Firm News

Business and Tax Litigation

Don’t Play Small with Your Small Business

Torn paper with handshake graphic

Disregard for legalities can lead to unnecessary expenses. Too often small business owners make professional agreements with a simple handshake, placing their trust in a friend or acquaintance because they believe it’s easier, quicker, and cheaper than consulting an attorney. Whether you run a regional chain of restaurants, a professional consulting firm or simply rent out a residential property, it pays to make sure your contracts and commitments are legally […]

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Selling a Business? How to Avoid a Lawsuit

Let’s say you run a small business, a tutoring company, an auto repair shop, a yoga studio. You’ve done well, but you’re also ready to retire. After much internal debating you decide to sell the business — and immediately you wonder what the potential pitfalls of a sale might be. The last thing you want is for the next owner to sue you. What should you be aware of as […]

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A Trademark Is a Business Asset: Why Infringements Require Prompt Action

Let’s talk about a business asset called trademark. Remember President Donald Trump’s mysterious tweet on May 31? It read: “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”. That was it. The internet went abuzz. Every news network covered the cryptic message, its meaning and implications extensively. And the comedy shows had a field day or even a field week. No surprise there. But the stir also reached a federal institution, the U.S. Patent […]

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Your Small Business Receives a Subpoena — What Should You Do?

Let’s say you’re a small business owner. You just started a little coffee shop on the corner of Hill and Main, or you run the auto repair place that your grandfather founded back in the 1930s. Things have been going well — until, one day, you receive a subpoena. You take a quick look. In addition to the word subpoena, a box on the first page of the document jumps […]

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Financial Disclosures: Accuracy and Timeliness Pay Off

Did you know that more than two in five Americans admit to having deceived their spouse about money? That three out of four people who admitted to the behavior say that it has affected their relationship? That 12 percent say it led to divorce? The numbers, which the National Endowment for Financial Education published earlier this year, sound staggering. Yet, as an attorney involved in business and family law litigation, […]

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A New Federal Law, the DTSA, Provides Employers With a Powerful Tool for Trade Secret Litigation

Think trade secrets violations, and prominent cases involving big companies may come to mind. There was one where a worker for the chemical company DuPont provided a competitor in South Korea with information regarding the production of Kevlar vests, and another where research scientists for GlaxoSmithKline in Philadelphia passed on confidential data about drugs to treat cancer to associates who planned to sell the data in China. But big corporations […]

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Setoffs as a Tool in Business Litigation: How They Work and Why They Can Get Complicated

Here’s a hypothetical scenario: Anna, who owns a marketing agency, wants to sell her business and retire. She finds a buyer, Herb, who first showed an interest in the agency a while back, when he hired Anna as a consultant to his own firm. Since Herb can’t afford to pay for Anna’s agency in cash, the two parties enter into a loan agreement. Herb will make monthly payments of principal […]

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From Claims to Attorney’s Fees: What Business Owners Must Know About the California Unfair Competition Law

A few years ago, a new term surfaced in California: food court. Used as a synonym for the Northern District, it spoke to the fact that courts in the health and nutrition conscious Bay Area were finding themselves inundated in class actions where plaintiffs alleged that healthy sounding food labels mislead consumers. The plaintiffs filed these claims, which often focused on phrases like “100 percent natural” and “no sugar added,” […]

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Goals Matter: Discovery Strategy in Litigation Involving Family-Owned Businesses

Watch any legal drama play out on TV, and you might think that litigation is all about trials. Not so. The most time-consuming and expensive part of any lawsuit is in fact the process of discovery, where the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s lawyers prepare for trial by gathering and exchanging information. In lawsuits involving family-owned businesses, discovery comes with its own set of rules and risks that unfortunately can include […]

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Fighting For Transparency: Inspection Demands and Audit Rights in Shareholder Disputes

A family owned business with relatives working side by side on a venture that they believe in can be a wonderful thing. But families, for all that binds them, aren’t immune to disputes. When problems do arise they can easily turn into ugly fights, with the minority shareholders in the company feeling like David before Goliath. What these minority shareholders as well as aggrieved directors need to know is that […]

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