Indiana

Blogs to Check Out

Posted on March 01, 2010
Some law blogs that may be interests to some businesses:FDA Law Update - just what says it is, a way to keep up to date on happenings at the FDA.OSHA Law Blog. This may be of more interest to more businesses. Jackson Lewis hosts the blog so its definitely employer oriented...

Georgia Wills, Trusts and Estate

Posted on February 25, 2010
Georgia Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning Blog: Estate Planning: A Three-Step StrategyThe estate planning pyramid gives a hierarchy of goals for estate planning. This pyramid is useful in developing an estate planning strategy based on specific client goals...

Garden Leave in Action

Posted on January 26, 2010
Considering garden leave's novelty, I thought a collection of news articles descring the use of garden leave might be of some help and interest.Gardening leave has VCCP hanging on phone - TelegraphHowever, VCCP may have used all up all its luck, with the launch of the mmO2 service less than 100 days away...

Why Use Garden Leave?

Posted on January 24, 2010
No, garden leave do think of garden leave as a panacea for all problems of departing employees. I can easily see that a departing employee (and/or their new company) may find the costs of litigation and the money paid during the garden leave outweighed by the profits of jumping ship...

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More On Limited Liability Companies' Fiduciary Duty

Posted on January 23, 2010
Now that we have an Indiana Court of Appeals decision describing the fiduciary duty of an LLC to its members, I almost thought to scratch this post. However, Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog's Respected Law Professor's Insights on Corporate Freeze-Out Litigation may still have some benefit to you...

Garden leave - Writing Up The Agreement

Posted on January 22, 2010
First, the business needs to decide if a garden leave is a suitable tool. Suitable meaning that it makes economic sense.Second, the employment contract needs a specific clause that expressly provides for the garden leave. I find support for this in reading A Breach of Contract? by Kate Payne...

Indiana Funeral Home Law

Posted on January 21, 2010
Notes from a project for my father that never seems to get very far. With some luck the following listing of Indiana sources might be of use:Indiana Code - Licensing LawsIndiana Administrative Code.PLA: State Board of Funeral & Cemetery ServicePLA :: License Litigation...

Intellectual Property and Business Succession Planning

Posted on January 20, 2010
I try to make the point that what has made Bill Gates all his money is his intellectual property: trademarks, patents and even copyrights. Pennsylvania Trusts and Estates Blog takes this a step further with Intellectual Property in Your Estate:Forbes published a list of the 13 Top-Earning Dead Celebrities...

Contract Drafting As A Commodity?

Posted on January 19, 2010
I cannot disagree with Contract Drafting for the 21st Century: A Conversation Between Ken Adams and Ron Friedmann from Strategic Legal Technology.Ron: It sounds like you think contract drafting should be a commodity.Ken: Yes, in large measure. And that?s entirely achievable, given all the sophisticated information-technology tools now available to organizations that produce contracts...

What Is An Acceptable Business Risk For Your Business?

Posted on January 18, 2010
Think you got an idea> Give Reading Word's The dark side of IP a read.Business people often scoff at lawyers that "you have to take risks in business." True, but the risks should be valid risks: venturing the new product, entering the new market, changing up the marketing and ad campaign, leveraging up for growth tomorrow...

Preventive Law and Trade Secrets

Posted on January 17, 2010
It is a relief to have others repeat my points about preventive law. I wonder how much of it is passed off as being self-serving. It is not. What most do not realize is that cleaning up the mess - litigation - creates more difficulties for us lawyers than does preventive law...

Tweeting? Facebook? Be Careful What You Say and Do

Posted on January 16, 2010
Twitter may not seem related to business. Think again, what I am seeing as marketing advice is to join Twitter (I have and you can follow me, if you like).Therefore, in the hope of preventing litigation, let me suggest reading To Avoid Libel Litigation, Lawyer Advises, Don?t Tank Up and TweetFollowing recent news that a woman is being sued by an Illinois landlord over a tweet she posted on Twitter about her apartment, a California lawyer is offering 10 suggestions to help other users of the popular micro-blog avoid being a defendant in defamation litigation...

Attorney Fees and Services

Posted on January 15, 2010
Think About What You Are Getting.That is what I read as the point in 3 Geeks and a Law Blog's Cost Recovery?Such a deal:You can see it in recent news items discussing the attitudes of General Counsels at large corporations as they struggle with reducing costs with major law firms...

Things To Do Before Signing That Franchise Agreement

Posted on January 14, 2010
Even if the economy continues its limpid trends though this year, someone ssomehwere will be looking at a franchise opportunity. Franchising offers wonderful opportunites to both the franchisor and franchisee. Unfortunately, franchises also offer achance for a fleeching by the unscrupulous and the criminal minded...

Non-Compete Agreements: Are They Worth the Trouble?

Posted on January 13, 2010
TechCrunch's Apple And IBM Resolve Employment Dispute; Papermaster Can Now Get To Work raises this question:Well, now he can finally go make future iPhones and iPods for Apple. The two companies have settled out of court. It kind of makes you wonder why companies even bother with non-compete clauses in employment contracts, especially when they are overly broad...

Online Resources: freeERISA.com, Federal Forms Catalog and myCorporateResource.com

Posted on January 12, 2010
Not endorsing any of the following, just providing them for informational purposes.About freeERISA.comFreeERISA.com is intended as a useful, website where visitors may view retirement and welfare benefit information on the group or groups of their choice as this data appears on Form 5500 for free...

Could Taxes Sink Your business?

Posted on January 11, 2010
Tough Times for Lenders blog posted Ticking Sound: Will the Current Tax Valuation Drag You Down?. Which brought back to mind this headline: State sets sights on back taxes. This comes from that Muncie Star-Pess article:Sometimes the taxes owed are in dispute...

Indiana Case law: LLC Fiduciary Duty to Former Member

Posted on January 11, 2010
The Indiana Court of Appeals decided that Indiana Liability companies have a continuing fiduciary duty to a former shareholder or member to accurately report the company's fiscal results to the IRS for a year in which the former member held stock or was still a member of the limited liability company...

Free Reviewed

Posted on January 11, 2010
Yes, quite behind the times in posting this review from The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell reviews Free by Chris Anderson:There are four strands of argument here: a technological claim (digital infrastructure is effectively Free), a psychological claim (consumers love Free), a procedural claim (Free means never having to make a judgment), and a commercial claim (the market created by the technological Free and the psychological Free can make you a lot of money)...

Small Business (SBA) FAQ

Posted on January 10, 2010
Docuticker blog published SBA - Frequently Asked Questions which I think fits well with this blog.Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of AdvocacyFrom e-mail:The Office of Advocacy released its annual update to the Frequently Asked Questions...

A Better Business-Lawyer Relationship

Posted on January 09, 2010
Never having had any success with this concept in Indiana, I still like its potential. Articles like Law.com's Small Law Firm Woos Clients With Monthly Subscription Fees keep me believing that this is the best practice for providing legal services to businesses:Given the steps they go through to set each client's pricing at the outset, and the flexibility that both sides maintain in the month-to-month arrangement, they don't worry about clients taking advantage...

Why Should Businesses Have a Long Term Relationship With Their Lawyers?

Posted on January 07, 2010
I should point out that for the business, a long term relationship leads to lower costs and better service. Lawyers get to provide a better service (and if you do not think that matters to your lawyer, give them a call and talk with them).No, I suggest reading Schedule Your Legal Checkup over at JD Supra...

For Those Wanting to Check Up on Their Business's Reputation

Posted on January 06, 2010
I have not tried this out but Iam intrigued enough to pass it along.. Channel Signal seems to collect online chatter about a company and presents the information to the business. This knowledge can be very useful.

Changes...Shaking Things Up...Thoughts of 09 and 10

Posted on January 04, 2010
Here I go again, trying to rise out of the ashes. Such is the feeling this late evening after what seems like a furious pummeling received in 2009. What does not kill me, makes me stronger.Yeah, right. Of course, it has seeped into my head that the death throes may come much later than the death stroke...

20 Small Business Blogs

Posted on January 04, 2010
From Rush Nigut's Rush on Business blog:The Franchise King has a great list of 20 small business blogs that have the right stuff. These blogs possess some of the best content on the Web when it comes to small business. Be sure to check them out!

Alcoholic Beverage Law Sites

Posted on January 03, 2010
I still have my interest in alcoholic beverage law. If you have an Indiana business that deals with alcholic beverages and need a lawyer, please give me a call.I give these in no particular order:Meeting the Sin LawsShipCompliant Blog

Changes Are Coming

Posted on December 25, 2009
Subscribers should notice a new name on the blog. Starting today this blog begins emphasizing the non-litigation but business oriented part of the my practice: starting companies, the law of running a business, and subjects related to this - such as succession planning and employment law...

And to All, A Good Night - Going on Hiatus

Posted on October 31, 2009
This year has been rocky with this blog as it has been for this part of my practice.  With the current economy, it seems unlikely to grow and I need the time I would need to spend on this blog and this practice area in other areas which can keep the bills paid...

Trade Secrets - Criminal Case and Interesting Issues

Posted on October 30, 2009
Not too often do I make a big deal about a criminal case, but Silicon Valley 'Spies Like Us': Trial begins for 2 engineers accused of economic espionage involving China doe shave interestng points.First, the facts:According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly created a company, SICO Microsystems, "for the purpose of developing and marketing products derived from and using the stolen trade secrets," which were related to computer chip design and development...

Non-Competition - Policy Ideas

Posted on October 29, 2009
I have eruitten before aobut Massachusetts liberality towards non-compete agreements here and here. NECN reported a potential change its Mass. non-compete culture to change?Warner said he believes limiting or banning non-competes would lead to more companies like Google, Cisco Systems, and Avid getting launched in this area instead of Silicon Valley or other parts of the country...

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