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For the Public

It’s All About That Brand, ’Bout That Brand (No Trouble)

Z. Peter Sawicki and James L. Young April 27, 2016

Effective brands immediately convey impressions to the consumer about that product based on prior experiences with the product, advertising, or word of mouth exchanges (and now, of course, “word of mouth,” ironically – and powerfully – means social media conversations more than actual face-to-face interactions). Accordingly, your client’s brand is the face of that client’s reputation among its consuming public.

Parenting Consultants: A Contractual Model for Resolving Parenting Disputes

Kathleen Newman April 27, 2016

Most family law attorneys would agree that of all the major disagreements that take place both during a divorce proceeding and post-divorce, issues that involve parenting minor children are most common. When parents share joint legal custody and parenting time, as most parents do, temporary changes to the parenting time schedule, vacation scheduling, participation in extracurricular activities, medical treatment, religious

Sony Lacks a Morals Clause in Kesha/Dr. Luke Legal Battle

Aalok K. Sharma April 27, 2016

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]

Shareholder Dissension, Even Over Coffee

Randy Gullickson April 27, 2016

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

Ninth Circuit Finds That Statute Violates Equal Protection

Alan Diamante April 27, 2016

Certain forms of immigration relief require a showing of good moral character, such as voluntary departure, cancellation of removal and naturalization. Pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and federal regulation, certain individuals will be found to be persons lacking moral character for having committed certain acts that either trigger a permanent bar or a conditional bar if committed

Good, Bad, But Not Indifferent – The Beginning of Class Actions

Patrick Perotti April 20, 2016

Class actions are an area of law that brings out strong feelings in most people, including laypersons, lawyers, judges, politicians, corporations, unions, consumers, small business owners and the list goes on. Everyone seems to be an expert, whether class actions are good or bad. The cases are certainly large and high profile enough that everyone knows enough to be dangerous

Security Deposits Under Tennessee’s Uniform Residential Leasing Law

Sam Dreiling April 20, 2016

Tennessee’s version of the Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act (TURLTA) applies to counties having populations in excess of 68,000, including without limitation, Montgomery, Sumner, Wilson, Davidson, Rutherford, Williamson and Maury. Tennessee Code Annotated § 66-28-101 et seq. Accordingly, familiarity with TURLTA is a must for middle Tennessee real property practitioners. In my landlord/tenant practice, the disposition of security deposits and

The Challenge of Virtual Offices

Angela Hardway April 20, 2016

Our country has continued to change the traditional workplace with fewer manufacturing, trade and skilled labor jobs and more customer service-oriented, medical and virtual office jobs requiring travel as part of the employment. Workers are commuting more, blurring the lines of when work begins and ends, leading employers and employees to seek guidance as to what is considered a compensable

Appellate Jurisdiction & Scope of Review

Robin Bresky April 14, 2016

A district court of appeal can exercise either appellate jurisdiction or original jurisdiction. The scope of review can be either broad or narrow, depending on the type of order reviewed and the kind of jurisdiction exercised. Courts have appellate jurisdiction to review an order or judgment of a lower tribunal where a constitutional provision, statute or rule provides authority to

Understanding and Litigating Forum Selection Clauses

Michael Duncan April 12, 2016

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

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