Law firms are organic entities. They grow, they evolve, they expand their capabilities, and they incorporate and absorb new people. All firms experience growing pains when someone new joins the practice. For many firms, every September sees not just one ...
Read More »Complete Communicator: Artificial Intelligence vs. genuine wisdom: Why lawyers remain necessary and continue to add value
AI looms over every conversation these days, equal parts promise and threat. While there is much talk about how chatbots and generative AI will start writing briefs and crafting arguments, those discussions miss the point. The real value lawyers bring ...
Read More »Complete Communicator: #1 Goal for 2024: Pay attention
We’re all now six weeks into our New Year’s resolutions. We’ve already figured out which ones we’re likely to stick with and which ones we’ve already abandoned. Hopefully, one of your personal or professional goals requires improving your skills and ...
Read More »A cure worse than the disease? What to know about the Massachusetts SJC’s recent anti-SLAPP decisions
In its recent decisions in Bristol Asphalt Co., Inc. v. Rochester Bituminous Products, Inc., 493 Mass. 539 (2024) (“Bristol”), the SJC makes its intention clear: to go back to a simpler framework when addressing anti-SLAPP litigation reminiscent of that found ...
Read More »NLRB: ‘Black Lives Matter’ insignia allowed
The NLRB has issued a decision in Home Depot USA, Inc., holding that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act when it discharged an employee for refusing to remove the hand-drawn letters “BLM” — the acronym for “Black Lives Matter” — ...
Read More »Clarifying the undue hardship standard in response to requests for reasonable accommodation
A post-COVID tug-of-war is playing out between employers calling workers back to the office and employees who want to work from home. Among other reasons, employers focus on the importance of in-person collaboration, mentoring, and performance monitoring. On the other ...
Read More »Your clients are using AI, you need to be ready
Since the launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, the reactions of lawyers to artificial intelligence have varied from scorn and denial to fear. Lawyers have famously gotten into trouble for failing to double check citations generated by artificial intelligence. ...
Read More »Borrower beware: early construction and mechanic’s lien coverage
Construction loans are different from other mortgage loans in that the construction lender makes advances of loan funds to the borrower as work is completed in multiple (typically monthly) draws over the course of the loan term, rather than making ...
Read More »Commercial real estate equity investing
In the commercial real estate world, raising equity for real estate investment and deploying the private equity model of investing have been increasingly commonplace. Before the stock market crash of 1987, bank underwriting standards were far looser than today, with ...
Read More »Massachusetts courts reticent to find ‘true deadlock’ when applying ‘Koshy’ framework to shareholder disputes in private companies
For years, courts in all jurisdictions across the United States wrestled with what constitutes a “deadlock” for a privately-held company, but without attempting to fashion an overall framework for evaluating claims of deadlock. That changed with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial ...
Read More »