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While most of the media coverage of sponsorships in college athletics over the last two years has focused on name, image, and likeness (NIL) and athlete endorsement deals (and rightfully so), another tremendous development is taking place. Learfield—the largest multimedia rights (MMR) holder in college athletics—is facing over $1 billion worth of debt payments coming due in the

next year. Although the company remains optimistic publicly, there are major concerns about its ability to satisfy its debt payments. Learfield’s…
Continue Reading Why Sponsors of College Athletics should be Concerned with Learfield’s Financial Troubles

Salesman showing cars to a couple at the dealership
Happy salesman showing cars to a couple at the dealership - car ownership concepts

Good cause is the core protection provided by the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law. In a dealership relationship covered by the WFDL (see our previous blog post that defines a dealership as it pertains to the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law), the grantor cannot terminate, fail to renew, cancel, or substantially change the competitive circumstances of the relationship without “good cause” (as well as proper notice and an opportunity to cure, which we’ll address in a future post). There are…
Continue Reading The Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law Enters Its 50th Year: What is Good Cause?

Getting a divorce can be a complicated and overwhelming process, and it will require you to address numerous financial issues and practical concerns, while also dealing with conflict with your spouse and emotional issues related to the end of your marriage. However, if you and your spouse have a high net worth, things can become even more complex. Because the decisions made during the process of dividing marital property can have a huge impact on your finances both…
Continue Reading 6 Asset Categories to Address in a High Net Worth Divorce

Yesterday, I (and several of my nerd friends, as it would turn out) spoke with Benjamin Penn for an article that ran today in Bloomberg Law about outgoing US Attorney Rachel Rollins, who was found by the Department of Justice’s inspector general to have engaged in wide-ranging violations of government ethics rules. I am not an expert in federal government ethics, far from it, so I stuck to the disciplinary implications of the alleged misconduct.
Relevant here, and…
Continue Reading Talking Honestly About Honesty (When You Can’t Really Talk About Government Ethics)

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“A woman does not become unwomanly by entering fields in which man has heretofore been the principal worker.”
Lavinia Goodell, April 1871

Lavinia Goodell was a lifelong proponent of woman’s suffrage. Although American women did not win the right to the ballot until forty years after her death, during her lifetime Lavinia wrote many articles promoting suffrage. In April 1871, a few months before she left her job at Harper’s Bazar and moved to Wisconsin, Lavinia wrote the first…
Continue Reading “A woman does not become unwomanly by entering fields in which man has heretofore been the principal worker.”

In 1981 Andy Warhol used a photograph made by Lynn Goldsmith as reference for an illustration of the musician Prince. Vanity Fair magazine had hired Warhol to make the illustration; it was to accompany an article about Prince in the magazine’s November 1984 issue. Goldsmith had issued a limited license for this purpose. The license stated her photograph could be used for reference, “one time only.”

Turns out – in addition to the Vanity Fair illustration – Warhol made…
Continue Reading U.S. Supreme Court: Warhol Foundation’s Use of Prince Photograph Not Fair Use

There are many reasons for small and family business owners to consider a marital property agreement. This post will briefly explain Wisconsin law as to ownership of property at death and divorce without a marital property agreement and why executing a marital property agreement can alter those laws to protect business interests and simplify transfer of ownership upon death.

In Wisconsin, spouses are entitled to certain rights during marriage and at death. As Wisconsin is a community property state,…
Continue Reading You Do Not Have to Sign your Life Away: A Brief Primer on the Benefits of Marital Property Agreements

The month of May is going to be eventful, as either a deal on the debt ceiling will be reached (i.e., raising it) or a massive recession and possible economic calamity will strike. Or, just maybe we will get a combination of both because a giant coin or issuance of fancy debt called premium bonds will not resolve all the worries in the world about the United States no longer paying its debts from previous expenditures.

Layoffs, whether…
Continue Reading Jobs, the Debt Ceiling, and Recession

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Historical federal legislative history research just got a little easier.  For the last few years, the Library of Congress has been working to add the Bound Congressional Record to Congress.gov.  It is now available all the way back to 1873, when the Bound Congressional Record started, to 1994. With the daily edition, which is available from 1995 to the present, users can now search the complete run of the Congressional Record using the free Congress.gov.

The Bound Congressional Record…
Continue Reading Complete Congressional Record Back to 1873 Now Searchable in Congress.gov

Beneficiary designations (or sometimes called TOD [Transfer on Death] or POD [Payable on Death] designations) may be placed on almost any financial asset.  A Non-Probate Transfer at Death Deed (“TOD Deed”) may be used to transfer Wisconsin real estate without court to whomever the grantor names in the TOD Deed.  If a Decedent designates beneficiaries on all but fifty thousand dollars’ worth of his or her property, the Decedent will have avoided probate. While this strategy is not appropriate…
Continue Reading Satisfying Bequests in a Will While Avoiding Probate

Estate planning strategies for business owners should consider both your professional and personal goals. As a business owner, you have likely invested a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources into building your company and accumulating wealth. However, without proper estate planning strategies in place, much of that wealth may be lost or subject to unnecessary taxes, fees, or legal disputes. To ensure that your assets are protected and transferred efficiently to your beneficiaries, it’s crucial to consider various…
Continue Reading Top Estate Planning Strategies for Business Owners

School Bus
Yellow school bus crossing a bridge

It is every student’s favorite time of the school year: Field trip season! However, for school districts across Wisconsin grappling with staffing challenges, field trips are additional areas of risk where student needs can go unmet. Such emerging needs might include accommodations for diabetes, the fastest growing chronic disease in children in the United States. On a national scale, from 2001 to 2017, the number of people under age 20 living with Type 1 diabetes increased by 45 percent.
Continue Reading Ride on the Magic School Bus: Navigating Student Needs with Staff Shortages

State v. James J. Socha, 2021AP1083-CR & 2021AP2116-CR, District 1, 4/25/23 (not recommended for publication); case activity (including briefs): 2021AP1083-CR; 2021AP2116-CR

The fact that some of Socha’s prior OWI offenses have been lawfully vacated since he was sentenced may constitute a new factor justifying sentence modification, so the circuit courts erred in denying Socha’s motions for sentence modification without a hearing.

Socha was convicted of OWI 5th or more in 2005 and sentenced to prison, consecutive to…
Continue Reading Post-Sentencing Vacatur of Prior OWIs May Constitute a New Factor Justifying Sentence Modification

The primary goal of Wis. Stat. chapter 48 is to protect children and to preserve families, whenever appropriate. When this cannot be done, “instability and impermanence in family relationships are contrary to the welfare of children and … [there is] importance of eliminating the need for children to wait unreasonable periods of time for their parents to correct the conditions that prevent their safe return to the family.“1

As practitioners, one simple way we can ensure children achieve…
Continue Reading No Contest Pleas to Grounds in TPR Cases: A Practical Guide

On February 24, 2023,  Leanne Diment, on behalf of a proposed class of employees of Quad Graphics and Rise Interactive Media & Analytics, sued her employer for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Specifically, she alleges that her employer forced her to undergo a biometric screen with her physician to avoid having to pay over $1800 more each year in health insurance premium. See Complaint, dkt. #1, Diment v. Quad Graphics, Inc. Case No. 23-cv-1173 (N.D. Ill. 2023).
Continue Reading More Employees Sue Workplace Wellness Programs

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“Baby’s rights was the watchword.”
Maria Goodell Frost, speaking of her sister Lavinia as an infant

On May 2, 1839, Rhoda Lavinia Goodell was born in Utica, New York.

A previous post recounted her father’s letter informing his father-in-law about the birth. Lavinia’s sister, Maria, who was twelve years old at the time, reminisced about the event in her unpublished biography of Lavinia:
Thursday, the 2nd day of May 1839 was ushered into the household a being who seemed…
Continue Reading “Baby’s rights was the watchword.”