“All happy families resemble each other, but that each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” In my 20-plus years as a business litigator and trial attorney, I have handled many complex and hotly contested business disputes. As a family law attorney, I have helped clients through emotionally- charged proceedings in divorce and time-sharing
Businesses are now able to protect their trade secrets in federal court with a federal civil cause of action as a result of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). President Obama signed the DTSA into law May 11, 2016. Th e DTSA is a rare example of bipartisan agreement and passed by overwhelming margins in both the House of Representatives
Utah’s 2016 legislative session recently ended with the passage of HB251. The original HB251 draft sought to change Utah law by making non-compete covenants void. Having represented clients on both sides of the issue, this legislation was not surprising. HB251 also sought to address a perception that restrictive non-compete covenants are being abused by Utah employers. After amendment and significant
Morality clauses play an increasingly larger role in contracts with high level executives, athletes, musicians and entertainers. These clauses are inserted into the contracts with the expectation that the signing parties will modify their behavior to fit certain expectations. An example of a morality clause in an agreement between an entertainer and advertiser could be written as follows: If [entertainer]
Shareholders owning a minority block of stock in a corporation generally lack the ability to prevent transactions involving fundamental changes to the corporation or the nature of their investment in it. However, when fundamental corporate change is forced upon minority shareholders against their will, Minnesota law allows shareholders to “dissent” from the transaction and to exercise statutory “dissenter’s rights” designed
In business transactions, drafters often include certain “boilerplate” terms within the transaction documents, including forum selection or venue clauses. These provisions typically attempt to mandate the location where any litigation arising from the transaction must occur. However, when not clearly drafted, these provisions can lead to the initial stages of litigation becoming consumed in a battle over where the case
The Florida Revised LLC Act was enacted in 2013 and took effect Jan. 1, 2014 for new Florida LLCs and Jan. 1, 2015 for all Florida LLCs. However, in 2015, the legislature further amended the act with clean-up changes and glitch fixes as well as some important substantive adjustments. One of those substantive adjustments may cause members and managers of
With the number of failed financial institutions increasing in the last decade, bank officers and directors have seen a commensurate increase in claims asserted against them by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). According to the FDIC’s website, the FDIC brought claims against directors and officers (D&O) in 24percent of the bank failures between 1985 and 1992. From Jan. 1,
As long as there is business litigation, there will be a need for emergency injunctive relief to prevent the proverbial wrecking ball from smashing through your client’s business. Across virtually all businesses, situations calling for emergency injunctive relief will occur from time to time. For example, when an employee departs for the competition in blatant violation of a non-compete agreement,
“All happy families resemble each other, but that each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” In my 20-plus years as a business litigator and trial attorney, I have handled many complex and hotly contested business disputes. As a family law attorney, I have helped clients through emotionally- charged proceedings in divorce and time-sharing
Businesses are now able to protect their trade secrets in federal court with a federal civil cause of action as a result of the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA). President Obama signed the DTSA into law May 11, 2016. Th e DTSA is a rare example of bipartisan agreement and passed by overwhelming margins in both the House of Representatives
Utah’s 2016 legislative session recently ended with the passage of HB251. The original HB251 draft sought to change Utah law by making non-compete covenants void. Having represented clients on both sides of the issue, this legislation was not surprising. HB251 also sought to address a perception that restrictive non-compete covenants are being abused by Utah employers. After amendment and significant
Morality clauses play an increasingly larger role in contracts with high level executives, athletes, musicians and entertainers. These clauses are inserted into the contracts with the expectation that the signing parties will modify their behavior to fit certain expectations. An example of a morality clause in an agreement between an entertainer and advertiser could be written as follows: If [entertainer]
Shareholders owning a minority block of stock in a corporation generally lack the ability to prevent transactions involving fundamental changes to the corporation or the nature of their investment in it. However, when fundamental corporate change is forced upon minority shareholders against their will, Minnesota law allows shareholders to “dissent” from the transaction and to exercise statutory “dissenter’s rights” designed
In business transactions, drafters often include certain “boilerplate” terms within the transaction documents, including forum selection or venue clauses. These provisions typically attempt to mandate the location where any litigation arising from the transaction must occur. However, when not clearly drafted, these provisions can lead to the initial stages of litigation becoming consumed in a battle over where the case
The Florida Revised LLC Act was enacted in 2013 and took effect Jan. 1, 2014 for new Florida LLCs and Jan. 1, 2015 for all Florida LLCs. However, in 2015, the legislature further amended the act with clean-up changes and glitch fixes as well as some important substantive adjustments. One of those substantive adjustments may cause members and managers of
With the number of failed financial institutions increasing in the last decade, bank officers and directors have seen a commensurate increase in claims asserted against them by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). According to the FDIC’s website, the FDIC brought claims against directors and officers (D&O) in 24percent of the bank failures between 1985 and 1992. From Jan. 1,
As long as there is business litigation, there will be a need for emergency injunctive relief to prevent the proverbial wrecking ball from smashing through your client’s business. Across virtually all businesses, situations calling for emergency injunctive relief will occur from time to time. For example, when an employee departs for the competition in blatant violation of a non-compete agreement,
