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Compensation is never just compensation. In a closely held business, how people are paid is a proxy for everything else: ...

Nothing destabilizes a business faster than uncertainty about who owns what. Ownership percentages are not abstract ...

If you don’t know your exit strategy — for you and the business — there is no exit. A story from 2015 in New England: a ...

Once a trial is scheduled, the business relationships you thought you had do not exist anymore. “Contract law is ...

Litigation is a business decision, not a moral one — the courtroom doesn’t care who feels betrayed. Most business ...

A bad contract will outlive every good intention. In 2014, the surviving members of Monty Python reunited for a series ...

There is a point in many negotiations where the conversation starts to slow down. The major terms are agreed to. The ...

There is a specific look business lawyers see on clients’ faces when they finally pick up the phone. It is the look of ...

There is a point in almost every business dispute where someone says, “We should have dealt with this earlier.” It is ...

There is a shift that happens early in many business disputes that has nothing to do with the underlying issue. It has ...

There is a moment in many disputes when someone says, “That’s not what we intended.” It is usually said with confidence, ...

There is a point in nearly every business dispute where the conversation collapses into a version of the same exchange: ...

Most business lawsuits don’t start with a legal problem; they start with a communication problem. Most companies imagine ...

Plenty of business owners are willing to fight about the “big” issues. Price. Equity. Control. Term length. Territory. ...

Contracts don’t prevent disputes — they arm you for when the dispute arrives. Most business owners want contracts to be ...

Every business has a story. How decisions were made. Who had authority. Why money moved when it did. What was approved, ...

Every business relationship starts with alignment. People talk about partnership. They talk about shared goals. They ...

True story: a woman died at Disney World in Orlando. Her husband sued Disney for negligence. Disney moved to have the ...

There’s a moment in nearly every business dispute when someone says, with complete sincerity, “But we already decided ...

A company grows faster than its agreements. Decision-making shifts without anyone ‘getting around to’ updating the ...

Most partnership breakups don’t end with slammed doors or dramatic walkouts. The slammed door or dramatic walkout was ...