Blog Blog
Politicians and advocacy groups have spent years debating what restaurant workers should earn. That debate is not going away. But I think we have spent so much time arguing over the hourly wage that we have avoided a more fundamental question: What kind of restaurant compensation system do we actually want? Whether you love tipping
Taking Your Restaurant International: A Legal Guide to Global Restaurant Expansion International restaurant expansion often generates legal problems before anyone believes there is much legal work to do. A team finds a location and negotiates the lease before confirming that the hours, the liquor service, and the patio are permitted at that address. An executive
Oregon Civil Discovery: No Interrogatories, No Routine Expert Reports. Litigate Accordingly. Some of the most expensive mistakes in Oregon civil litigation are made in the first sixty days, and good lawyers make them by waiting. They wait for initial disclosures that the ordinary Oregon rules do not require. They wait for interrogatory answers that will
Registering Trademarks in Central America: How to Build a Country-by-Country Filing Strategy A U.S. consumer-products company appoints one distributor to sell its products in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. It registers its trademark in Guatemala, where sales will begin, and plans to deal with the other countries later. Before the El Salvador launch, a local
United States Trademark Ownership Errors: How Small Filing Mistakes Become Expensive Problems Ownership problems involving United States trademark applications and registrations rarely announce themselves when an application is filed. They sit in the USPTO record until a sale, financing, enforcement action, or maintenance filing forces someone to ask who owns the mark and whether the
Buying a Business in the U.S., Part 4: Letters of Intent (LOIs) In business purchase negotiations, parties often execute an early‑stage document called a letter of intent (“LOI”). You may also see it called a term sheet or even a memorandum of understanding (“MOU”). The label matters less than the document’s language and the parties’
The Lawsuits I See Coming, and the One You're Walking Into Now After years litigating business disputes, you stop hearing new stories. A client calls, starts in on what happened, and within a few minutes I can usually see where it is headed, because I have watched the same handful of mistakes produce the same
I recently wrote about how to find businesses for sale, and how to price them. Today I’ll discuss the very first contract typically signed by a buyer and seller in the life cycle of a small or closely-held business acquisition: the non-disclosure agreement (NDA). In nearly all deals outside of the straight “investment” or VC
Should Your Business Sue? Seven Questions to Ask Before Filing a Lawsuit A strong legal claim can still be a bad lawsuit. A customer refuses to pay, a partner diverts business to a side venture, or a former employee leaves with confidential information. Any of these may support a claim, but that does not settle
“You Were Never Really My Partner”: Proving an Informal Partnership Under Washington Law A missing signature does not mean a missing partnership. In Washington, how people run a business may matter more than the labels they use or the names on the paperwork. Before I ever litigated a partnership dispute, I lost one. I was
