One of the benefits of working at O’Neil Cannon is the firm’s strong commitment to public service. The Firm encourages its attorneys to give back to our community. I am honored to serve on the Board of The Wisconsin Law Foundation. The Wisconsin Law Foundation is the charitable arm of the State Bar of Wisconsin. […]
Articles
Many owners and businesses desire to reward employees with ownership interests for services rendered. This can be a valuable incentive that recognizes past accomplishments and improves employee engagement and retention by allowing them to share in the success of the business without requiring a capital investment. While bonuses, raises, or phantom equity can often accomplish […]
A recent Court of Appeals decision provides a tangible example of the costs of ignoring employee benefit compliance requirements. In Tatum v. SFN Group, Inc. (No. 16-11966, 6/23/17), the 11th Circuit affirmed that the purchase price paid for a CFO-outsourcing firm was properly reduced in light of compliance errors in the operation of the company’s […]
What part of selling a business is most important to sellers? Most would respond that receiving the highest purchase price is most important. At first blush, this makes sense. However, sellers often focus on the number of zeros in the purchase price and ignore the fact that paying a large amount of income taxes will […]
Jim DeJong, chairman of the Milwaukee law firm of O’Neil Cannon, provided the keynote address at Carroll University’s Commencement Sunday, May 14. Carroll alumnus DeJong ’73 told 2017 graduates that a lot had changed since his days here but one thing is the same, “Carroll is truly a special place.” And, of course, Gert is […]
Springtime can be a good excuse to “clean house.” If you are evaluating your document retention practices this season, consider these points as you determine what to keep and what to toss: If you are involved in litigation or reasonably anticipate litigation, you are required to keep all documents related to the case by implementing […]
One of the central purposes of liability insurance is to protect the insured by providing a defense in the event of a lawsuit. But what defines the limits of an insurer’s duty to defend its insured under Wisconsin law? How is the insurer to decide whether or not to defend an insured in a given […]
When buying or selling a business, it is critical to take the negotiation and preparation of the letter of intent seriously. All too often, I hear the phrase, “letters of intent are not binding, so we don’t need to spend time negotiating them.” Other times, a new client will have already signed a letter of […]
In March 2017, Milwaukee WISN 12 reported a heart-wrenching story about a criminal investigation alleging two neighbors defrauded a 92-year-old woman suffering from dementia. According to the allegations, they acquired her home as a gift through a deed and gained control of her nearly $2 million in assets through the execution of a durable power […]
In a reversal of a decision of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in In re Pajian rejected a common bankruptcy court practice of not requiring secured creditors to file proofs of claim in order to receive distributions toward pre-petition secured arrearages as […]
