November 2006

The opening statements in the Iowa Mircosoft litigation were delayed today.  Pre-trial instructions took hours.  Check out Brett Trout’s blog.  He sat in on the trial today.

Here is something to keep in mind.  If opening statements are tomorrow, I’ll bet that Roxanne Conlin takes all the day and more to give her opening. 

Opening statements in the Iowa consumer class action case against Microsoft begin November 30, 2006.  Several readers each day have been hitting this blog reading posts relating to the case.  To make it easier for readers I have added a Microsoft Iowa Litigation category on the right side of the blog.  This should make it

In December’s issue of Inc. Magazine, Norm Brodsky describes a paradox of successful negotiation.  The less interest you have in doing a deal, the more likely you are to get one you’ll find difficult to refuse.

Brodsky is considering selling his businesses (records storage, secure document-shredding and delivery).  He turned down an offer from

As New York Small Business Law blog says, "Articles on choice of business entity are a dime a dozen."  But I agree this article concerning Choice of Entity from the worldwide law firm of O’Melveney & Myers is an excellent guide. 

The article contains the answers to many of the frequently asked questions concerning using

The time to hire a business attorney is before you get into legal trouble.  It is much easier and more cost-effective to prevent problems rather than solve them.  Further, if you do get into legal trouble it will be much easier to deal with the issues if you already have a solid relationship with

Business.gov is the "Official Link to the U.S Government".  This Web site is an excellent resource for the start-up business. 

The site has many helpful areas including:

1.  Business Resource Library – contains information on a variety of regulatory topics including taxes, managing and hiring employees and intellectual property;

2.  Government forms search – by

I read this well-written blog post from Ken Adams of Adams Drafting regarding the implications of a buyer knowing, pre-closing, that a seller’s representations are inaccurate in a business sale.  I recently wrote about the litigation traps of selling a business so I found this article intriguing.

Following the tips outlined in Ken’s post may

In Iowa, non-compete agreements are enforceable under certain circumstances.  The best time to secure a non-compete is when you hire the employee although continued employment may be sufficient consideration to bind even current employees.  Iowa courts have developed a three-part test to determine whether a non-compete agreement is enforceable:

1.  Is it necessary for the

I reviewed three commercial leases this past week so this quote from Will Rogers sums up my experience:

The minute you read something and you can’t understand it, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.  You see, every time a lawyer writes something, he is not writing for poserity,