Business Litigation

Subscribe to Business Litigation via RSS

I often received questions about whether a worker should be classified as an independent contractor or employee. In fact a blog post on Employees v. Independent Contractors is still one of the most popular posts ever on my blog even though I wrote it over three years ago.

In a couple of recent blog posts, Brick…

Pat Burk, a shareholder with Brick Gentry, P.C. practicing in real estate and business law has an important update with respect to how LLCs convey real property in Iowa.

Pat indicates that a recent change to the Title Standards of the Iowa State Bar Association removes the presumption of authority on LLC conveyance documents, such…

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…