Attorney Timothy Van de Kamp of the law firm of O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong and Laing was elected to the Board of Directors of Real Estate Alliance for Charity (REACH). REACH is the primary charity organization of Commercial Association of REALTORS® (CARW), and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from generous professionals in the […]
Effective July 2, 2013, Wisconsin eliminated its Building Contractor Registration Program.[1] The Building Contractor Registration Program was eliminated in connection with the passage of Wisconsin’s Biennial Budget Act. A new statute was also enacted that prohibits the Department of Safety and Professional Services from creating or enforcing any administrative rule that would require any person […]
Generally, the “ministerial exception” allows religious employers to avoid liability for discrimination claims when making employment decisions concerning employees who qualify as “ministers.” The exception is rooted in religious freedom principles found in the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of […]
Attorney Peter Walsh has published an article titled “Multijurisdictional Practice of Law Issues in Estate Planning,” in the June, 2013 issue of the national estate planning magazine Estate Planning (an RIA Publication). The article addresses the complex issue of the extent to which an estate planning attorney may provide legal services to a resident of […]
Historically, if a person is no longer able to make decisions regarding their health or finances, one had to commence a legal proceeding to have the person declared incompetent. The court then appointed a guardian and, to some degree, played a supervisory role over the guardian’s decisions and actions. People often created Powers of Attorney […]
Almost 99% of today’s information created by businesses is generated and stored electronically. The ability to easily and conveniently store large amounts of data has created a hidden liability that did not exist in the age of when companies maintained its information primarily in paper format. The effect of this hidden liability is twofold. First, […]
The EEOC is statutorily obligated to enter into confidential conciliation efforts with an employer prior to commencing a lawsuit. Only if the EEOC is unable to secure a conciliation agreement acceptable to it may it bring a civil action, as conciliation is a condition precedent to the EEOC’s power to sue. The purpose of this […]
OSHA has literally opened the door for union organizers to enter an employer’s non-union facility during an OSHA walkaround inspection. In a February 21, 2013 interpretation letter, Richard E. Fairfax, OSHA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary, opined that employees without a collective bargaining agreement may designate a person affiliated with a union or community organization to act […]
To maintain its relevancy and expand the scope of its authority, the NLRB continues its attack upon non-union employers’ policies. This time the NLRB has positioned its cross-hairs upon employers’ “at-will” employment policies or statements. Most non-union employers include within their employee handbook a statement that employees’ employment is “at-will,” meaning either the employee or […]
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has taken the position, in a recent Advice Memorandum dated January 29, 2013, that an employer’s confidentiality rule may unlawfully interfere with employees’ Section 7 rights. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 USC § 157) guarantees employees the right to engage in concerted activities for the […]
