Brittany joined FSBR in 2019 following her time as an associate attorney with White Law PLLC. Her work included representing clients in a variety of areas including large civil litigation, criminal law, administrative law, general litigation, and driver license restorations. While in law school, Brittany was a judicial extern for Court of Appeals Judge Amy Ronanye Krause.
Fraud
The stated purpose of this new legislation is to prevent individuals from concealing their ownership of business entities through the use of shell companies, including to facilitate illicit activities, such as money laundering, financing terrorism, human and drug trafficking, and securities fraud. However, the CTA’s reach will impact just about every single owner of a business.
Misdemeanors
There are three commonly used options to enforce ordinances: civil infractions, criminal misdemeanors, or injunctive proceedings. Misdemeanors were the default enforcement method. This requires filing a complaint in Circuit Court—which must be prepared and prosecuted by your municipal attorney. An injunction proceeding was also traditionally filed by the township attorney in Circuit Court.
Drug Crimes
Money Laundering
The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) was passed on January 1, 2021, as part of new anti-money laundering legislation included in the federal National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Through the CTA, Congress directed the United States Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to establish and maintain a national registry of beneficial owners of entities that are deemed “reporting companies.â€
John focuses on all aspects of representing franchisors and small businesses, including franchise and distribution, commercial contracts, business planning, and corporate law.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Business Formation
The “company applicant” is (1) the individual who directly files the document that creates the entity (e.g., Articles of Incorporation or Organization), AND (2) the individual who is primarily responsible for directing or controlling the filing of the relevant document if more than one individual is involved in the filing of the document. In many cases, company applicants may be those employed by a business formation service or a law firm, unless an individual is completing the entity formation steps without outside help.
Business Disputes
In addition, Steve is a recognized expert in employment and labor law. Representing private and public employers alike, Steve has bargained hundreds of contracts with every labor union in the state of Michigan, arbitrated myriad contract disputes, and represented employers in delicate employment matters.
Business Transactions
A growing component of our practice includes licensing and transferring various forms of intellectual property rights. These transactions range from licensing to outright sales and assignments of trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights. Fahey Schultz Burzych Rhodes PLC’s depth of experience in other forms of commercial transactions is easily applied to the IP subject matter, and this knowledge provides our clients with thorough representation in all aspects of an IP transaction, from planning to negotiation to documentation and closing.
Limited Liability Companies
Trade Secrets
Intellectual Property
Litigation: Although we strive to resolve intellectual property disputes without litigation, our intellectual property lawyers have effectively litigated intellectual property disputes to protect our clients’ interests. In a recent case, a competitor appropriated our client’s business name and service marks in a way that caused immediate consumer confusion and had a significant business impact on our client. We acted quickly to file a lawsuit seeking preliminary injunctive relief. Within weeks, we obtained a consent judgment requiring the competitor to immediately change its business name, dissolve its corporate status, pay our client compensatory damages (including all of our attorney fees), turn over its phone and fax numbers, and deliver for destruction all materials bearing the infringing service marks.
We use our knowledge and skill to work with our clients to help them efficiently manage their relationships with their employees. Whether it is helping our clients develop sound pre-employment policies, drafting employment contracts, engaging in collective bargaining on behalf of our clients, or responding to an emergency disciplinary matter, we are here to adapt extensive legal knowledge to our clients’ unique needs.
Employment Litigation
Her labor and employment law practice focus keeps her busy, representing municipal and private sector management. The labor and employment practice in particular can be intensely personal and sometimes involves the tough realities of termination, but Lizzie strives to bring empathy to the table as she advocates for a legal resolution. Her affinity for interacting with people enables her to quickly dissolve conflicts. She also has the gift of an incredible memory, recalling details not only about problems she’s worked to solve but about the people involved. Relationships are critical in labor and employment issues; being able to recall professional and personal details off the top of her head is a real asset to her clients in labor negotiations and conflict resolution.
Non-compete Agreement
Confidential information is often necessary to a successful business. However, sometimes this information is not protectable as a trademark or copyright. Marketing plans, customer lists, formulas, or recipes are but a few examples of protectable trade secrets. We regularly design, implement, and enforce non-disclosure and non-compete agreements for our clients. These agreements protect confidential information when, during the course of business or specific projects, it is necessary to disclose confidential information or trade secrets to employees, third-party suppliers, or collaborators. We also advise our clients on their rights and duties when they are subject to a non-disclosure agreement and have successfully litigated these issues on a number of occasions. By developing trade-secret policies and procedures, we help clients avoid liability from accidental or other disclosures.
The ordinances he drafts balance solutions that achieve municipal goals while offering a realistic approach to language and supports collaborative solutions for citizens, local businesses, and outside groups. He assists boards and commissions in moving projects forward, ensuring that stakeholders and partners are meeting their legal requirements, and finding solutions to common problems to facilitate successful projects. His expertise also extends to marijuana regulation and real estate transactions.
Eminent Domain
In addition to her expertise in drain and water law, Stacy has extensive real estate valuation experience. As a former Certified General Appraiser, she was licensed to appraise real property of any type of value in the state of Michigan. Her appraisal expertise has proven extremely beneficial for the firm’s eminent domain and tax tribunal cases.
Easement
Land Use and Zoning
€œMoratorium†is often a loaded word, especially in the context of land use and zoning. Although some may associate “moratorium†with the word “ban,†“moratorium†is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “[t]he suspension of a specific activity.†See MORATORIUM, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019). When applied in the township law context, a moratorium is typically used as a temporary time period of a year or less to pause consideration and permit issuance related to a specific topic (e.g., signs) while a township develops new regulations to better address the topic. See e.g....
John delivers expert representation in the litigation of commercial disputes, business torts including product liability defense, construction disputes, insurance coverage questions, personal injury.
Significant experience in other aspects of commercial transactions and business planning, representing and advising clients on matters relating to corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and other entities, buying and selling businesses, business and tax planning, secured transactions, real estate, employment, and estate planning, as well as other areas of commercial law.
Halted state tax foreclosure through swift judicial action, protecting township from the loss of $1million in unpaid water and sewer assessments.
Tax Law
Bill has presented on more than 75 municipal law topics, including Joint Municipal Agreements, Defending Zoning Lawsuits, Defending Property Tax Appeals, and Special Assessment Procedures at state-level seminars and conferences offered by the Michigan Township Association and the Michigan Association of Township Supervisors, and he has authored articles in various publications on Municipal Conflict and Cooperation, Big Box Store Tax Appeals, Downtown Development Authorities, and the Freedom of Information Act.