Practice Resources
March 2012
From left to right: Frank Morrissey, chair and Brian Glennon, vice chair
Note from Business Law Leadership
Welcome to the Business Law newsletter. This newsletter contains
information about CLE programs, meetings, hot legal developments
and other section news.
Please contact either of us at [e-mail jstevens] if you have comments or
suggestions for the newsletter, or wish to post a notice.
Frank Morrissey, chair (left)
Brian Glennon, vice chair (right)
Business Law Section Council
Upcoming Business Law Section Council meeting
The Business Law Section Council is sponsoring an open meeting
for Western Mass. section members on Tuesday, March 27, from 6 to
7:30 p.m. at the MBA's Western Mass. office, 73 State St.,
Springfield.
Professor Eric J. Gouvin of the Western New England University
School of Law will speak about innovative programs for teaching
transactional law, both at his school and across the nation, and
suggest ways the bar can support those efforts.
Gouvin is the director of the Law and Business Center for
Advancing Entrepreneurship at Western New England University and is
on the Board of Editors for the Kauffmann Foundation's eLaw
website, which provides resources to legal educators who want to
bring entrepreneurship and transactional law into the
classroom.
He is past chair of the American Bar Association's Business Law
Section's Committee on Business Law Education, chair of the ABA
Section on Legal Education's Committee on Adjunct Faculty and
chair-elect of the Association of American Law School's Section on
Transactional Law and Skills. Gouvin has written and spoken on this
topic to a range of audiences across the country.
All Western Mass. Business Law section members are invited to
attend.
We hope you can attend this program and network with your fellow
MBA members.
Volunteer at the Greater Boston Food Bank, April 4
The Business Law Section and Young Lawyers
Division are sponsoring an evening of volunteering at The Greater
Boston Food Bank on Wednesday, April 4 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The Food
Bank is located on 70 South Bay Ave., Roxbury near the South Bay
Shopping Center, right of the Expressway.
Volunteers will inspect, sort and repack donated grocery
products that are then distributed to hunger relief agencies. All
volunteers are trained in food safety at the beginning of the
shift. Volunteers work together as a team on an assembly line with
some volunteers loading boxes onto conveyer belts, other volunteers
inspecting and sorting products, and others checking and labeling
boxes. A few of these "jobs" require the ability to lift a box of
about 30 pounds, but the majority of positions simply require that
a volunteer can stand and inspect products for a few hours.
Volunteers with special needs or requests can be accommodated with
advance notice.
The Business Law section has volunteered at the Food Bank in
the past and all who attended enjoyed their time "on the
line."
If you are interested in participating,
contact John Pregmon at [e-mail jpregmon] by Friday, March
23.
Register for the Business Law "Lifecycle of a Business" series
Join the Business Law Section Council for a four-part series on
the "Life Cycle of a Business." These programs will address the
broad spectrum of legal and practical issues confronted by
businesses at each stage of development.
Designed for both experienced business lawyers as well as new
practitioners, this series will focus on establishing, operating
and concluding Massachusetts business entities. Learn about getting
your client's business off the ground.
Lifecycle of a Business Part 1: 
Forming a Business & Protecting
Assets
Wednesday, March 21, 5-7 p.m.
MBA, 20 West St., Boston
Topics include: Choosing a type of business entity -- pros and
cons of various business entities and factors to consider in
deciding which type to recommend to your business client; and
protecting the product -- Intellectual property basics to help
protect the product or service your business client is selling.
Lifecycle of a Business Part 2:
Land Use/Permitting & Business
Financing
Wednesday, April 25, 5-7 p.m.
MBA, 20 West St., Boston
Topics include: Real property issues including leasing,
selling and purchasing commercial property as well as permitting
issues for your business clients.
Lifecycle of a Business Part 3:
Employment & Business Litigation
Matters
Tuesday, May 15, 5-7 p.m.
MBA, 20 West St., Boston
Topics include: Preventing and handling employment problems
-- drafting employee handbooks, wage claims and independent
contractor issues, wrongful termination and discrimination claims,
and negotiation severance agreements; and commercial litigation
-- traps for the unwary in contracts and business matters.
Lifecycle of a Business Part 4:
Mergers & Acquisitions &
Bankruptcy
Wednesday, June 6, 5-7 p.m.
MBA, 20 West St., Boston
Topics include: Mergers and acquisitions - learn the basics and
must-know traps in selling or merging your client's business; and
bankruptcy - learn about the options for ending the business, when
is bankruptcy appropriate and what other possibilities are
available.
Unable to come to Boston?
These programs are available as real-time Webcasts. When
registering, participants can choose to attend virtually from a
home or office computer. If you choose to attend the programs via
real-time Webcast, space is limited. Registrants will be taken on a
first-come, first-served basis.
March 19 Court Advocacy Day: your presence is needed to send a strong message
Bar participation will help to ensure Mass. courts receive funding needed to provide basic services to public
The Massachusetts Trial Court has
requested $593.9 million worth of funding in FY 2013 to ensure the
quality of justice is not further jeopardized for the citizens of
the commonwealth. To support the court system in their funding
request, the Massachusetts Bar Association and Boston Bar
Association invite the full legal community to join their efforts
at Court Advocacy Day on Monday, March 19 at the Statehouse.
"I encourage all bar members and the greater legal community to
join us on March 19 and continue to support this cause in urging
our legislators to approve necessary funding for our courts," MBA
President Richard P. Campbell said.
According to the recently released "
Justice in the Balance" budget overview, the
court system can "no longer provide the level of service state
residents need and deserve."
To strengthen the message of the need for funding that allows the
Trial Court to provide basic services, the March 19 lobbying event
will begin at 11 a.m. at the Grand Staircase inside the Statehouse.
The event will open with a brief speaking program, after which
attendees will be encouraged to meet with their local
legislators.
In addition to Campbell, featured speakers will include:
- Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland;
- Chief Justice for Administration and Management Robert A.
Mulligan; and
- BBA President Lisa C. Goodheart.
To familiarize yourself with your local representative or senator,
click
here.
The March 19 event complements the MBA's ongoing awareness
campaign on this topic. Information packets will be provided to
event attendees to reference when they meet with their local
legislators to underscore the need for the $593.9 million worth of
funding.
Become a sponsor of the 2012 MBA Annual Dinner
Dinner to include Legislator of the Year Awardee DeLeo and annual Access to Justice Award presentations
The Massachusetts Bar Association will hold its 2012 Annual
Dinner on Thursday, May 31 at the Westin Boston Waterfront, 425
Summer St., Boston. The event will feature the presentation of the
Legislator of the Year Award to Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and the
annual MBA Access to Justice Awards.
Attend this annual event as a sponsor. Sponsorship opportunities
to consider include:
- Platinum Sponsor ($5,000)
Table for 10, full page ad in dinner program, firm logo projected
at the dinner, sponsorship level recognition in Lawyers
Journal and on MBA website
- Gold Sponsor ($3,500)
Table for 10, 1/2 page ad in dinner program, firm logo projected
at the dinner, sponsorship level recognition in Lawyers
Journal and on MBA website
- Silver sponsor ($2,500)
Table for 10, 1/4 page ad in dinner program, firm logo
projected at the dinner
Click here to register for the MBA's
2012 Annual Dinner online. For a printable PDF outlining
sponsorship opportunities and table reservation information,
click
here. For additional information call (617) 338-0543.
The MBA is on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
Join the conversation today
The Massachusetts Bar Association is pleased to announce its
official Facebook fan page. To "Like" our new Facebook page, click here and please suggest your friends
"Like" our page as well.
The addition of Facebook means the MBA has a presence on three
social networking platforms, including LinkedIn, launched in January 2010, and Twitter,
launched in July 2009. All three social media platforms feature
information about the MBA including CLE, events and news.
As an MBA member, we encourage you to both post items of
interest to you, and the greater legal community, on these pages
and comment on items already posted.
Put your name out there
The goal of section councils is to offer members opportunities
for professional growth and development through participation in
section activities. One opportunity available to section members is
publishing articles which are of interest to fellow practitioners.
The MBA provides several forums for articles by section members -
Lawyers Journal and the Massachusetts Law Review.
If you are interested in writing an article for any of these
publications or if you have seen articles which you think may be of
interest to other Business Law Section members, please contact Jean Stevens for more information regarding this
opportunity.