Uncategorized

UNTIL DEATH DO US PART …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

Depending on your point of view the phrase “until death do us part” can either sound hopelessly romantic or like another way to say “albatross around my neck” – and no, I am not speaking of a traditional marriage. In Idaho, a business partnership...

Read More

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

BE IT RESOLVED … to clean up your business “act” in the New Year. Here are a few suggestions of areas where most small businesses would do well to pay more attention:  Inventory.  No, not the widget-counting kind (although if you’re in the widget-selling...

Read More

HOW’S THE VIEW FROM YOUR FISCAL CLIFF …?

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

‘Tis the season to wrap up loose ends for and take stock of the financial health of your business.  Are there any looming “fiscal cliffs” in your business’s near future?  Here’s a checklist for taking inventory: Do you have sufficient elasticity...

Read More

USE A LITTLE HORSE SENSE …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

In my practice, I occasionally come across small business owners that appear to be confused regarding the difference between an independent contractor and an employee. Oftentimes, this confusion is fueled by a misguided belief that it is better to “1099”...

Read More

GOING TO THE CHAPEL …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

If you’re going to the chapel to get hitched with a business partner, you need a pre-nuptial agreement.  For a limited liability company, the document is officially called an Operating Agreement. For a corporation, the concepts discussed below may...

Read More

FREEDOM OF CONTRACT …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

Generally speaking, public policy favors the right of two or more people to enter into an agreement for whatever purpose they agree upon. In legal terms, this policy is called “the freedom of contract”.  But the freedom of contract is not without...

Read More

LET THE MASTER ANSWER …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

Most business owners like the idea of being self-employed and, therefore, the “master of their universe”.  But the downside of that dominion is that sometimes the business and/or its owner(s) may be liable in damages for its employees’ conduct...

Read More

LET THE MASTER ANSWER, Part II …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

Last week’s blog addressed the legal theory called respondeat superior, or “let the master answer”.  As discussed, if an employee injures someone (or something) during the course and scope of his or her employment, under the respondeat superior...

Read More

THE LOW DOWN ON PRODUCT DISPARAGEMENT …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

The recent events surrounding the on-again, off-again relationship between Ogden’s Own Distillery and the Idaho State Liquor Division (ISLD) over the “tastefulness” of Ogden’s Own’s “Five Wives Vodka” (see Idaho Business Review, June 6,...

Read More

WHAT’S PAST IS PROLOGUE …

Author: Molly O'LearyOn: Mar 24Categories: Business, Uncategorized No Comments

Assuming the role of president for the Idaho State Bar in July of 2013 prompted me to spend some time reflecting on some of the role models in my life.  The first such role model was my mother, Mary Kathryn Callaghan O’Leary.  As a song my younger...

Read More