A couple of days ago, I settled a litigation that got to the core of two business partnership topics that aren’t talked about enough. One of the things that I constantly preach to clients is that if you are going into business with somebody, it cannot be based...
Contracts
#mattthelawyer, Contracts, Design / 01.01.2020
Information Design: Navigation
I’ve often said that a contract is nothing more than a written description of a business relationship. Often times this relationship can get complex. Maybe you have a contract that is pretty long, such as the purchase or sale of a business. This is usually...
#mattthelawyer, Contracts / 11.12.2019
Why Use Information Design?
In a previous post, we started discussing how businesses can use information design concepts in contracts. I’d like to share some more reasoning as to why our clients and small and medium sized businesses should start considering the use of information design principles in order to foster transparency with your...
Often when small or medium sized businesses who are contract dependent are dealing with their customers, one of the most difficult things to understand is how the layout of a contract improves the overall quality of the contract. Recently, there has been a trend in the legal world that lawyers...
#mattthelawyer, Contracts, Design / 06.12.2019
Information Design in Contracts
How many times have you looked at a lengthy contract and thought to yourself – I really don’t have the time for this; I don’t understand this. Often times, non-lawyer folk want to understand the basic facts and leave technicalities of contracts to their lawyers or business advisors. Sometimes,...
#mattthelawyer, Contracts / 12.08.2019
Write a “Plain English” Contract
As a small business lawyer, I am often asked, “Do you write plain English contracts?” If I am feeling particularly snarky and I know the person well enough to be snarky, I might shoot back with “well, I don’t write contracts in Spanish, Latin, or...
Non-Compete Agreements are everywhere. Most non-competes I see are not only poorly written (a style problem) and probably unenforceable against the employee (a drafting problem). Most employers take a one-size-fits-all approach and have all employees sign the exact same non-compete. Employers wanting employees to sign...
#mattthelawyer, Contracts / 24.07.2019
What You Need to Know about Non-Compete Agreements & At-Will Employment
One of the most difficult things for companies looking to have key employees, or any employees, sign a non-compete agreement is that most states have at-will employment. While at-will employment is highly beneficial in terms of labor market movement and the ability for employers to...
One aspect of dealing with creative and service-based industries, as I often do, is that many employers have a non-compete agreement for their employees. I understand the desire and sometimes the need for the agreement. But as a class of agreements, non-compete agreements are among...