Law Blog

Your business has a culture whether it is conscious or not. My firm has a defined culture we call the JW Way.  It is a mission statement consisting of twenty-seven fundamentals that the owners and employees strive to live by while operating and working in the firm. Since making these fundamentals a conscious part of our firm,  we found that it improved what we al...

This past weekend I was reading something and saw the phrase “be the change you want to see.” I’ve heard it before and have written about the benefits of change.  It struck me as I believe change and trying new things is the road to success in business, as well as in life and happiness. When days are like being on a treadmill, life is monotonous. Maybe it r...

On September 26, 2024, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against extending California's strict noncompete ban to agreements executed outside of California and governed by another state’s law. This decision highlights the limitations of California’s noncompete statute—Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 16600-16607—which broadly prohibits noncompete agree...

You grow or stay stagnant. My point is that you either are taking action to improve yourself and your business or you are not. This is like being all talk and taking no action or being fully engaged.  Action matters and there is no time like the present to put yourself out there, meet people, and try to expand your network. Another component of this is continuall...

Taking the step to schedule a meeting with an estate planning attorney can be difficult. Many people procrastinate taking this important first step which can create problems for loved ones who may be unexpectedly left behind.  To help lessen some hesitation, the following five actions will help taking the first step less intimidating. 1.  Find Important Document...

As the name suggests, the United Services Employment and Reemployment Act (“USERRA”) requires employers of active-duty service members to hold open the employee/service members job while deployed—whether overseas, for training, or otherwise. We often call this the “FMLA” provision of USERRA, referring to the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, because the s...

Management is about execution. More specifically, management is about executing the visions of your company’s leadership. Managers work in the present while leaders work in the future. Managers of people need to focus on how to get the people they manage to execute. Like many roles, there are any number of ways to manage people. Some people micromanage their tea...

We all have stress. I picture an empty room where challenges keep coming at me from straight in front of me, the top left corner, the middle right corner, or wherever. You get the idea. The point is that challenges keep coming at us from all angles as if we are in a video game trying to move forward. Some challenges are exciting and invigorating while others are ha...

During the first decade of my career, I had one formal mentor and several informal mentors. Most of my mentors were attorneys or judges, which makes sense given my chosen profession. Others were in different professions or businesses. The string running through all those relationships was the professional and life lessons I learned from each one, many of which I fo...

Arbitration is an underutilized tool in Arizona family law cases. Put simply, arbitration is a dispute resolution process where an agreed-upon third party—the arbitrator—resolves a family law dispute outside of a traditional courtroom. The parties jointly select a neutral, third party to consider the facts and evidence in the dispute, the arbitrator makes an aw...