Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine June 2020
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- June 2020 Master.qxp_Layout 1 5/20/20 3:01 PM Page c1 Lawyer-to-Lawyer 2020 THE MAGAZINE OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION Referral Guide JUNE 2020 / $5 On the Cover A Model PLUS LASC T(esla) for COVID-19 the Response Future page 30 Los Angeles lawyer International Jason R. Parnell assesses Criminal Court the challenge posed by the direct sales model of Tesla, Case Inc. to traditional U.S. page 18 automobile franchise law in lightlight ofof currentcurrent economiceconomic and technological conditions page 12 EPL Insurers Obliged to Pay page 24 IRS Criminal Tax Enforcement Update page 10 LOS ANGELES LAWYER - THE MAGAZINE OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION JUNE 2020, VOL. 43 NO. 4 SPECIAL SECTION 35 2020 LAwyEr-TO-LAwyEr rEfErrAL GuIdE Contents fEATurES dEPArTmENTS 12 7 President’s Page A Model T(esla) A year of many challenges and for the Future creative solutions By Ronald F. Brot By Jason R. Parnell 9 Tesla, Inc.'s direct sales model is Barristers Tips challenging the efficacy of the long- Copyright and choreography standing U.S. federal and state legal in the digital age framework upon which auto dealership franchises have been based By Harmony Gbe 10 18 Tax Tips The USA and ICC: New IRS fraud enforcement office cracks down on tax crime Friends or Foes? By Steven Toscher, Sandra Brown, and Lacey Strachan By Kate Mackintosh The International Criminal Court Appeals 40 Chamber recently overturned an earlier Closing Argument ruling denying prosecution of alleged Future of ADR after the coronavirus crimes committed in Afghanistan thus By Jan Frankel Schau allowing investigation of potential parties involved, including members of the U.S. SPECIAL fEATurE armed forces and CIA 30 24 Accessing Justice Employer Violates, in a Pandemic Insurer Pays By the Hon. Kevin C. Brazile By Shaun H. Crosner and Sherri R. Carter A recent California court of appeal case Los Angeles Superior Court has met has held that an employment practices many challenges in the past, but the liability insurer was obligated to defend a rapid spread of coronavirus exerted California employer in underlying class extraordinary pressure to balance action litigation alleging California Labor public health and safety concerns Code and PAGA violations with access to justice LOS ANGELES LAWYER (ISSN 0162-2900) is published monthly, except for a combined issue in July/August, by the Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1055 West 7th Street, Suite 2700, Los Angeles, CA 90017 (213) 896-6503. Period icals postage paid at Los Angeles, CA and additional mailing offices. Annual subscription price of $14 included in the Association membership dues. Nonmember subscriptions: $38 annually; single copy price: $5 plus handling. Address changes must be submitted six weeks in advance of next issue date. POSTMASTER: Address Service Requested. Send address changes to Los Angeles Lawyer, P. O. Box 55020, Los Angeles CA 90055. COvEr PhOTO: TOm kELLEr REAL ESTATE DISPUTE CONSULTING Visit us on the internet at www.lacba.org/lalawyer WARONZOF ASSOCIATES E-mail can be sent to [email protected] Timothy R. Lowe, MAI, CRE, FRICS FOLLOW LOS ANGELES LAWYER ON TWITTER AT @LALAwyErmAG •economic damages •lease disputes EdITOrIAL BOArd •fair compensation •land use disputes Chair •property valuation •partnership interest value TYNA ORREN Articles Coordinator •lost profits •reorganization plan feasibility CARMELA PAGAY Articles Coordinator Waronzof Associates, Incorporated 310.322.7744 T 424.285.5380 F TBD 400 Continental Boulevard, Sixth Floor [email protected] Secretary El Segundo, CA 90245 www.waronzof.com ALExUS BRIANNA PAYTON Immediate Past Chair THOMAS J. DALY JERROLD ABELES (PAST CHAIR) TOM K. ARA MARA BERKE TERENCE R. BOGA SCOTT BOYER NORMAN A. CHERNIN CHAD C. COOMBS (PAST CHAIR) MICHAEL R. DILIBERTO DANA MOON DORSETT GORDON K. ENG MICHAEL A. GEIBELSON (PAST CHAIR) SHARON GLANCZ STEVEN HECHT (PAST CHAIR) COMM’R DENNIS F. HERNANDEZ HON. MARY THORNTON HOUSE NIKKI MEHRPOO JACOBSON DIANA HUGHES LEIDEN LYDIA G. LIBERIO FLAVIA SANTOS LLOYD PAUL S. MARKS (PAST CHAIR) JANA MARIE MOSER COMM’R ELIZABETH MUNISOGLU LINDSEY F. MUNYER CYNTHIA ANN PEARSON GREGG A. RAPOPORT J. D. REES, III JAN F. SCHAU LACEY STRACHAN BRIANNA JOAN STRANGE RONALD TOCCHINI THOMAS H. VIDAL STAff Editor-in-Chief SUSAN PETTIT Senior Editor JOHN LOWE Art director LES SECHLER director of design and Production PATRICE HUGHES Advertising director LINDA BEKAS Copyright © 2020 by the Los Angeles County Bar Assoc ia tion. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is pro hibited. Printed by R. R. Donnelley, Liberty, Missouri. The opinions and positions stated in signed material are those of the authors and not by the fact of publication necessarily those of the Association or its members. All manuscripts are carefully considered by the Editorial Board. Letters to the editor are subject to editing. LOS ANGELES LAWYER JUNE 2020 4 LOS ANGELES LAWYER IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION 1055 West 7th Street, Suite 2700, Los Angeles CA 90017-2553 Telephone 213.627.2727 / www.lacba.org LACBA ExECuTIvE COmmITTEE President RONALD F. BROT President-Elect TAMILA C. JENSEN Senior vice President BRADLEY S. PAULEY vice President JO-ANN W. GRACE vice President Of diversity, Inclusion & Outreach PHILIP H. LAM Immediate Past President BRIAN S. KABATECK Treasurer KRISTIN ADRIAN Interested in writing Assistant vice President TBD legal articles for Assistant vice President Los Angeles Lawyer TBD For guidelines and article submission, contact Barristers/young Attorneys President Susan Pettit at [email protected] DIANA ARIELLE SANDERS Barristers/young Attorneys President-Elect SHARON GELBART Executive director/Secretary STANLEY S. BISSEY BOArd Of TruSTEES KRISTIN ADRIAN SARVENAZ BAHAR JULIA L. BIRKEL DAMON MICHAEL BROWN BRANT H. DVEIRIN GARY A. FARWELL JOHN F. HARTIGAN AMOS E. HARTSTON ROY J. JIMENEZ RICHARD L. KELLNER EVE LOPEZ JEFFREY B. MARGULIES JEANNE L. NISHIMOTO ANN PARK BENJAMIN G. SHATZ ED SUMMERS KENDRA THOMAS KEVIN L. VICK AffILIATEd BAr ASSOCIATIONS ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DEFENSE COUNSEL (ASCDC) BEVERLY HILLS BAR ASSOCIATION (BHBA) CENTURY CITY BAR ASSOCIATION (CCBA) CONSUMER ATTORNEYS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES (CAALA) CULVER MARINA BAR ASSOCIATION (CMBA) EASTERN BAR ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY GLENDALE BAR ASSOCIATION (GBA) IRANIAN AMERICAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION ITALIAN AMERICAN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (IALA) JAPANESE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (JABA) JOHN M. LANGSTON BAR ASSOCIATION LGBT BAR ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES (LGBT BAR LA) MExICAN AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (MABA) PASADENA BAR ASSOCIATION (PBA) SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BAR ASSOCIATION (SFVBA) SANTA MONICA BAR ASSOCIATION (SMBA) SOUTH BAY BAR ASSOCIATION (SBBA) SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHINESE LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (SCCLA) WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES (WLALA) LOS ANGELES LAWYER JUNE 2020 5 FROM THE CHAIR Tyna Thall Orren enry Thoreau decamped ciation, which has been struggling with to Walden Pond to live several chronic problems for several years. “deliberately.”1 Sheltering When COVID-19 hit, courts closed and in place during a chaos reigned in the legal community, Hpandem ic would have LACBA rose to the occasion. Within days of worked just as well. the lockdown orders, LACBA’s website On April 3—day 15 of statewide safer-at- became the wellspring of news for the Los home orders—there were 4,566 confirmed Angeles legal community. I now check the cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, LACBA website daily. I can’t imagine including 89 deaths. Three weeks later, functioning in the current legal environ - there were 19,527 cases countywide, ment without it. including 913 deaths.2 There will be more by LACBA’s practice sections have re - the time this issue of Los Angeles Lawyer sponded to prohibitions on public gather - reaches you. Hopefully, the rate of increase ings by moving programming—at lightning will have slowed. speed in some cases—to web-based Living with the pandemic has taught us venues. That strategy, in the long haul, all a lot about some unexpected things. I promises to solve the chronic problem of have learned to make face masks and bringing LACBA community life to folks in flourless cookies, use Zoom, and check Lancaster and other far-flung parts of the LACBA’s website for updates from the county. Thank you, LACBA leadership and courts before doing anything related to a sections for those miracles. court proceeding. I also have learned a ton We at Los Angeles Lawyer aspire and about living deliberately. These days I intend to continue being a vital part of all deliberate everything—from “Do I really that LACBA does to keep this legal commun - need to rub my eyes?” to “Do I really need to ity connected during the current crisis and send that snarky e-mail?” When beyond. Thanks for reading. Our mission is circumstances are shifting, everything gets to help you, in crisis times and normal times, reevaluated. When that is happening, new find creative approaches and solutions to approaches to chronic problems, as well as the challenges your practice meets. n creative approaches to onrushing new problems, can materialize. 1 HENRY DAVID THOREAU,WALDEN AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 62 Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel (Riverside Ed., 1960). 2 See L.A. County Dept. of Public Health, Learn More has taken political flack for applying his About COVID-19, http://publichealth.lacounty.gov 2008 maxim, “Never allow a crisis to go to /media/Coronavirus/. waste,” to COVID-19’s economic fallout.3 But 3 See, e.g., Rahm Emanuel on coronavirus response: the maxim’s point is spot-on. Crises force us “Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” Fox News Channel (Mar. 23, 2020), https://www.foxnews.com/politics to deliberate, or we just plain won’t rise to /rahm-emanuel-on-coronavirus-response-never-allow the immediate occasion. If we do rise to the -a-crisis-to-go-to-waste.