My What Big Words You Have

Indemnification is not only a big word, it is a concept a lot of people don’t understand.  It isn’t their fault. Whenever someone encounters the word “indemnification,” it is usually in a contract provision that says something like: You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Company and its respective directors, officers, employees, service providers … Read more

GUEST POST: Insuring Your Buy/Sell

We have a fabulous guest post from Jason Guttenberg of Ace Insurance Group.  He helps explain how a company can use insurance to decrease risk related to death of a shareholder or LLC member.  Don’t know much about buy/sell agreements or provisions? Don’t worry, I’ll explain them more in a soon to be coming post, … Read more

Leave No Limits For Poker

Contracts provide a lot of information:  How payments are made, when deliveries are expected, and where lawsuits regarding the contract will be filed.  But one of the most important things a contract can do is allocate risk and costs associated with those risks.  Two provisions that help with that are limitation of liability and indemnification … Read more

Tale of Two Tables

The owner of copyright has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or … Read more

Rock and Hard Place: Non-competes for new employers

Non-compete and non-solicitation provisions have been in my mind lately.  Almost like I had a presentation on them recently. Usually, I get asked by employees about the limitations placed on them and by employers how they can use this tool to be fair to employees and contractors but still protect the company’s assets.  A question … Read more

Who runs the world?

Turns out, it isn’t girls who run the world, but contracts that do.  Sorry, Beyonce  You can barely get through a week without agreeing to one whether it is getting a cell phone, signing up for a new social media account, or getting an oil change.  The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory … Read more

Having a Capital Time

Capital letters are special things.  They mark the beginnings of sentences.  They show proper nouns are distinct from other nouns.  They help differentiate a title from a sentence and an acronym from a word.  All sorts of magic!  In contracts, they have an additional job:  They show that a term is defined somewhere within that … Read more

Location, Location, Location

One provision often found at the end of a contract discusses jurisdiction, venue, and choice of law. It is one of those paragraphs that you probably skipped over and maybe  even called boilerplate. But, guess what, it could matter a whole lot if the parties get involved in a lawsuit. First, let’s talk about jurisdiction. … Read more