• What are An Employer’s Obligations Under “ObamaCare”?
• The America Invents Act - Big Changes for Inventors
• Employment Law Alerts

Turnaround Management Association's March 2012 issue of "Journal of Corporate Renewal"

Bankruptcy comes in several flavors, and a Chapter 11 is the flavor that allows a business to reorganize and continue to operate. Can small businesses benefit from filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy? YES! And here’s why:

Over 50% of the population does not have any estate plan. Not a will. Not a trust. Nothing. Further, of those people that have done some planning, what they have is in many cases out of date or has not been fully implemented.

In our Winter 2012 newsletter, we discussed the groundbreaking Illinois Supreme Court opinion in Reliable Fire Equipment Company v. Arrendendo, which changed the landscape for employers looking to enforce restrictive covenants (often called non-compete and non-solicit provisions). Other courts – both state appellate and local federal courts – have begun weighing in on this case and how it will be applied on a practical level.

Savvy employers know that two things help protect them against harassment claims: (1) a written policy against sexual harassment and discrimination; and (2) an internal complaint procedure for employees to voice any potential violations of the policy. If, however, those policies are not followed in practice, or if employees are not trained how to utilize the internal complaint procedure, employers may find themselves unprotected.

Golan & Christie Partner, Beverly A. Berneman, recently taught an advanced class in Bankruptcy and Intellectual Property at the John Marshall School of Law. Beverly also teaches a course in Financing the Development of Intellectual Property. She created the curriculum for both of these unique courses and has been teaching them for 9 years.

Federal Bar Association's Spring 2012 issue of "Divisions Digest"

• Can Small Businesses Benefit from filing for Chapter 11?
• Why You Can’t Just Put It In a Drawer and Forget It
• Employment Law Alerts

Employment contracts containing “restrictive covenants” (a/k/a non-competition, non-solicitation or any other post-employment restriction on employee’s activities) are one of the most litigated legal issues in Illinois – and around the nation.

It is no secret that since 2007 real estate property values throughout the Chicagoland area have decreased drastically. Market values have plummeted for commercial, industrial and residential properties alike. Nonetheless, property taxes have remained high.

A mobile device retailer’s lawsuit against its former employee, Noah Kravitz, raises a novel legal question about who owns a Twitter account used by an employee to comment about both personal and work topics. The employer, PhoneDog Media L.L.C., which also maintains a website and blog with reviews and news about mobile devices, alleges that Kravitz improperly kept using a company Twitter account which had accumulated more than 17,000 followers.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has again postponed the effective date of its requirement that employers post a notice to employees about their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA covers most non-governmental employers in the United States, including non-profits and non-union businesses.

• Restrictive Covenant Provisions – Is Yours Enforceable?
• The Value of Assessment Appeals
• Employment Law Alerts

Merger and acquisition activity has started to rebound from the credit crisis, which inhibited the merger and acquisition market a few years ago. As the volume of deals continues to increase, buyers and sellers, now more than ever, need to carefully allocate risk and the assumption and retention of liabilities when structuring a transaction.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently started mailing “no-match letters” which inform employers that the social security number and name of one or more of their employees do not match the SSA’s records. While the letters do not look threatening, no-match letters have formed the basis for multiple criminal investigations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prosecutions on charges of harboring or knowingly hiring unauthorized workers. The SSA stopped sending these letters in 2008 (for tax year 2007) in response to litigation surrounding a proposed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulation, “Safe Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter.” DHS later rescinded the proposed regulation.

The Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service recently announced a joint effort to crack down on businesses that misclassify employees as independent contractors. Historically, these agencies have not shared information or coordinated their enforcement efforts, so this represents a significant change and an increased threat to employers.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers are allowed to pay their tipped employees less than the minimum wage as long as they follow certain rules. A tipped employee is a worker in a position where he or she customarily and normally receives more than $30 a month worth of tips. The difference between the hourly-salary rate paid by the employer and the standard federal minimum wage is what we call a tip credit. In Illinois, for example, where the minimum wage is $8.25, tipped employees can be paid as little as $4.95 per hour if the tip credit rules are followed.

In this extremely competitive, and often unrelenting economy, a well-established trademark can help your business thrive in the marketplace. By simply taking the time to build your brand, you will increase customer loyalty and attract new business.

• Diligently Do Your Due Diligence
• Beware if "No-Match" Letters and Criminal Liability
• Employment Law Alerts
• Building and Protecting Your Brand

Landslide

Business and personal lives move fast, and most of us agree there are just not enough hours in the day to attend to every detail. Checking the monthly bank statement for accuracy seems like the last thing on the list. Failing to do it, though, or assigning the task to an employee (especially one who can write checks) can leave you with little recourse if you are the victim of fraud.

A qualified employee benefit plan (e.g. Pension, Profit Sharing, 401(K) and 403(b) plans), protects the value of an employee’s account because it is exempt from the claims of creditors, including a trustee in bankruptcy. This benefit has also been extended to Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), although in bankruptcy, the exemption is limited to $1,000,000. Creditor protection applies to IRAs which hold funds that were “rolled over” from a qualified Pension, Profit Sharing, 401(K) or 403(b) plan. Finally, an IRA in which a spouse is named as a beneficiary is creditor protected since the spouse has the right to roll over the funds into his or her own IRA.

Your business resources are limited, so you always want to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck, but sometimes a bargain can actually turn out to cause more problems than it solves. There are many vendors who offer employment counseling services, including advice on tricky legal issues, as a lower cost alternative to calling your employment attorney.

On June 23, 2011, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2011. Ordinarily, the IRS updates the rates once a year in the fall for the following calendar year. This year, due to fuel prices, the IRS has made a mid-year change. The change will become effective as of July 1, 2011 and will increase the rate for business miles from 51 cents per mile to 55.5 cents per mile. Though the IRS rate is optional and businesses are free to determine their own rate for mileage reimbursement, the IRS rate is often used by employers as a benchmark for reimbursement to their employees for mileage on work-related trips.