Business Law Section | State Bar of Wisconsin

The Business Law Section brings together members who work in the fields of corporation, banking, partnership, securities, antitrust, trade regulation, commercial law, employer-employee relations, insurance, intellectual property and other areas of business law. Members are focused on developing and improving the law in their areas of expertise.

The State Bar of Wisconsin offers its members the opportunity to network with other lawyers who share a common interest through its 24 sections. Learn more at http://www.wisbar.org/groups.

Website: https://www.wisbar.org/forMembers/Groups/Sections/BusinessLawSection/pages/home.aspx
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Latest from Business Law Section | State Bar of Wisconsin

Just about every business lawyer will negotiate commercial contracts on behalf of their clients. This can be daunting for a new lawyer, particularly because the client will frequently know more about what needs to be in these contracts than they do.

This article aims to demystify the process, providing practical tips and insights to empower new lawyers and attorneys new to business law to negotiate and counsel on commercial contracts with confidence and competence.
What is a Commercial Contract?
Continue Reading 101: How to Negotiate a Commercial Contract for Your Client

Certainties of life include birth, death, and taxes, and for attorneys, continuing legal education (CLE) reporting requirements.​

CLE credits are a critical constant for attorneys, not just a duty as part of being a professional, but essential for maintaining a professional edge and upholding standards of competence and responsibility.

Previous articles, like this one from Nov. 15, 2023, InsideTrack, discuss various methods for earning CLE credit that you may not know about, such as: Whether you are a…
Continue Reading Paths to CLE Opportunities

As the U.S. economy transitions to slower growth, I observed as a Wisconsin corporate attorney that most businesses, including Wisconsin law firms, are concerned about three factors for the rest of 2024:

  • whether the Federal Reserve would be able to bring the inflation rate to the 2% generally acceptable level;
  • whether the U.S. would be able to avoid a recession; and
  • whether businesses can reduce costs and increase productivity by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into their workflows.

Certainly, while…
Continue Reading Business Law and 2024-25 Economic Trends

Intellectual property (IP) is commonly thought to confront technical matters that require a certain amount of scientific or engineering background in order to wrap one’s head around them. In actuality, IP is a diverse ecosystem of intangible property rights that offer extreme value.

Virtually all businesses have some type of IP at play, but they may fail to recognize it if they have a misunderstanding of what IP exactly is. Furthermore, they may fail to take the steps necessary…
Continue Reading The Business Practitioner’s Quick Guide to Intellectual Property

On Wednesday, March 6, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted an amendment to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, titled “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors.”

After a two-year process involving intense lobbying from global industry leaders and influential climate groups, the 3-2 vote in favor of adopting the rule prevailed.

The final rule seeks to meet investors’ demand for “consistent, comparable, and reliable information…
Continue Reading The Impact of the SEC’s New Rule on Climate-related Risks

In her recent Business Law Blog article, “The DEI Landscape in Law Firms,” Mary Purdy focused on how law firms specifically in the Milwaukee market could establish their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. In this article I expand this discussion, by focusing on women in law and the obstacles and opportunities in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) that law firms face on a national scale. Women as the Majority: A Crack in the Glass Ceiling? For the…
Continue Reading Breaking Barriers: The Rise of Women in Law Firms and the Shifting Landscape of Legal Associates Across the Nation

In her Business Law Blog article, “The DEI Conundrum for Companies,” Nadelle Grossman explored both obstacles and opportunities that companies face in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

In this article, I expand that discussion, noting and commenting on ways that law firms can establish or build upon their DEI efforts to overcome challenges they may have.

Mary E. Purdy, Marquette 2024, is interested in practicing in corporate and business law.

Uncertainty in…
Continue Reading The DEI Landscape in Law Firms

More than 20 years ago, the Federal Trade Commission asked Congress to pass a federal privacy law. Congress has not done so, and perhaps as a result,
privacy has been one of the top areas of change in the law for many years.

Today, privacy remains one of the fastest growing areas of the law, and recent years have seen a chaotic and exponential increase in privacy legislation. The number and scope of enacted privacy laws and pending…
Continue Reading Privacy Program Basics for Businesses: Managing the Chaos

Companies are facing competing pressures in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. On the one hand, many companies identify the economic and institutional benefits of having a diverse workforce that reflects the different views, experiences, and ideas of their constituents. On the other hand, companies worry about being attacked for engaging in discriminatory practices.

In his recent article in this blog, Clyde Tinnen reviewed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc.
Continue Reading The DEI Conundrum for Companies

On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its monumental decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. UNC (SFFA opinion). The Court’s decision dominated headlines for weeks, and passionate public discourse has ensued over its impact among government officials, academic institutions, the media, and citizens. The Court’s decision included not-so-subtle clues as to how this Court will interpret similar provisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of…
Continue Reading Will U.S. Supreme Court Ban Corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives?

The concept of cryptocurrency has been with us since at least 2009. News about various cryptocurrency offerings, and exchanges, seems to be everywhere in news feeds today – sometimes not for the best reasons, such as the collapse of FTX, a so-called cryptocurrency exchange. How could something that seems so volatile be worthy of consideration as loan collateral? It’s a Digital and Decentralized Medium of Exchange At its most basic, cryptocurrency is often defined as a digital, encrypted,…
Continue Reading Cryptocurrency as Loan Collateral? Actually – Yes

The legislature last year passed 2021 WI Act 258, which completely rewrote the limited liability company statutes, Wis. Stat. chapter 183.

The law also:

  • rewrote the limited partnership statutes (Wis. Stat. chapter 179);
  • made substantive changes to the general partnership statutes (Wis. Stat. chapter 78); and
  • revised the corporation and nonstock corporation statutes (Wis. Stat. chapters 180 and 181).

With tens of thousands of new LLCs formed in Wisconsin each year, chapter 183 governs more than 90 percent of…
Continue Reading Drafting LLC Operating Agreements Post Act 258

On Oct. 26, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted on a final rule amendment approving major changes for mutual fund and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) registered on Form N-1A (open-end funds or funds).

The final rule, “Tailored Shareholder Reports for Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds,” requires these fund companies to compose “concise and visually engaging” reports that emphasize key information for retail investors.

According to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the shift is related to important…
Continue Reading SEC’s New Requirements for Shareholder Reports: What Lawyers Should Know

Small businesses play such a crucial role in our communities and the economy that their importance cannot be overstated.

According to a
report issued by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2019, small businesses – those with less than 500 employees – accounted for about 44% of U.S. economic activity.​

In addition, small businesses accounted for roughly two out of every three jobs added in the U.S. over the past 25 years. And despite challenges surrounding COVID-19 starting in…
Continue Reading Working with Small Businesses: Three Attorneys Weigh In

One of the fundamental legal questions a business should tackle is whether it prefers to adjudicate disputes in litigation or arbitration. Whichever way a company decides (and it can vary based on the type of dispute), the choice should be reflected in the business’s contracts.

However, rules favoring arbitration have sometimes allowed companies to dip their toes into litigation to try to achieve an early favorable result before insisting that the court dismiss the matter in favor of arbitration.
Continue Reading Supreme Court: Parties Cannot Have Their Cake and Eat It Too with Arbitration

As digital assets – such as cryptocurrencies, tokens, stablecoins, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – grow in popularity, their increased use raises legal questions about how they relate to tangible assets and how they should be treated.

Under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), there are questions about whether digital assets should be classified as money, general intangibles, or other property.

The lack of clarity about the proper classification for digital assets leads to confusion about what rules should govern their…
Continue Reading Updating the Uniform Commercial Code for a Digital Age