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The Inspired and Controversial Online Real Estate Company
By Jeffrey M. Kowalski, Esq. The real estate brokerage business model has been the same for decades. Brokerage firms hire real estate agents as independent contractors who are on their own for marketing and expenses and get paid solely on commissions from sales. That commission in almost every deal is …
The National Labor Relations Board Is At It Again!
By Scott M. Mooney, Esq. In my last column (November, 2012), I reported on the recent efforts by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and its Acting General Counsel to target employers with overly broad social media policies. As I discussed in that column, the basis for the scrutiny of …
2013, the Fiscal Cliff and Taxes: What do we know now?
By Sherman F. Levey, Esq. In this column published on Friday, December 28, 2012 I suggested that there were a number of “outlines” evolving in the tax field as we approached the dreaded “fiscal cliff.” Since then the White House and Congress struck a series of compromises on tax matters, …
2013, The Fiscal Cliff, and Taxes: What do we really know?
By Sherman F. Levey, Esq. The quick answer to the question posed in the headline is, not much, really. However, if history is any indicator, there are outlines which are becoming apparent and which can be relied on for some future planning. First, there is nothing certain in politics, and …
Social Media: What’s Your Popularity Worth
By David K. Hou, Esq. Good news! In my (fake) job as an advisor at a technology consultancy, I have accumulated 50,000 followers on my “@TechFanaticDavid” Twitter account, and through my diligence I have amassed enough contacts on LinkedIn to be within four degrees of separation from both Bill Gates …
Legal Budgets for Start-ups: It’s All About Prioritizing
By Jason M. Kiefer, Esq. I recently met with a group of student entrepreneurs at a local university to discuss the various legal issues that arise when starting a business. The conversation quickly moved beyond the actual legal issues themselves to how entrepreneurs with a good business idea, but a …
Dear Legislature: Even My Employer Wants to Be Friends on Facebook
By Jeffrey M. Kowalski, Esq. Robert Collins took leave from his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to mourn his mother’s death. As a condition to reinstatement, the Agency required that he give up his Facebook username and password. A similar …
NYSARC Trust Services
This article is to introduce readers to NYSARC Trust Services, which administers a group of trusts operated by NYSARC, Inc. NYSARC, Inc. (formerly New York State Association for Retarded Children), is the largest non-profit organization in America supporting people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities and their families since 1949. …
The Rights of Landlords and Secured Creditors as to a Tenant’s Pledged Collateral
By Devin Lawton Palmer, Esq., Partner, Boylan Code LLP The rights of a secured creditor to secure and dispose of its collateral is fairly well established under New York’s Uniform Commercial Code (the “UCC”). Section 9-609 of the UCC allows a secured creditor to take possession and dispose of its …
Should Employers “Unfriend” Social Media?
The use of social media in the workplace is aptly described as a double-edged sword for employers. On the one hand, allowing employees to use social media can help increase customer interaction, enhance online visibility and build overall brand awareness. On the other hand, employees can also cause harm to …
Medical Practice Series: How Important is Entity Selection?
In the last publication of WNY Physician’s Magazine, we described to you a fictional medical practice, Mensch Medical Group, P.C. (the “Group”), consisting of three physicians: Henry, the senior physician; Samuel, the middle-aged physician with a progressive disability, and Lucy, the newly-admitted physician to the practice. The Group is organized …
Medical Practice Series: Estate Planning Considerations
In our last article, we explained how thoughtfully-prepared buy-sell agreements can be instrumental in planning for the eventual transfer of your practice. Buy-sell agreements are contracts you create during your lifetime with others in your practice to govern in the event that one of you wishes to voluntarily leave the …
Medical Practice Series: Buy-sell Agreements
It’s no secret, the baby boomer generation is nearing retirement age. As a result, we are expecting a large scale ownership and management transition for all kinds of businesses over the next ten to fifteen years, including medical practices. This demographic reality raises many questions for those medical practices affected. …
FLSA Compliance: There’s An App for That
It seems like everyone is building an app these days – banks, restaurants, the grocery store, and even various law firms and solo practitioners, for example. Not surprisingly, Uncle Sam’s gotten into the act, too: earlier this year, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) …
Commercializing Technology: A Roadmap for Starting and Building a Successful Technology Company
The commercialization of technology may involve sale or licensing of the technology, or the formation of a company to develop and market products or services that utilize the technology. This “white paper” will deal primarily with matters related to commercialization through formation of a company, and will outline the various …
Overview of Bankruptcy Concepts
When a debtor realizes that he has more debt than he can handle and needs a fresh start, he petitions Bankruptcy Court for relief, surrenders his property to his creditors and is discharged of his debts. This is a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, grossly over-simplified. Chapter 13 is a variation. Download …
Impact of Bankruptcy on Matrimonial Cases
What a Bankruptcy Lawyer Thinks Judges Should Know In 30 years of practice in Creditors Rights and Bankruptcy law, and twenty or more years of intermittent Matrimonial practice, Christopher Werner has often had occasion to consult with judges (usually via their clerks) and to review the work of matrimonial practitioners …
Alternative Dispute Resolution and Litigation of an Employment Claim
Alternative Dispute Resolution encompasses several methods utilized in resolving disputes as alternatives to litigation. Some of the reasons for engaging in these alternatives include expediting the proceedings as well as decreasing the costs. Whether the alternatives have succeeded is a matter of opinion, which will be explored in the following …
Local Government Representatives – Now Playing On a Screen Near You
By DONALD A. YOUNG, Esq. Wednesday, August 24, 2011 THE DAILY RECORD My wife and I welcomed our first child, a lovely baby girl, into this world almost six months ago. We are head over heels in love with her. The problem is, so are her grandparents. Why is this …
FTC Issues Guidelines Governing Social Media in the Workplace
The FTC has issued federal guidelines, effective December 1, 2010, to protect consumers from deceptive endorsements and advertising that may pose liability issues for employers who employees use social media such as blogs, LinkedIn or Facebook to comment on their employer’s products or services, even if the employee comments are …
NY Enacts Statutory Protection for Confidentiality of Social Security Numbers
In recognition of the ever-increasing threat of identify theft, effective January 3, 2009, the New York General Business Law was revised to enact Section 399-dd (Confidentiality of Social Security Account Number) providing for the first time statutory protection for the confidentiality of social security account numbers to New York state …
PDF it to me, yesterday!
Not long ago, that phrase, let alone using three letters as a verb, would have been meaningless to most people in the legal profession. Now I say it almost every day. (If you haven’t yet, you may soon.) It wasn’t so very long ago that the word “fax” was just …
The Uniform Law Commission
By: Justin L. Vigdor Boylan Code, LLP Every lawyer is familiar with the Uniform Commercial Code, and most lawyers are familiar with various other statutes having the word “Uniform” in their title, as for example, the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act. Few lawyers, however, are aware of the genesis of …
Sidebar – The Supreme Court and the Environment
In early April, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down two landmark environmental decisions. The decisions are bound to change the legal landscape surrounding emissions regulation. The first gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a direction to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The other sends a rebuke to the owners of dirty …
The United States Supreme Court Limits
By Scott Mooney Monday October 2, 2006 new york real estate journal On June 19th, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited ruling addressing the scope of the Clean Water Act’s authority over remote wetlands. The five-four plurality decision delivered in the consolidated cases of Rapanos v. U.S. and …
