Across all industries, private companies, family offices, and their owners and management teams face rapidly evolving challenges, opportunities, and risks in the dynamic environment that is 2025. Here are 11 issues that...more
3/10/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Arbitration ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Beneficial Owner ,
Business Succession ,
Buy-Sell Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Compliance ,
Connelly v United States ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Data Privacy ,
E-Commerce ,
Estate Planning ,
Estate-Tax Exemption ,
Ethics ,
Family Businesses ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FinCEN ,
Form I-9 ,
Generation-Skipping Transfer ,
Gift-Tax Exemption ,
Immigration ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Procedures ,
IRS ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Limited Partnerships ,
Mergers ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Privately Held Corporations ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Risk Management ,
SCOTUS ,
State Legislatures ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Terms of Use ,
Valuation
Trade secrets, noncompetes, and other restrictive covenants continued to make headlines in 2024. Most notably, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a final rule imposing a near total ban on employee noncompetes that...more
Business divorces are often messy. The reasons for business divorces vary – personality-driven disputes, disagreements over business direction, or timing and distribution of earnings. Whatever the reason, when controlling...more
Situations involving family dynamics, significant wealth, and fiduciary duties can be ripe for conflict. Disputes frequently arise among owners and managers of closely held businesses, family office constituencies, and other...more
Donald Trump’s motion for a new trial and to set aside the jury’s verdict in his defamation case lacks merit, a New York judge recently ruled. Citing the frequency with which Trump has made defamatory statements, the...more
With 2024 underway, our team highlights 10 of the most pressing legal issues facing the media and entertainment industry this year.
In 2024, media and entertainment businesses will focus on whether the longstanding tenet...more
3/27/2024
/ Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc v Goldsmith ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Authorship ,
Business Development ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Office ,
Defamation ,
Entertainment Industry ,
EU ,
Fair Use ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Jack Daniels Properties Inc v VIP Products LLC ,
Machine Learning ,
Media ,
MLB ,
NBA ,
NHL ,
SCOTUS ,
UK ,
USPTO
Allegations of defamation and conspiracy to defame alone are insufficient to establish the crime-fraud exception and defeat the attorney-client privilege, the Illinois Appellate Court recently held.
In MacDonald v....more
3/12/2024
/ Appellate Courts ,
Arbitration ,
Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Crime-Fraud Exception ,
Criminal Conspiracy ,
Defamation ,
Employee Benefits ,
Forensic Accounting ,
Illinois ,
Motion to Compel ,
Privileged Communication ,
Wrongful Termination
A federal court recently ruled that the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is unconstitutional. In a lengthy opinion issued on March 1, the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama explained that the CTA may be a...more
2023 was a pivotal year for the emerging companies, creating new categories of winners and losers across the board. Emerging companies incorporating artificial intelligence or that have clear line of sight to positive cash...more
2/20/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Corporate Executives ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Down Rounds ,
Early Stage Companies ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
Entrepreneurs ,
Estate Planning ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Financing ,
FinCEN ,
FTC Endorsement Guidelines ,
Funding ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Investors ,
Mergers ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Rules ,
Ransomware ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Social Media ,
Startups ,
The Copyright Act ,
Venture Capital ,
Wage and Hour ,
Websites
A recent $83.3 million verdict against Donald Trump for continued defamatory statements underscores what would seem to be an intuitive best practice to minimize defamation liability: once a defendant has been found liable for...more
2023 was a pivotal year for the beverage and food industry globally, creating new categories of winners and losers across the board. With a full year of operations largely relieved of pandemic-era restrictions, restaurant...more
2/15/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Beverage Manufacturers ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Estate Planning ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Investors ,
Mergers ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Ransomware ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Social Media ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour
A New York court once again declined to dismiss Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Fox Corporation over Fox News’s coverage of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie.”
The court found that the parent company, Fox Corporation, could...more
On January 1, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) went into effect. Among other things, the CTA requires entities organized under state law (“reporting companies”) to provide certain ownership information to the Financial...more
The fashion and retail industry experienced another year of considerable change in 2023. As advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) spurred innovation within the industry, consumers and regulators worldwide called for...more
1/30/2024
/ Acquisitions ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
California ,
Class Action ,
Consumers ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Due Diligence ,
E-Commerce ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Fabrics ,
Fair Use ,
Fashion Industry ,
FinCEN ,
Forced Labor ,
FTC Act ,
FTC Endorsement Guidelines ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Innovation ,
Labor Code ,
Luxury Goods ,
Machine Learning ,
Mergers ,
New Legislation ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) ,
Popular ,
Professional Regulators ,
Ransomware ,
Real Estate Market ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Retailers ,
Sustainability ,
The Copyright Act
As we highlighted in the Family Office Newsletter’s pages in June, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is slated to go into effect on January 1, 2024. Under the law, many newly formed and existing entities organized under...more
This post explains an exception to the attorney-client privilege that is recognized in many jurisdictions to allow minority owners of LLCs and corporations to attempt to obtain the privileged communications of their LLC or...more
Now is a good time to review your trust instruments, family office documents, or company’s governing documents and succession plans to ensure you are prepared to deal with whatever the future brings before it happens....more
In certain circumstances, shareholders of corporations and members of limited liability companies can obtain confidential communications between corporate management and the company’s attorney that would otherwise be...more
7/18/2023
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Beneficiaries ,
Breach of Duty ,
Corporate Management ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Jurisdiction ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Minority-Owned Businesses ,
Shareholders ,
Trustees ,
Trusts
Family offices routinely create, manage, and invest in multiple entities, including corporations, limited liability companies, and partnerships. For entities formed or operating in the United States, there has never been a...more
6/9/2023
/ Beneficial Owner ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Charitable Trusts ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Family Offices ,
FinCEN ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Companies ,
Limited Liability Company (LLC) ,
Partnerships ,
Tax Exempt Entities ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Venture Capital
On April 24, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court announced an amended rule permitting service of summons through electronic means of communication. The new rule, effective immediately, clarifies the procedure for using this...more
When corporate management requests or obtains legal advice from corporate counsel, management expects those communications to be protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege, and usually they are. But there are...more
Immediately before opening statements were to begin, Dominion settled its defamation lawsuit against Fox News for its coverage of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 presidential election for a landmark $787.5...more
Knowing who owns legal entities is essential to stopping terrorism, money laundering, and other sophisticated criminal enterprises. For entities formed in the United States there has never been a requirement to disclose...more
10/12/2022
/ Beneficial Owner ,
Corporate Transparency Act ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Final Rules ,
FinCEN ,
IRS ,
Money Laundering ,
New Regulations ,
Ownership Interest ,
Penalties ,
Taxpayer Identification Number
This post explains the rules that apply to Illinois corporations and business entities organized in other jurisdictions.
In most jurisdictions, shareholders and LLC members generally do not have the right to obtain...more
Directors owe fiduciary duties to the company. To make informed decisions and satisfy those fiduciary duties, directors generally have broad access to the company’s books and records, with a few exceptions.
A corporate...more