Wisconsin Business Law and Litigation
A blog dedicated to Wisconsin business law and business litigation matters, authored by Chris Moander of the Moander Law Firm.

Last week, Milwaukee County passed a binding referendum requiring employers to provide sick leave to all workers; eleven or more employees requires one hour of sick time per thirty hours worked (nine days a year), whereas ten or fewer employees requires only five days of sick leave.  For clarification, a referendum is "the process of referring a state legislative act or important public issue to the people for final approval by popular vote" - the voting public decides whether to apply a law as written. 

So how does this referendum affect you, a Milwaukee County business owner?  It is hard to tell this soon after the vote, but my friend, fellow attorney, and employment lawyer Mark Goldstein, of Mark J. Goldstein, S.C., outlined several possible reactions by local businesses:

                            Some employers are concerned about yet another employee-related cost that
                            cannot be passed on to customers and the administrative hassle of managing
                            yet another category of leave. Others ask if this will be a disincentive to
                            businesses that are contemplating locating, or staying, in Milwaukee
                            (Washington D.C. and San Francisco are the only municipalities with a “paid
                            time off” ordinance). Still others take a more pragmatic view, suggesting
                            they will simply reallocate time and dollars previously allocated to paid
                            vacation, paid holidays or other benefits to the new paid sick leave.

Now is the time to think and plan if you are affected by the change.

Chris Moander is an independent attorney based in Milwaukee who is passionate about helping growing business navigate the legal waters of Wisconsin.

I know it is an overused statement, but the world is smaller than ever.  Thus it is no surprise that even extremely small businesses will interact with companies outside the United States.  Naturally, cross-border relationships bring with them unique legal complexities.  A fine example of this thorny issue is the effect of U.S. treaties with other nations. 

The Constitution, in it’s Supremacy Clause, tells us that treaties (along with other laws) are the supreme law of the United States.  The Supreme Court confirmed that valid treaties override state law several times over the life of our nation, the first case (Ware v. Hylton, 3 U.S. 199) focusing on the post-revolution treaty with England.  So, it is well established that, if your business partner’s home nation has a treaty with the U.S., that treaty may have a substantive impact on both how you transact business with that business partner and the subject matter of your business relationship. 

So what if treaties override other law, including state law?  That’s the kicker for the entrepreneur.  The longer you are in business and the closer you are to your attorney, the more familiar (and comfortable) you will become with Wisconsin law.  Treaties change that familiarity - new terms and interpretations may be introduced to an agreement, or whole sections of law may be disregarded in favor of the treaty.  For example, a given nation may have a treaty with the U.S. that does not obligate any businesses from that nation to follow Wisconsin franchise law and regulations.  Normally, failure of a company to meet such requirements is a red flag to an attorney and the business owner, but a proper treaty changes the analysis.

Chris Moander is an independent attorney based in Milwaukee who is passionate about helping growing business navigate the legal waters of Wisconsin.

My friend Jon Groth has food for thought for employers and employees on election day. 

The lesson here - employers should be prepared for reduced workforce on election day(s). 

Chris Moander is an independent attorney based in Milwaukee who is passionate about helping growing business navigate the legal waters of Wisconsin.

This is a short week, since I am heading out to the Wisconsin Solo and Small Firm Conference tomorrow (I am speaking on Friday), so I am pitching out other blogger’s material today. 

Mark Toth, the CLO of Manpower, shares some of Wisconsin’s rather silly laws.  Every place has a few.  I am impressed, but not shocked, at how effective the cheese lobby has been in insulating their racket by requiring a slice of cheese with each slice of apple pie AND requiring a license to make limburger cheese. 

Chris Moander is an independent attorney based in Milwaukee who is passionate about helping growing business navigate the legal waters of Wisconsin.

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, The No Nonsense lawyer, posted recently about trademarks hidden in website code, including metatags.  I can certainly see the allure because of the way Google crawls the web.  Instead of informing readers in this post, I am posing a question: What is the simplest way to scan code for these marks?  The reason I post this question is because many business owners outsource their web development to third parties and, consequently, the business many not know of or understand what is contained in their site’s code. 

Obviously it is important to know with whom you contract to create a site, but there is always value in "spot-checking" work, especially with the volume of damages available in a willful infringement case.  I look forward to getting your thoughts.

Chris Moander is an independent attorney based in Milwaukee who is passionate about helping growing business navigate the legal waters of Wisconsin.

But if this article is accurate, and I sure like to believe it is, small businesses will weather the current economic environment and potentially pull us back up.

Now, I’m not claiming now is the best time to start up (no time is ever perfect), but it feels good knowing that small business in America can thrive in most any situation.

Chris Moander is an independent attorney based in Milwaukee who is passionate about helping growing business navigate the legal waters of Wisconsin.

My friend and fellow business attorney, Ryan Roberts, recently posted several fantastic videos regarding startups.  The first two are of well-known Apple evangelist and tech guru Guy Kawasaki.  The other focuses on what is needed in a good term sheet when you pitch to VC and Angel companies.  I suspect that, if you are new to venture funding, the latter video may surprise you, but that’s good.

Thanks again to Ryan for posting such useful videos.

Chris Moander is an independent attorney based in Milwaukee who is passionate about helping growing business navigate the legal waters of Wisconsin.

I cannot explain how ecstatic I am about this article on the death of the billable hour.  In particular, think the following quote explains why I avoid the billable hour in most of my work.

A lawyer sells intellectual capital. The true value of which is not measured by time at all.

How does this help you, the client?  Several ways:

1. You are not writing a blank check to the firm; rather, you have a fixed and budgetable cost.
2. I, as the attorney, lack any incentive to pad hours for more profit.  Rather, the pressure is on me to complete quality work in reasonable amount of time - the attorney bears more risk than in an hourly fee arrangement.
3. The attorney must spend more time with the client outlining the problems to be solved - the result is a better relationship between attorney and client with the bonus of having each stage of work outlined with precision.

Realizing this blog is about client needs and not my ego, I must say I firmly believe that hourly rates do not connote quality of lawyer.  My goal is to be a trusted advisor to each client, a person to whom a client can come to with any issue knowing that, if I cannot help them, I will find someone who can.  Value billing allows me that ability.

Chris Moander is an independent attorney based in Milwaukee handling business law matters, business litigation, and collections matters throughout Wisconsin.

Two prominent conferences are going on in the Greater Milwaukee area over the next few weeks that will prove useful to the small and growing business owners and entrepreneurs.

October 4-5 is BarCampMilwaukee3, hosted at Bucketworks and sponsored by several local companies and groups.  Hopefully I will run into a few of you while I’m there. 

October 9-10 is the the Midwest Fall Business Expo 2008, sponsored by the CKME Group and a few other entities. The focus of this expo is the small and growing business, those who often cannot afford the high price of other expos.  Additionally, the event has an array of seminars and networking events.  I also hope to see some of my readers at the networking summit (October 9th from 5:30-8pm). 

Chris Moander is an independent attorney handling business law matters, business litigation, and collections matters throughout Wisconsin.