Business Law

Your relationship to your co-founders and investors can make – or break – your business. Trouble is, your relationship is 1 part communication to 5 parts law – and the law parts are a mystery. Join us at 2112 Chicago on Tuesday, April 24th at 6pm for HOW TO…

There are 3 kinds of risks: the risk that you’ll get screwed or sued; the risk that you’ll get in a fight and the risk that you’ll lose the fight. These risks are ever present. The only way to avoid these risks completely is to stay on your couch….

There is a part of nearly every contract entitled “Notice.”  No one reads it, but everyone should. What is the Notice provision, how does it work and why does it matter? What is it? Every contract is its own little city-state. The language creates a set of rules about…

In the olden days, before everybody carried their contacts around in a giant database on a tiny phone, there were Rolodexes; Big, circular carousels of sheets to which you glued or stapled collected business cards. They weighed 37 pounds, took up half the desk and, as a result, they…

When I was just a youngster fresh out of law school, LLCs were these exotic things that no one understood. In fact, like many unfamiliar things, the more conservative corporate lawyers were afraid of them – afraid their tax treatments wouldn’t be recognized by the IRS, afraid not having…

Most people should not incorporate or organize their entity in Delaware. Now, I know that many advisers recommend organizing in Delaware and there are times when it is appropriate. Delaware has created and refined well-designed statutes and efficient, professional courts to make it easy, predictable and respectable to form…

I’ve been following and writing about the Bow Truss v. Marcus Lemonis kerfuffle – now lawsuit – because messy litigation is my reality TV. And, this is messy. As a lawyer, my stock in trade is careful, calibrated elocutions of ambivalence. But, here, I’m not lawyering, I’m writing, so…

Contracts are the trip wire of deals. Here’s why. With legit business people, you can’t get started on the work or the payments until you sign the contract. Your contract is your reason to write down what has to get done, what has to get paid and by when….

Crain’s Chicago recently reported that Bow Truss coffee houses, a hip café, temporarily closed its doors. Among the public feuds between the founder on one side and the employees on the other, Bow Truss is a cautionary tale on growing too quickly.  By all accounts, Bow Truss opened 10…

In the midst of providing Business “Marriage” Counseling to two or more business partners, there is a moment when I have to predict a course. See, there are only a couple of paths we can take. People who come to me to work on their intra-company relationships have usually…