I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day holiday. Did you take the day off? Amidst barbecues and parades, did you contemplate what Labor Day is all about? Our guest editor, Marie Barnes, did. Many thanks to her for putting together this employment-law themed issue for us. You might check out her Labor Day Lament, where she briefly discusses the history of the American labor movement and the impact of last year’s Supreme Court’s Janus decision on public employee unions.

Or for a practical primer on a topic much in the news these days, read Lisa Maslow’s article on the specifics of the Dynamex case’s “ABC test” for distinguishing employees and independent contractors and the possibility of legislation on this hot topic. You don’t need to be an employment lawyer (or Uber or Lyft), just an ordinary employer or employee, to need to know the law to protect yourself or your clients.

Moving beyond our labor theme, check out Mark Griffin’s tips for using metadata in depositions. For those who ask, “meta-what?”, welcome to the digital world. With a higher and higher percentage of information stored electronically, the metadata that tells you things like when a file was last accessed or who created it is useful for far more than just organizing your discovery. It can be critical in getting to the truth in depositions. Find out how in Mark’s article.

And I highly recommend Barbara Monty’s interview with Elaine Quinn, the founder of The Conscious Lawyer magazine and website. If you want to know what’s cutting edge in the legal world, the Conscious Lawyer is the place to find out. And returning to our labor theme, I would also like to highlight our non-profit profile this month. You might be surprised at how dynamic the YWCA is, working to advance many aspects of social justice and making a concrete difference in many women’s lives. Its highly successful “50+ Employment” program helps many women improve their job prospects and helps many Marin employers by matching them with strong job candidates.

I would also like to remind our readers that all of this issue’s contents are available as always on MCBA’s website as well as in our quarterly digital magazine. You can read the magazine “flip-style” online or download it as a pdf to take with you to read (which you can do with every issue of the Marin Lawyer, just not as nicely formatted as the quarterly magazine.) Enjoy the issue and as always, all feedback is welcome.