers temporarily in California to pursue non-litigation matters for an existing client and
* Employed counsel working for their corporate client full-time in California.

ACCA-SoCal's interests were primarily voiced with regard to the latter two exceptions listed above.

Should you wish to review the entire text of either the amicus brief or comment letter referenced above, please contact us at SoCal@acca.com attention: Advocacy Committee and we would be glad to e-mail you a copy.

As a benefit to its members, ACCA-SoCal welcomes the opportunity to lend its name and support behind issues that affect all of our members. If you are aware of any such issues, please contact us at SoCal@acca.com, attention: Advocacy Committee.