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Let’s get down to brass tacks. The main reason Republican lawmakers in Iowa are looking to change the way Iowa judges are selected is because they want protection for social issues like an anti-abortion bill they hope to pass this legislative session and due to the Iowa Supreme Court decision in Varnum from several years ago where the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that non-religious, civil marriage, is available to everyone. Since Varnum, special interests worked hard to oust Iowa Supreme Court justices. And now, these special interests are setting their sights on changing the process for the Judicial Nominating Commission that ultimately appoints judges in Iowa. Under the current system, Iowa lawyers elect one-half of the commissioners to the Judicial District Nominating Commissions while the governor appoints the other half of the members. Lawmakers want to change this so that lawyers no longer elect one-half of the commissioners but rather lawmakers from the political parties would nominate the other half.
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Continue Reading Iowa Lawmakers Looking to Politicize our Courts?

If you’re not a risk-taker, you should get the hell out of business.

– Ray Kroc

I read the above quote today, and wondered, is this true? Do you really need to be a risk-taker to be in business? And, if you don’t take risks you should actually get the hell out of business. Because as a business lawyer, our whole being is about reducing risks for clients, not advocating for it.…

Continue Reading Do You Need to Take Risks to be in Business?

On our new Brick Gentry Trial Team Blog I write about how the $500,000,000 settlement Michigan State is paying to the young women sexually abused by Larry Nassar sends a strong message to business and organizational leaders.

DO THE RIGHT THING!

I know it is a really simple message. But organizations consistently minimize, hide or…

I recently saw an interesting TED talk on how to be a great leader from Simon Sinek. In the talk he told a story about a business owner who refuses to fire any employees for poor performance. Instead, the company coaches their employees to perform better.

Imagine if franchise operations followed the same philosophy…

A year ago I joked that I didn’t know the governor (Branstad at the time) and the legislature could cut another $7.7 million from our judiciary. While my comment was tongue-in-cheek, my worries were not. Our Iowa judiciary is facing challenges like we have never seen before. And it’s showing.  The US Institute for Legal…

I often see cases involving the theft of confidential business information by former employees. Attorney Eric Roth has some helpful tips in a recent blog post on how to deal with the problem.

The main take away reminder in my opinion is to take action to protect your trade secrets BEFORE it becomes a problem.…

I came across this blog post from the Family Business Advocates Blog and thought it was worth sharing. The post describes the various roles of shareholders, directors and officers in closely held family businesses. It’s good information on a topic that is often misunderstood by small business owners.

Read the post here.