The Innovator’s Counsel: Financial Due Diligence – Let’s Buy a Company!
The primary objective of financial due diligence is to develop a comprehensive and focused review to assist a potential buyer in the uation of a target business (“Target), usually in connection with a transaction.
When you’re considering buying a company, or some part of it, the performance of proper...
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The Innovator’s Counsel: A Bird’s Eye View of the Massachusetts LLC Statute
A Limited Liability Company (“LLC”) is an unincorporated legal entity organized under a state limited liability company law that offers limited liability to all of its owners, who are called “members.” Massachusetts has codified its LLC laws as Mass. Gen. Laws c. 156C (“MA LLC Statute”). While all 50 states now have...
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The Innovator’s Counsel: Second Edition
If you are at the point where you have either started a business or have decided to start a business, one of the many questions that are probably running through your mind is whether to incorporate. For purposes of this article, when I say “incorporate” or “incorporation”, I am really speaking broadly...
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The Innovator’s Counsel
Welcome all to the first installment of the Innovator’s Counsel! This blog will, in the coming weeks and months, devote itself to issues of interest to innovators and entrepreneurs. Our goal is to make this blog a must read for those who have started a new business or who are interested in...
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Earthquake Hits Many Massachusetts Trusts
Massachusetts’ highest court has held that if an irrevocable and unamendable trust gives the trustee the right, in its sole judgment, to pay any amount directly to one or more beneficiaries or to use any amount to indirectly benefit one or more beneficiaries (for example, paying a beneficiary’s rent), then that allows...
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What Does a “Do Not Resuscitate” Notice in a Person’s Home Mean?
Occasionally, I see a Massachusetts “DNR Notice” in someone’s home (usually the home of an elderly person). The notice is formally named a “Comfort Care-Do Not Resuscitate” notice – “CC/DNR” for short. Recently, I noticed a CC/DNR in an elderly client’s home. The client said that she didn’t know much about the...
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U.S. Estate Tax Law — The Wait is Over (Maybe)
At long last, in its first action to avoid the Fiscal Cliff, Congress has enacted a new tax act (The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012).
From a US (but not Massachusetts) gift tax and estate tax perspective the Bush-era tax cuts were made permanent. The most important of...
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New Taxes for 2013
The package of US health care reform laws imposes new taxes starting in 2013. These are not part of the so-called “fiscal cliff”. A solution to the “fiscal cliff” will probably not affect the taxes discussed in this article.
Part 1 – 3.8% Surtax On Certain Amounts and Kinds...
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The New Massachusetts Alimony Statue: What Does it Do?
Massachusetts recently enacted a new comprehensive alimony law which took effect March 1, 2012. The new law is a substantial change from what was the prevailing “old” alimony law. In some ways the old law was inequitable and could cause seemingly unfair consequences. Some of the most important changes which are viewed...
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The Schoolyard Lawyer: School Discipline for Students Not Yet Eligible for Special Education
When a regular education student violates the school handbook, the school can discipline that student according to the policies and procedures set forth in the handbook. When the discipline involves a special education student, however, the IDEA requires the school to follow certain additional procedures when disciplining that student. Those procedures are...
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It’s official: the Massachusetts Alimony Law has Passed
On September 26, 2011, Governor Patrick signed the long-awaited alimony bill into law, potentially ending many lifetime alimony awards across the state. The previous Massachusetts law required the court to consider a number of factors when determining alimony, but it did not provide guidelines for judges to determine the length of the...
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FERPA: The Federal Law of Student Records
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, is a Federal law that protects the privacy of students’ education records and access to those records, and applies to schools that receive federal financial assistance under the U.S. Department of Education, including elementary and secondary schools as well as postsecondary schools. FERPA prohibits...
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