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Jan
2014

Features

    • Valuing a Business in Divorce
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    • Valuing a marital estate and determining property division and spousal support in a divorce requires extra care when one of the spouses owns a business. Extra care is needed to protect the livelihood of the business owner and to ensure the non-business-owning spouse receives a fair share.
    • Substantive Consolidation: Adding Assets to the Bankruptcy Pot
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    • Substantive consolidation is an equitable doctrine that allows a bankruptcy court to join entities that are members of the same group but are legally separate. This process typically has the effect of adding more assets to the pot for paying off creditors but also puts at a disadvantage creditors of the entities with higher asset-to-debt ratios.

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    • Smart Phone Wars 2014: Apple vs. Android
    • State Bar Practice Management Advisor Nerino Petro discusses differences between Apple and Android smart phones and suggests what users should look for when buying a phone.
Feb
2014

Features

    • Succession Planning: Where Will Your Firm’s New Leaders Come From?
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    • By 2020, half of the workforce will near retirement age. What does this mean to you? If you want your firm to continue and prosper after you, your partners, or key staff members retire, you must act now. At a minimum, you must identify the lawyers and clients who bring the most value to the firm and adopt ways to pass on lawyers’ knowledge and client relationships.

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Mar
2014

Features

    • A Conversation on Supreme Court Term Limits
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    • Judicial Election Steering Committee members discuss a Judicial Task Force proposal to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to change the term of office for Wisconsin Supreme Court justices to a single elected 16-year term. Read how the task force arrived at its recommendation and how the steering committee is encouraging its acceptance.
    • Surrogacy Law Still Uncertain
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    • The clearest conclusion to be drawn from the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision in Rosecky v. Schissel, a surrogacy-agreement case, is that Wisconsin law concerning such agreements is still far from well-defined.
    • Public Trust and Agency Discretion Principles Intact
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    • Following Rock-Koshkonong Lake District v. Wisconsin DNR, the bedrock principles of the public trust doctrine in Wisconsin – the civil right of the public to use and enjoy navigable waters, and the broad rule of standing to protect that right – remain firmly intact.

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Apr
2014

Features

    • Legal Innovation: Ideas that Spark Change
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    • The legal profession and marketplace are experiencing rapid change, with more to come. To survive and thrive, law firms must find ways to innovate to improve outcomes. Read what drives firms to innovate and how some Wisconsin lawyers and judges are doing just that. Then, nominate a Wisconsin Legal Innovator so we can tell their stories, too.
    • Returning to First Principles? Governmental Immunity in Wisconsin
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    • The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 2012-13 decisions involving the governmental immunity statute not only reiterated the practical limits of such immunity but also opened the door to governmental actors being held responsible for potentially costly nuisance-abatement processes.

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    • That's a Fine Idea! Legal Innovation Wisconsin
    • The practice of law is undergoing historic change. Tell us about the innovators and ideas that are bringing positive change to Wisconsin’s legal landscape. Through “That's a Fine Idea! Legal Innovation Wisconsin,” the State Bar of Wisconsin will showcase examples of legal innovation already underway. Help us tell that story. Nominate a Wisconsin Legal Innovator at ThatsaFineIdea.com or www.wisbar.org/innovate.
May
2014

Features

    • Cha-Ching: Avoiding Sales and Use Tax Audits of Law Firms
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    • Many items of tangible personal property and certain services purchased by law firms are taxable. A firm’s failure to evaluate all purchases, especially those from out-of-state vendors, to determine whether a sales or use tax liability is owed could result in substantial interest charges and penalties if the law firm is audited by the Department of Revenue. Read how Wisconsin’s sales and use tax rules apply to many common law firm purchases and what your firm should do if selected for audit.
    • From the Central Sands to the Central Kingdom: Navigating Civil Litigation in China
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    • Many Wisconsin companies have operations in China or do business with companies based in China. United States companies have been litigants in a variety of cases – from antitrust litigation involving retail price maintenance to product liability, trade disparagement, unfair competition, and contractual disputes – and numbers of cases are trending as the Chinese market matures. Learn about the differences between the Chinese and American legal systems to prepare you for litigation in China.
Jun
2014

Features

    • Estate Planning Metamorphosis: Wisconsin’s New Trust Code
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    • The new Wisconsin Trust Code, effective July 1, 2014, is transformative and makes Wisconsin a better place to administer trusts. It answers basic questions not covered in the previous trust code and provides new tools that add flexibility for estate planning attorneys and their clients.
    • Keep Your Case Afloat: Wisconsin’s Court Competency Doctrine
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    • A court’s competency to hear a particular dispute is a procedural issue that can torpedo a party’s case before it is considered on the merits. Generally, a court lacks competency to hear a case if a litigant fails to comply with a statutory mandate. Learn how to avoid case-sinking hazards.
    • Lights On: Litigating Shareholder Disputes
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    • When shareholders in nonstatutory close corporations want to leave the business, there is only one statutory remedy: judicial dissolution of the close corporation. Courts and litigants are now finding ways to address shareholders’ need for judicial intervention without employing the drastic remedy of dissolving the company.
Jul
2014

Features

    • What Makes Lawyers Happy?
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    • A national study – including roughly 1,600 Wisconsin lawyers – investigated who in the legal profession is happy, or not, and why they feel that way. What makes lawyers happy? It’s not what many people may think.
    • Getting Along: Wisconsin’s Frac Sandbox
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    • Given the large scale and rapid growth of frac sand mining operations in Wisconsin, some conflict between mines and their neighbors probably is unavoidable, but mine owners can promote good relationships by adhering to existing health and environmental laws and regulations.
    • Social Media: Locking the Door to Private Information
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    • The Wisconsin Social Media Protection Act protects individuals against certain social media searches by employers, educational institutions, and landlords. The law contains two basic restrictions, on access to information and on retaliation, but also provides several exceptions.
    • Bob Gagan: A Man With Connections
    • In addition to connecting with members and responding to major issues challenging the profession, State Bar president Bob Gagan enjoys tailgating with his family in their Packer bus.

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Sep
2014

Features

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    • Making Medical Decisions for Minors
    • Medical decision-making for minors can pose knotty legal and ethical dilemmas for parents, health care providers, and lawyers. Tyler Wilkinson highlights considerations for attorneys.
Oct
2014

Features

    • The Road to Rural Practice
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    • Several attorneys who practice in rural areas throughout Wisconsin – from Rice Lake to Marquette, Mich. – explain how they came to practice where they do, what they like about rural practice, and what challenges they face.
    • Decoding the Maze: Wisconsin’s Campaign Finance Laws
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    • The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently urged state lawmakers to update the statutes, calling Wisconsin campaign finance laws “labyrinthian and difficult to decipher.” Such a task may be easier said than done, however.
    • Super Commuting: Beware Double Taxation of Income
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    • Many Americans live in one state and work in a distant one. Current tax rules do not deal well with this circumstance and so these “super commuters” may face double taxation of their income, both by their state of residence and the state in which the income is earned.
Nov
2014

Features

    • Reefer Madness: Lighting Up in the Dairyland
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    • Because marijuana is legal in other states, the question addressed here is if a Wisconsin employee is legally lighting up in another state, can a Wisconsin employer fire that employee? The short answer is yes.
    • Unequal Bargaining Power: Navigating Arbitration Clauses
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    • Increasingly, the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Federal Arbitration Act to apply to parties of unequal bargaining power, making it more difficult for individuals and businesses subject to adhesion contracts to exercise their legal rights.
Dec
2014

Features

    • Energy Upgrades: Creative Financing for Commercial Property
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    • Projects to gain energy efficiency to reduce costs are top of mind for commercial building owners, but financing through traditional lending practices is hard to come by. Property Assessed Clean Energy programs are a new statutory financing mechanism that provides a new opportunity for general-practice attorneys to offer building-efficiency upgrade solutions for a variety of clients.

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