Advisories
CORPORATE & BUSINESS
HOW WILL THE CORONAVIRUS IMPACT YOUR CONTRACTS?
The coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented in our modern history and economy. Because so much of our business world revolves around contracts and the terms that parties use to make their agreements, the words they use matter. Two of those words that are becoming increasingly important … READ MORE
ENHANCED BANKRUPTCY OPTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES UNDER THE CARES ACT
With little fanfare, the Bankruptcy Code received its first major revision in 15 years in February 2020. This new revision – called “Subchapter V” – is primarily designed to make it easier for qualified small businesses with total secured and unsecured debt of up to… READ MORE
The Pros and Cons of Representation and Warranty Insurance in Merger and Acquisition Transactions
Representation and warranty insurance (“RWI”) has been around for some time. Historically, it was most commonly used in large transactions, often involving publicly traded companies. However, in recent years it has become much more common in… READ MORE
What Is “Shadow Preferred Stock” and When Should It Be Used?
The use of convertible promissory notes or, in recent years, “SAFEs” – Simple Agreements for Future Equity – have been common structures used by early stage companies to raise seed capital… READ MORE
What Investors and Developers Should Know About Opportunity Funds
Opportunity Zone (“OZ”) investments were sanctioned by changes to the Internal Revenue Code included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (See IRC section 1400Z-2). The purpose was to encourage investment in economically depressed areas by providing investors with …. READ MORE
Artificial Intelligence – What The Developing Landscape Means For Your Business
The Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) industry is rapidly emerging as one of the most interesting new advancements likely to impact a broad array of industries. AI is well beyond the nascent stages of development, and is quickly taking center stage as a gateway profit maximizer for forward-thinking business leaders. In short, AI has arrived… READ MORE
Business Succession Planning Is Not “One Size Fits All”
Succession planning has different meanings depending upon whether one is referring to a change in ownership of a business, transfer of an estate o developing a management team to take over for an owner desirous of retiring. In the business context, succession planning is not limited to the preparation of wills and trusts in an estate plan or providing equity compensation to key employees… READ MORE
Municipal Barriers to Cannabis Enterprises
The nation’s burgeoning patchwork of state cannabis industries are arguably the most heavily regulated industries in the land. While most investors and aspiring operators have a certain level of awareness regarding the complexities that await them in compliance with state-specific regulations, many overlook the gating issues that exist in the arena of municipal compliance… READ MORE
Pros And Cons Of LLCS Electing S Corporation Status
An S corporation is a business corporation (or more recently, an LLC or partnership) organized under state law that elects to be treated, for income tax purposes, as a so-called “S corporation,” under Subchapter S of the Internal Revenue Code. S corporations have been around for over 60 years. They were enacted primarily to assist small business owners by permitting them the benefits of operating as a corporation (less personal liability, etc.) and at the same time avoiding double income tax on business profits… READ MORE
New Massachusetts Law Limiting Employee Non-Compete Agreements
After numerous failed attempts, the Massachusetts legislature has finally passed a new law limiting non-compete agreements between a company and its employees and independent contractors. The legislation was signed into law by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Banker on August 10, 2018. It becomes effective on October 1, 2018… READ MORE
Succession Planning And The Family Limited Partnership Solution
Representing closely held family businesses often involves counseling the founders with regard to developing a succession plan that involves the children. The potential transfer of power and authority within a family business is one of the greatest concerns of the owners. “Having your cake and eating it too” is the general theme of the founder who does not want to squander family assets or give up control of the enterprise. One solution and consideration to this dilemma is transferring minority ownership and retaining control through the use of a family limited partnership (“FLP”)… READ MORE
New Rules Governing IRS Audits Of Tax Partnerships
Effective January 1, 2018, the IRS has made significant changes in the rules applicable to audits of entities treated as partnerships for tax purposes. This includes both general and limited partnerships as well as many limited liability companies… READ MORE
Family Business Disputes… Like An Awkward Thanksgiving?
Family gatherings at Thanksgiving often bring a mix of emotions: happiness at being re-united with loved ones who may live far away, but also sometimes stress over strained family relationships caused by a myriad of reasons… READ MORE
Will the CEO See the Crisis Coming? Or, What Do Wells Fargo, United Airlines and Uber Have in Common?
The daily news is filled with reports of corporate clumsiness and misdeeds, whether affecting employees or customers, or violations of law or societal norms, that threaten the goodwill and value of the companies involved. Why do such blunders occur, and how should company leadership both prevent the likelihood of such occurrences and respond when a crisis arises?… READ MORE
Convertible Notes, “Safes” and “Kisses”: A Primer for Early Stage Companies Seeking Outside Investors
It is a rare company that can fund its growth using only internal cash flow. Start-ups and early stage companies can be particularly challenged because they often do not have access to either bank financing or venture capital since both sources typically require several years of positive operating results before a company becomes a viable candidate for either… READ MORE
Planning to Sell Your Company? The Pros and Cons of Asset Sales, Stock Sales and Mergers
Once you decide to sell your company and identify a potential buyer, one of the many issues you will have to negotiate with the buyer is how the sale will be structured. The most common structures are a sale of assets, a sale of stock or a merger. Before you get into a negotiation of structure, it is important to understand the pros and cons of each… READ MORE
Medical Franchising: A Practice Model for the Millennium
Physician satisfaction is at a low-point, with one-third of family physicians and over half of certain specialists saying they would not choose to become doctors again if given a second chance.1 Shrinking reimbursements and a fifteen-minute patient encounter spent typing into the electronic medical record have turned the old-fashioned physician-patient relationship into a distant memory. Further, those practitioners who have sought relief from large, hospital based practices or accountable care organizations have often found themselves just as pressured by their new RVU compensation models, by quality metrics that often do not reflect the latest research, and by the ethical dilemmas present in systems where care-management eligibility is based upon the patient’s payment model… READ MORE
Shareholder Demands for Confidential Company Information
What Are The Company’s Rights And Obligations? Public companies are required to provide, on a regular basis, extensive information about their businesses and financial condition. All of that information is readily available to shareholders and others. Conversely, similar information regarding private companies is generally not available, even to its shareholders. For that reason, the laws of virtually every state give private company shareholders limited rights to receive non-public information regarding a private company in which they own an equity interest… READ MORE
The Pros & Cons of Dual Class Stock Structures
A so-called “dual class stock” structure is a tried and true method of ensuring that a group of shareholders (usually insiders, such as all or some of the founders, senior management or early investors in the company) maintain voting power that is disproportionate to their economic interest in the company… READ MORE
New Massachusetts Law Mandates Equal Pay For Comparable Work
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker recently signed into law a new Massachusetts statute designed to ensure that male and female employees are paid equally for comparable work. However, the new statute does not become effective until July 1, 2018. The so-called “Act to Establish Pay Equality” (the “Act”) has both a laudable purpose and the potential to create a compliance nightmare for employers… READ MORE
Death, Disability and the Closely-Held Business
Our financial life has many stages involving shorthand long-term goals. An attorney, like any other business owner, devotes considerable energy and resources to creating and growing their business. This process does not end until retirement… READ MORE
Planning for the Next Step in the Family Business
During the course of my career, I have represented family businesses of all shapes and sizes. It is an accepted fact that 95% of the businesses in the US are family owned and in many cases survive into two or more generations… READ MORE
Common Mistakes by Private Companies
Legal issues arise for every business. Typically, privately owned companies do not have in-house counsel. To avoid expensive legal problems before they occur, wise business owners conduct thorough periodic reviews of policies and practices to identity and address areas that need improvement… READ MORE
CYBER LAW ADVISORIES
Why Cyber Insurance is Not Enough
In case the title of this article creates any ambiguity, let that be resolved right away: cyber insurance is a good idea. Cyber breaches are an undeniable part of 21st century reality, and any business thinking that a robust Privacy and Security program will automatically shield it from a sanctionable event is engaging in a legal strategy known since Roman times as pium desiderium. Wishful thinking… READ MORE
The Real Risk Of GDPR Non-Compliance In Your Organization
American businesses, as a whole, are far behind their European counterparts in the extent of their compliance with GDPR, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. One of the most common reasons for this is also one of the most natural: it simply flies in the face of many Americans that their domestic activities might be governed by some European regulation. We did, after all, fight a war about a similar “taxation without representation” issue some 240 years ago… READ MORE
The Danger Of A WISP
For businesses that maintain data on customers or, increasingly, their own employees, the term “WISP” should be familiar. A WISP, or Written Information Security Program, is the document by which an entity spells out the administrative, technical and physical safeguards by which it protects the privacy of the personally identifiable information it stores… READ MORE
Prioritizing Cybersecurity
Lawyers today face enormous pressure in real time to adopt new technologies and those who do not may find it difficult to satisfy clients who expect immediate and continuous access to their attorney. The rules of professional conduct impose a duty on lawyers to provide competent representation, and the term “competence” would include at least a working familiarity with the technology that makes up much of the fabric of the clients’ day-to-day lives from a personal and professional perspective… READ MORE
NONPROFIT ADVISORIES
The For-Profit Subsidiary as a Strategy for the Nonprofit
Leadership in nonprofit organizations are challenged to find alternate strategies to generate revenue to support their mission, which have traditionally included fundraising and grants. The sources of income are shrinking for these categories making it ever more critical for leadership to think outside the traditional forms of third-party financial support…READ MORE
Analysis of a Tax-Exempt Nonprofit Organization
Tax-exempt organizations exist for purposes recognized by federal law to fill a need not otherwise provided by government in the areas of charitable, educational, scientific and literary. The restrictions on revenue and profit for tax-exempt organizations are designed to maintain an even playing field with for-profit organizations while providing an opportunity to sustain the existence of nonprofits… READ MORE
Best Practices Checklist for Effective Nonprofit Management
The board of trustees of a nonprofit organization has a fiduciary responsibility relating to policies, procedures and governance matters. The organization should conduct an annual review of its mission statement, structure, compliance policies, and financial viability in order to confirm that the business operation is being conducted in a manner consistent with the mission statement of the organization, as well as State and Federal law… READ MORE
Fiduciary Duties for the Board Member of a Nonprofit Organization
In Rhode Island as in most jurisdictions, board members for nonprofit organizations have broad oversight authority and they have the ability to directly impact policies for governance, financial matters and the strategic planning of their organization… READ MORE
First it was Enron …Then Big Banks …. Is the Nonprofit Next?
It has been more than a decade since the American Competitiveness and Corporate Accountability Act of 2002 (“Sarbanes-Oxley Act”) was signed into law and we have now had another recession caused in large part by irresponsible lending by banks. It was the same type of actions by Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and others that changed the corporate regulatory landscape forever; however, we seem to continue the trend of pushing the envelope in terms of transparency… READ MORE
HEALTH CARE LAW ADVISORIES
Project Nightingale and the Take-Away Lesson for Providers And Payors
There has been much ado lately about a newly-revealed joint venture between Ascension Medical Group and Google. Ascension is the nation’s largest non-profit health care system; Ascension Medical Group is the company’s subsidiary physician group, with facilities in more than twenty states. Google is, well, Google. The joint venture… READ MORE
Opting Out: The Ultimate MACRA Alternative
If yours is one of the small clinical practices with less than $30,000 in Medicare revenue or fewer than 100 unique Medicare patients per year, October 2nd, 2017 will be just another Monday for you. However, for most Medicare-participating healthcare practitioners, October 2nd will mark the day that their practice becomes subject to significant reporting requirements and financial risk under the Quality Payment Program of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (“MACRA”)… READ MORE
Challenges for Nursing Homes
Nursing home owners are significantly challenged to remain in compliance with federal and state regulations regarding resident care, admission and reimbursement. They must make certain they are in compliance with federal and state regulations… READ MORE
Cybersecurity and Health Care
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil Rights, during the first six months of 2015 more than 94 million individuals were subject to security breaches at health care organizations… READ MORE
Chronic Care Management by Federally Qualified Health Centers
Beginning on January 1, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will reimburse Federally Qualified Health Centers for non face-to-face Chronic Care Management (“CCM”) services… READ MORE
Advanced Care Planning
Beginning on January 1, 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will reimburse physicians and non-physician practitioners for certain Advanced Care Planning (“ACP”) services… READ MORE
PLDO Criminal Defense Attorneys Obtain Deferred Prosecution Agreement for Health Care Organization – First in the Nation
A Rhode Island Hospital and several of its key personnel were indicted by a grand jury on criminal charges of conspiracy and scheming to defraud the State of Rhode Island and its citizens. The charges stemmed from a federal investigation into the executive directors’ hiring of a part-time consultant to purportedly promote the activities of a corporation affiliated with the Hospital. The issue was that the part-time consultant was also a politician… READ MORE
Patient Engagement Results in Better Health and Lower Costs
Patient engagement and access to relevant data are essential to achieving the primary goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which include better health and lower costs. Reducing emergency room visits and readmissions are critical to reducing the overall costs of healthcare and in theory, if an individual is involved in their own healthcare needs, has access to a primary care physician and current medical records the incident for admission to an emergency room should be extremely low. Achieving better health requires that the patient is armed with the right tools, technology and team… READ MORE
EMPLOYMENT LAW ADVISORIES
Rights of Workers in the Burgeoning Gig Economy
A growing workforce of freelancers and independent contractors who have the freedom to decide on the duration and frequency of their work is changing the employer-employee relationship. The expanded population and earning capacity of “gig” workers is expected to continue and is now part of the 21st century “gig economy.”….READ MORE
New Rhode Island Law Requires Employers To Provide Paid Sick Leave
Rhode Island became the eighth state to pass a paid sick leave law. (R.I. Gen. Laws 28-57-1et seq). The law requires Rhode Island employers with 18 or more employees to provide paid sick and safe leave as of July 1, 2018. For employers with less than 18 employees, the law mandates that employers allow use of unpaid sick leave…READ MORE
TRUST & ESTATE PLANNING ADVISORIES
End-Of-Year Tax Planning Tips and What You Should Know For 2020
As we approach the end of 2019, taxpayers need to be mindful to position themselves to minimize their state and federal income tax liability, which is due by April 15 of 2020. This is accomplished by accelerating deductions and deferring income….READ MORE
Establishing A Florida Domicile
An individual who establishes his or her domicile in Florida enjoys several benefits including no personal income tax, no capital gains tax, no state gift tax, and no state estate or inheritance tax. Further, Floridians enjoy asset protection in the form of strong state laws that exempt their homestead, retirement assets, insurance, and certain spousal joint property from being used to satisfy a creditor’s judgment against an individual…READ MORE
The Florida Homestead Advantage
Individuals have been flocking to Florida for years. So, what’s so great about Florida? It’s not just the weather. Individuals who establish their homestead in Florida enjoy the following benefits:…READ MORE
Why Your Domicile Is A Key Factor In Estate Planning
Having an up-to-date estate plan is important for many reasons, one of which is to ensure you have properly planned to minimize the federal and state estate tax. The federal estate tax exemption in 2019 is $11.4 million per person, or $22.8 million per married couple. Although many people do not need to be concerned about federal estate tax, there are 12 states that impose a state estate tax and six states that impose an inheritance tax. Maryland imposes both…READ MORE
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