Scherer Smith & Kenny LLP serves mid-sized and fast-growing entrepreneurial companies. From complex litigation to business, real estate, intellectual property and employment law, our team brings strategic thinking, pragmatism and intense dedication to our clients’ success.
Partner Notes
By Ryan W. Stahl
Just recently – December 2024 – I reached the fifteen-year mark as a licensed, practicing attorney in California. The date passed with little (well, no) occasion, but I can still recall pretty well the elation of finding out I was a bar passer in November 2009 and then traveling back to UC Davis to be sworn in at the law school’s moot courtroom the next month.
Going to law school was not something I really considered at all until I had graduated from college and returned from a two-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine. A good friend of mine was studying for the LSAT, and it seemed like something to try. No one in my family is a lawyer.
All I knew when I began law school was that I wanted to get some sort of post-graduate degree, but I’m glad I ended up here. My years in the profession so far have been full of challenges. Law school seems hard when you’re in it, but you realize once you’re out that the real-world stakes and interests of clients – especially when they may be engaged in bet-the-farm litigation for the first and only time of their lives – dwarf those worries you had about your first-year contracts grade. The reward though in getting a good result – whether through a full-blown trial or arbitration or a negotiated resolution that lets your client get back to growing their business or returning to a life that is not consumed by litigation – never wanes.
A few surprises along the way include how my view of the profession of a lawyer has changed and how my relationships with opposing counsel evolve. When I first began law school, I (like most students do) viewed being a lawyer as esoteric and thought success was based mainly on intellectual ability. Being able to “think like a lawyer” remains important and is a skill that’s used on a daily basis, but I now view the profession much more as a craft – something you have to work to get better at all the time no matter how long you’ve been doing it. I also find I’m increasingly curious to read about the work and cases of lawyers who do it well.
As a litigator, I often find myself locking horns with opposing counsel, but I’ve had numerous relationships over the years where this opposition turned into admiration. I loved the Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog cartoon as a kid (“Mornin’ Ralph; Mornin’ Sam”) and I still think about it all the time as it relates to working with opposing counsel. A few years ago, I spent a week in a heated arbitration in a nearly vacant coworking building in SOMA (we were just coming out of COVID). There were several breaks during the day, and opposing counsel and I would go in the span of five minutes from arguing our case to a panel of arbitrators to making small talk around the Keurig machine.
I was fortunate to have landed only two years out of law school at Scherer Smith & Kenny, where I’ve had great mentors (thank you, Denis, Bill, and Brandon) and work with other wonderful colleagues (Heather, John, Louis, Jackie, Rianna, Sian, and Gillian). I’ve also formed decade-plus relationships with many clients and learned about all sorts of businesses that specialize in trades and services that I didn’t realize existed before working with them. Several of them have also become friends.
I’m very grateful I chose the profession I did. I can’t think of another job that’s as intellectually challenging and rewarding, constantly exposes you to new situations, and ensures you’ll learn something new nearly every day. The last fifteen years have flown by, and I’m excited about what the next fifteen will bring.
New CalSavers Requirements for Small Employers
Retirement plans are something employers have offered for decades as an employee benefit. However, in 2025 the requirement to have one in California will become a reality for all employers with one or more employees.
CalSavers was created in 2016 and began being implemented in 2019. It is California's state-sponsored retirement savings program and helps facilitate employees’ personal Individual Retirement Account (IRA) contributions that remain with them throughout their career, regardless of job changes. Employers must facilitate the program by registering with CalSavers and transmitting employee contributions, but they do not have any fiduciary or administrative duties beyond this.
California Court of Appeal Clarifies Distinction Between Individual and Representative PAGA Claims
On December 30, 2024, in Leeper v. Shipt, Inc., the California Court of Appeal (Second District) ruled that all Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) actions necessarily include an individual PAGA claim, which, in turn, can be subject to binding arbitration agreements. https://www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B339670.PDF
Leeper involved independent contractor misclassification and attendant PAGA claims brought by a worker who entered into an independent contractor agreement that included a binding arbitration clause. Plaintiff specifically alleged that she was filing solely in a representative capacity on behalf of similarly aggrieved individuals. Defendant Shipt moved to compel arbitration. The trial court ruled in Plaintiff’s favor finding that she did not allege individual claims, only representative ones that are not subject to arbitration.
The FTC Announces Final “Click-to-Cancel” Rule
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its final “click-to-cancel” rule (the Final Rule) requiring companies selling services or goods to make it easier for consumers to cancel their enrollment in a subscription. Part of the Final Rule went into effect on January 15th with the majority of the Final Rule becoming enforceable on May 14, 2025 (subject to the myriad of lawsuits and political uncertainty, which may ultimately delay or defeat the Final Rule). We are recommending that our clients begin the process now to comply with the Final Rule in anticipating that it, or a similar version, will eventually go into effect.
Changes to HOA Statutes re: Balcony Inspections & Electronic Secret Ballot Voting
We write to highlight two recent changes in the Davis-Stirling Act that respectively affect (i) elections in common interest developments (planned unit developments, condominium complexes, stock cooperatives, and community apartment projects; collectively, “CIDs”) and (ii) balconies in condominium projects.
