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Of Landlords and Tenants: How Commercial Leases Can Go Awry

Phil Kaplan August 3, 2016

Robert Burns might as well have been writing about commercial leases. Commercial landlords and tenants can spend months negotiating and drafting comprehensive written lease agreements. No matter how much effort the parties and their attorneys invest in the contracting process, disputes often arise down the road. The following are common problems with commercial leases that can lead to litigation and

Minnesota’s Trust Decanting Provisions: What Trustees Need to Know

Denise Rahne August 3, 2016

To get the most enjoyment and best flavor from a bottle of wine, connoisseurs sometimes recommend decanting – transferring the liquid to another container before serving, allowing the wine to separate from the sediment. With the recent overhaul of Minnesota trust law, trustees may now employ the same concept to the advantage of trust beneficiaries. As decanting a bottle of

The Wild West 2.0

Z. Peter Sawicki and James L. Young August 3, 2016

The Internet was started by academicians as an information exchange program – a new frontier in communications. Initial users were pioneers; few in number and few rules were needed for conduct. Similarly, western expansion in the United States involved pioneers, specifically mountain men with few rules required to guide these self-sufficient individuals. In each case, as time passed the number

Foreign Nationals and the Right to Counsel

Erin Brown July 21, 2016

The influx of minors from Central America into the United States has created reverberations in the country’s ongoing immigration debate and now occupies a position of important constitutional debate with the U.S. courts. In immigration removal proceedings, the scope of an alien’s right to counsel is a topic of recurring congressional and public interest. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S.

The Fair Pay Act and Related Wage Laws Within California’s Entertainment Industry

Stephen Danz July 13, 2016

Recent headlines showcase a large number of combined pay-related and gender discrimination lawsuits. One of these was brought by a group of former female employees against Merck and Co., one of the largest U.S. pharmaceutical companies in the world. Last month, the former employees brought a $250 million lawsuit alleging violations of the Equal Pay Act and that the employer

Impact of Tattoos on Consular Processing

Alan Diamante July 13, 2016

Tattooing has been consistently practiced around the world since at least Neolithic times. Today, a tattoo can be a scarlet letter that precludes someone from legally immigrating into the U.S. Under 8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(3)(A) (ii), any applicant for a visa who a consular officer knows, or has “reasonable ground to believe,” seeks to enter the U.S. to engage “solely, principally,

Challenges in Managing The CEO’s Divorce

Mitchell Reichman July 13, 2016

Representing a high-level executive in his or her divorce presents unique and recurring challenges to a family law practitioner. While every client’s divorce has its own particular circumstances, representing high net worth senior level executives have certain commonalities among them regardless of their profession and industry. These include the absence of time to devote to divorce-related tasks and difficulties accepting

Inventing Is A Team Sport

Z. Peter Sawicki and James L. Young July 1, 2016

Who owns an invention (and the patent rights to it)? For a business owner seeking product exclusivity, ownership of the intellectual property rights for that product may be quite valuable. In the United States, we start with the premise that initially, the “inventor” owns an invention. However, the product development process from conception to production and then to sale doesn’t

Understanding How Personality Disorders Can Impact Divorce Cases

Kathleen Newman July 1, 2016

Attorneys who practice family law are often forced to deal with the challenging mental health issues of their clients and opposing parties. Some mental health issues can be addressed by referring a client to a psychologist for talk therapy or a psychiatrist for medication. Others, such as personality disorders, are much more difficult to address. Often, a client will refuse

Structure Matters, Just Ask The Three Little Pigs

Janel Dressen July 1, 2016

With the enactment of Minnesota’s Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, new limited liability companies (LLCs) (and effective as of Jan. 1, 2018, existing LLCs) are no longer governed by a single board-managed governance structure. Does that matter? In answering this question, I am reminded of the children’s fable, “The Three Little Pigs.” As it turned out, the three little

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