2022 Advanced Business Law

There have been many noteworthy employment law changes this year from the Biden administration as various agencies are now more or less fully transitioned from Republican to Democrat control. In addition to the shift in the White House, the Supreme Court issued several decisions this year that affected employment law. Despite these changes, one thing has certainly stayed the same, and that is the long-standing impact of the Covid pandemic. Covid has impacted the day-to-day of many, and unfortunately for businesses, it has continued to impact the business operations. Staying abreast of changes in employment law is important for businesses to ensure they remain up-to-date on all legal requirements.

The short-term rental (“STR”) industry has certainly changed the way most of us think of lodging and recreation. Whereas 20 years ago, hotels and resorts were where consumers might look to make accommodations for their upcoming vacation or work trip, there now stand STR-platforms like Airbnb, Vrbo, and many others. Motel rooms are being replaced by free-standing homes that come with their own kitchens, back yards, and even swimming pools.Indeed, you can now lease a car, a truck, or even a pool, although I do not necessarily recommend it, based on similar platforms. As with any service revolution, there are naturally a myriad of legal issues that follow. In this short presentation,I will touch on a few hot-topics that may be of interest to you: the nuts and bolts of most STR agreements and policies; regulation of STRs by government and private authorities; and, where the industry may be going, particularly as these topics apply to the State of Texas.

It is not easy being a lawyer. The competitive, pressurized, adversarial, combative, win-at-all-costs legal profession practiced by smart, type-A personalities is driving many attorneys to drink … literally. Attorneys work in a pressure-filled profession that, for many, to cope, leads to substance use disorders, depression, and anxiety. The burn-out rate for lawyers is as high as any profession, and depression and anxiety in the legal community is higher than any other profession1. And the results can be tragic. By now most attorneys have heard the startling statistics regarding the well-being of lawyers, so a message to the 21% of attorneys with drinking problems, the 61% experiencing anxiety, the 46% living with depression and the 11% who have had suicide ideation, you are not alone and there is help.The purpose of this paper is to share my personal experience with this subject, to teach the language of depression, to explain why it is vital to stop minding your own business, tips for self-care and why everyone should know about the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program.

Many of the world’s greatest cities are clamoring to be the next Silicon Valley; touting themselves as Silicon Roundabout (London), Silicon Hills (Austin), or my personal favorite Philicon Valley (Philadelphia). Each region is trying to capture the spirit of innovation to further its economic growth and competitiveness in a global market. This article endeavors to make law firms competitive not only against other firms but against other technologies. It explores customer discovery and evaluates law firms through the lens of product management. What is a law firm’s product? Is it contracts drafted? Advice given? Kinda both, but also kind of neither. “[A]product is something that can be marketed to customers because it provides them with a benefit and satisfies a need.”3A client wants a contract, not just to have a piece of paper with some legalese on it, but to protect themselves or effect a sale. The benefit to the client is the hope of the purchase contract or the decrease in anxiety to know that they have limited their liabilities. Advising a client to settle a case is only a benefit if the client understands that they are saving significantly more money than if they hadn’t settled.Now that you understand what a product is, this article will talk about ways to improve your current product through customer discovery and competitive analysis. We’ll also sprinkle in some tech you should know about too.

A business divorce is generally understood to involve the legal separation of partners in a privately-held business.One of the hallmarks of business divorce as a practice area is that it exclusively involves privately held entities. As a result, these types of cases frequently involve the actual founders of the business, their immediate kin and/or longtime friends. Given the close relationships between those involved, business divorce disputes often involve a level of personal animosity and rancor that is more commonly seen in romantic breakups. Not only must a business divorce practitioner be aware of these dynamics in order to represent the client efficiently, but such issues may be more important to the client than a simply analysis of the bottom line. Moreover, a business divorce attorney may find herself acting as an amateur psychologist in advising a client who may want to focus on personal animosities instead of the big picture.

Today’s Business Lawyer requires a variety of skill sets to be able to represent the needs of business clients from counseling on formation and choice of entity decisions, business plans, maintaining proper documentation for the business, employment agreements, employee handbooks, vendor contracts, distributor agreements, acquisitions,mergers, dissolution, registrations in other states, website terms and conditions, copyrights, trademarks, patents,negotiation of deals (including letters of intent or “LOIs”), asset purchase agreements, stock acquisitions, indemnity,insurance, business and partnership issues and disputes, litigation, and dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration.

Online depositions and hearings are here to stay, regardless of whether yet another heinous variant of Covid emerges in the future. Accordingly, lawyers taking online depositions must be aware of best practices for online depositions. Otherwise, lawyers cross-examining witnesses in the time of Zoom should use all of the tactics and strategies that pre-dated Covid and online cross-examinations.

As the use of Computer Computing continues to expand it is likely that there will be litigation if there are data breaches, cyber intrusions, and loss of data. So, it is critical that all lawyers help client negotiate important Cloud Computing contracts to protect client as well as their law practices.

When intellectual property (IP) issues arise, there may be individuals and/or businesses that go directly to an attorney who specializes in IP; however, whether because of a prior relationship with a non-IP attorney or not understanding that there is an IP issue, those individuals and/or businesses may start with a non-IP attorney. While there may be some IP issues, such as with trademarks, that a non-IP attorney may believe that he/she can handle, it is important to understand certain IP basics to decide whether that attorney can handle the IP issue. If the attorney cannot (or does not want) to handle, the attorney should be able to engage in IP issue spotting to properly direct the individual and/or business to an IP attorney

The federal government enacted several new laws in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to provide funding to assist impacted businesses. While trillions of dollars of federal funds were distributed through various programs,including the Paycheck Protection Program, there was significant misuse and fraud. As a result, the government implemented several fraud enforcement mechanisms and has been increasingly using the False Claims Act in its enforcement actions. This CLE will provide an overview of relevant legislation and key COVID-19 relief programs for businesses; describe the federal government’s focus on and mechanisms of fraud enforcement, including recent use of the False Claims Act;provide examples of some of the enforcement actions brought by the government against businesses that received federal funds; and list best practices for such businesses

Understanding the acquisition of a small business and the value of the company is essential to determining HOW the business will be acquired. There are a number of considerations for any business when acquiring a company to make sure you understand the legal issues facing your business and how those things impact the valuation. Further,there are a number of things of value in a small business purchase that is not always about the cash that exchanges hands. In the small business market, you can often look to acquire or take over a business with very little cash involved.This is because, in many cases, a small business has little extra cash (or little inherent value). There are also a number of reasons for which a small business is valued for purchase. It can be an acquisition (or merger) as well as a buy-out of a partner. As such, there are a number of different ways to value a small business, but also a number of different considerations within each option. As we work through the process of acquisition of a small business, we need to consider the way we value a business. You use basically the same formula you would use with businesses in the larger market, but you must take a few points into consideration

To understand past, present, and potential standards for remote proceedings in Texas state courts, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of the emergency powers vested in the Supreme Court of Texas (“Court”) and of the Court’s process for promulgating and amending Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, and Texas Rules of Judicial Administration. Thus, this article provides a high-level primer on the emergency powers and the rule making process before addressing standards relating to remote proceedings.