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March 20, 2020
How “Force Majeure” Clauses Will Affect Your Business During COVID-19 Do you know if your contracts contain a “force majeure” clause? If not, you could be missing out on some large protections for your business during local and national emergencies. What is a “force majeure” clause? Force-majeure clauses are fairly […]
June 6, 2015
Good Exculpation Clauses Can Limit Your Liability If you rely on exculpation clauses to protect your business from liability, better make sure they are written correctly. Recently, the Illinois Appellate Court was faced with a case where the Plaintiff, while working out with hand weights at a fitness club, was […]
June 4, 2015
“Perpetual” Contracts May Actually Be Terminable “At Will” Be careful how your “perpetual” contracts are written or they could really be terminable “at-will.” The general rule in Illinois is that a contract “without a fixed duration” that does not clearly lay out an event that ends the business relationship—in other […]
June 1, 2015
Not All Debts Are Dischargeable in Bankruptcy A debtor may not be able to discharge debts incurred through its agent’s fraud. The Federal Court for the Northern District recently reiterated that not all debts are dischargeable in bankruptcy. It has long been true that debts procured by way of fraud are barred […]
November 25, 2014
Seventh Circuit Invalidates Franchise Arbitration Provision One-sided arbitration provisions may now be unenforceable in Illinois. It is commonplace for franchise agreements to contain a dispute resolution provision requiring a franchisee to pursue claims against a franchisor through the use of private binding arbitration, as opposed to the judicial court system. However, the […]
April 1, 2014
What are “terms”? Every business deal has layers of terms, some of which are more important than others. We like to call these layers the boulders, rocks, and the sand. Boulders are the biggest terms, the deal breakers. Often times these are non-negotiable. Rocks are the next level in. They […]
April 1, 2014
What is a “Letter of Intent”? A Letter of Intent, or term sheet, outlines the basic terms of a business deal, making sure the parties understand generally what it will look like and forcing them to think through what the deal breakers are. It doesn’t do anyone any good to […]
November 6, 2013
Do-It-Yourself Contracts No. 1 Being an entrepreneur often means doing things yourself. But it doesn’t mean doing them badly. For the past 20 years, Fred had run his own software company. Like any good small-business owner, he wore many hats—HR department, payroll processor, accountant, and chief technical officer, to name a […]
October 15, 2013
Protecting Your Illinois Business Running a business as all about building and maintaining strong business relationships. But business owners sometimes fail to give the proper attention to the use of “standard business terms” in their contracts. In fact, often times, “standard business terms” are disparagingly referred to as merely “boiler plate” […]
September 19, 2013
Illinois’ First Appellate District appears to change the rules for non-compete agreements. Small businesses routinely use non-compete agreements to lock down key employees and keep them from competing against their employers later on. When drafted and executed properly, those agreements can be very useful tools for protecting your company’s client […]