Business Litigation

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The Wall Street Journal Reports that many law firms have begun offering flat monthly fees to their business clients. Done correctly, these type of arranagements can be advantageous to the client and the firm. I have worked with several companies in this way for several years and prefer to charge flat fees for many different…

I recently attended the ABA’s Forum on Franchising this past week in cloudy San Diego. (Yes, that’s correct, cloudy).  One of the more interesting sessions involved the Most Frequently Litigated Substantive Provisions in Franchise and Dealership Agreements by franchisee lawyer John Holland and franchisor lawyer Jonathan Solish.  Numerous litigation topics were covered including choice…

The Business Record reported this week on a federal court lawsuit recently filed by local fitness franchise Farrell’s Extreme Bodyshaping, Inc. against Kosama, another fitness franchise headquartered in the Des Moines area. Both franchises specialize in a 10-week body "transformation". Farrell’s is the established franchise in the area marketplace while Kosama is the upstart. Both appear…

In drafting noncompete agreements, employers and their lawyers often drafting language that prohibits a former employee from soliciting the customers or clients of the employer. The problem is this language often does not go far enough to protect the former employer.

This scenario occurred in a recent case we handled for an employee. He was…

I am really pleased to report that we have made significant progress on Brick Gentry’s legal Webinars. We hope to have them up and running within the next couple of months. My first Webinar will be on franchise due dligence. 

Keep a look out for our new Brick Gentry Web site developed by CreateWowMarketing.

I am looking forward to speaking on June 9th at the PorticoHR Social Media & Human Resources Seminar. Should be a fun panel with pulic relations and social media strategist Claire Celsi and Sam Mandolfo of LinkedIn also speaking.

PorticoHR is a provider of temporary and direct-hire staffing in Central Iowa. It is owned by Katie Roth who…

Brick Gentry, P.C. is excited to announce that intellectual property attorney, Brian Laurenzo, has joined the firm as a shareholder effective June 1, 2010. Brian was most recently the head of the intellectual property practice group for the Des Moines office of Dorsey & Whitney.

Brian brings a tremendous amount of experience in patent, trademark and copyright law. He has a broad…

The Iowa Supreme Court handed down an important ruling yesterday in which the spouses of two Des Moines area real estate developers used the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to defeat a bank attempting to hold them responsible for personal guarantees on several million in loans. The Court found a violation of the act because there was no finding…

Are you considering a franchise business?  Read this blog post on evaluating the strength of your franchisor before signing on from the First Prize Franchise blog.

I posted on this a couple of years ago but  I consistently see people who invest their life savings tinto franchise operations.  Some of these people achieve great results but many (perhaps even…

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9XZCaA2Q4Vk%26hl%3Den_US%26fs%3D1%26rel%3D0

A common thing I see from franchisees is that they include only the name of their franchise in an agreement as opposed to including their corporate or limited liability company name. Most of the time the names are different. For example, if my franchise is "Tops Franchise" but my corporate name is "Rush…