Watch my Interview on Appellate Tips for Trial Attorneys on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. at Spreecast.

For those who are wondering where I've been, well, I just recently came back from a two-week trip to Italy.  I then had to sort through over 2,200 photographs, which are now on my photo site atwww.PhotosbyDonna.smugmug.com.  Please, take a look at them.  Don't worry, there are not 2,200 photographs.  I managed to reduce the size to about 300.   After I did that, I had to put aside my job as a photographer and once again returned to being an appellate attorney.

Of recent interest, the California Supreme court recently granted review in one of my cases, City of Lake Forest v. Lake Forest Wellness Center and Collective.  My case is in a "grant and hold" position, meaning that all further briefing is deferred pending a decision in City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient's Health & Wellness Center, Inc., Case No. S198638.  If you have been hiding under a rock for the last couple of months, that case involves the question whether cities can absolutely ban medical marijuana collectives and dispensaries.  Our case involved the same issue; however, it will be held pending a decision in the Riverside case, and then it will probably be remanded to the Court of Appeal for a decision consistent with that case.  A grant of review has the effect of depublishing a published Court of Appeal decision, so that all of those patients associations and dispensaries that ran down to the local city's business department cannot use the companion case of City of Lake Forest v. Evergreen Holistic Collective as proof they are entitled to a business license.

For those of you interested in hearing some of my tips to trial lawyers on protecting their appeals at the trial level, tune in to Spreecast on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 3:00 p.m., when I will be interviewed by Orange County trial lawyer, Mitch Jackson.  You can watch, or even join in, at http://www.spreecast.com/events/donna-bader.  A more consumer friendly site is SocialTalk.tv.  My Spreecast event will be listed in the upcoming events along with a short intro: http://www.SocialTalk.tv or here: http://socialtalktv.wordpress.com/upcoming-events/.