Media Highlights

Opinion: Regulating Big Tech will be hard, and California is proving it

MarketWatch—December 31, 2020

Veena Dubal: “Uber and Lyft’s campaign was so robust and so well done and replete with false information.”

COVID vaccine gives small businesses enough hope to go bankrupt

Bloomberg Business—December 29, 2020

Jared Ellias: “You will see a serious bounce in Q1 and Q2 especially. The driver isn’t going to be the pandemic. The driver is going to be the vaccine.”

‘People are terrified’: a coronavirus surge across California’s prisons renews calls for releases

The Guardian—December 29, 2020

Hadar Aviram: “In the last nine months the state had a chance to do the right thing, they didn’t and now people inside are terrified.”

CA Supreme Court rules non-violent sex offenders should be eligible for parole

KCBS Radio —December 29, 2020

Rory Little: “The Department of Corrections is sort of an entity unto its own and they oppose lots of things.”

President-Elect Biden Expected To Act To Reverse President Trump’s Public Lands Impacts

National Parks Traveler—December 27, 2020

John Leshy: “Among the first steps will be to name an acting director to steer the National Park Service and rebuild trust with the career staff until the Senate confirms a permanent director.”

Presidential election hostilities may fuel fight over courts

AP News—December 24, 2020

Shanin Specter: “The measure is a massive loss of voting rights. A Pennsylvania voter would go from helping decide thirty-one statewide judicial seats to just three.”

Can employers make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory?

The Charlotte Observer—December 23, 2020

Dorit Reiss: “Employers generally have wide scope to make rules for the workplace.”

U.S. Considers Granting Immunity to Saudi Prince in Suspected Assassination Attempt

The New York Times—December 22, 2020

Chimene Keitner: “It would be an innovation for the State Department to extend status-based immunity beyond that group.”

Uber and Lyft’s Gig Work Law Could Expand Beyond California

Wired—December 22, 2020

Veena Dubal: “Most low-income workers don’t have access to basic safety net benefits.”

COVID vaccines are here, but big questions remain about immunity, mandates

The Mercury News—December 20, 2020

Dorit Reiss: “The federal government actually has limited power here, but states have broader authority to act on public health.”

Scholarly Leadership

Professor Ben Depoorter hosted the Artificial Intelligence in Digital Media panel as part of the ABA’s Digital Media and Video Game Conference. Featuring experts from Microsoft, Facebook, Osborne Clark, Sidley Austin, Digital Arts Law, and the former CTO of Lucasfilm, the event was attended by 134 lawyers.

Professor Jared Ellias presented “Bankruptcy Process for Sale” at the Wharton-Hastings Corporate Restructuring & Insolvency Seminar (CRIS) on Zoom.