Business partnerships thrive on trust and mutual obligation. When a partner breaks that trust, whether through inaction, unilateral decisions, or outright deception, the fallout can derail operations and jeopardize the company’s future. If your business partner isn’t holding up their end of the deal, the question isn’t whether to act, but how. What Constitutes a Breach of Contract? Contracts define obligations. Read More
Copyright Cease and Desist Letters Demand Immediate Action
As we have discussed in prior blogs, proprietary knowledge is frequently key in helping businesses distinguish their goods and services from those of their competitors. In that regard, copyright can be a powerful tool that can serve as a shield as much as a sword. Understanding it, and its uses and pitfalls, is therefore increasingly important in today’s competitive business environment, including when sending or Read More
Updated Rules to Improve Expert Testimony
Experts are the superheroes of litigation, using their powers of expert qualification and testimony to point the jury towards a just outcome. However, if those powers are unchecked, experts can lead juries astray with unreliable or irrelevant opinions. Recent changes to the rules governing expert testimony aim to ensure that only reliable and relevant expert testimony is heard by juries. What is Read More
Defending Yourself in a Contract Dispute
Contract litigation can make or break your business, regardless of your size. But there are ways to mitigate the risks even before they arise with experienced legal guidance and effective contract practices. In the event that you face a contract lawsuit, there are steps you can take that will improve your chances of a positive outcome and protect your business from unnecessary costs. Establishing a Read More
Protecting Trade Secrets In A World Where It Seems There Are None
The proprietary innovations individuals and organizations create are essentially the “secret recipe” that contributes to their success. For this reason, trade secrets are treated as a type of intellectual property that refers to any confidential business information that provides a competitive advantage to a company and is protected under the law. Although the progression and ease of data transfer technology and even Read More
Tyger Tyger: Safeguarding Against Predatory Copyright Takedowns
Tyger tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? William Blake wrote these words while chewing on the conundrum that the hand that wrought the prey also wrought the predator. But he could have equally bent this thought to Congress, as it perhaps unwittingly spun prey and predator from the words of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 Read More
Investigating The Investor
Newspapers are filled with stories about unwary investors misled by duplicitous CEOs and corporate founders. But what is far less covered is the unreasonable or bad faith investor who peppers all levels of the organization with demands for information, who panics over every change in the marketplace or the business plan, who doesn’t trust management, who poisons fellow investors against the company, who tries to Read More
Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Six Tips for Effective Due Diligence
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll created a topsy-turvy world peppered with riddles and puns. That world may feel familiar to anyone who has gone through the due diligence process, where opportunities for misunderstandings are rife. The goal, however, of due diligence is to demystify and clarify, which can best happen when the parties rely on process, structure and well-articulated expectations Read More
The Ghost of Transactions Past: How Successor Liability Can Haunt the Present and Future of Your Business
Running the numbers, modeling markets and demand, and planning growth and profitability are common exercises for any acquisition. But in the excited rush around making the next big purchase, businesses sometimes neglect the trail of sticky and costly problems that can tag along with a deal, frequently expressed in the form of successor liability. Understanding how liabilities can follow an asset through the door–or Read More
Harnessing a Diverse Workforce – a Short Reference Guide on Avoiding Religious Discrimination
Freedom of religion has deep roots in American history, stemming from the great diversity of peoples, faiths, practices and philosophies that have helped define our civic culture and values. But in application, freedom of religion–and from religion–have proven subtle and more thorny questions, especially when applied to private modes of business, association, and conduct. In short, what can a private employer be Read More
