The BUSKLAW Newsletter

  A recent decision out of the U.S. District Court (Judge David Hurd) for the Northern District of New York, Ford, et al v. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , examines the consequences of an educational institution's pandemic-induced failure to honor its promises for in-person, campus-centered instruction. Plaintiffs are students of Rensselaer Polytechnic  of Troy, NY ("RPI"). RPI markets itself as providing a unique educational experience through intense campus-based instruction, mandating that all first and second-year students live on campus and even spend the summer between their second and third years on campus "to afford more meaningful interaction with RPI's professors." When the Covid pandemic caused RPI to replace on-campus instruction with on-line learning and shut down all campus activities, Plaintiffs sued RPI for damages resulting from the alleged lesser value of their remote education. RPI asked the Court to dismiss their claims. The resulting ...

  Before SNL's Weekend Update , before Colbert, before YouTube and its ubiquitous political satire, there was  That Was the Week that Was, a/k/a TW3.  Each week from 1963 to 1965 sexy folksinger Nancy Ames would belt out the TV show's theme song that began "That was the week that was, it's over, let it go..."  Which is how I feel about 2020.  The problem is that many of us can't let 2020 go. Until the vaccine is rolled out, you can still get Covid and suffer from lingering side effects. Like me, you may have lost a loved one in 2020 and are mourning their loss - in relative isolation. Or perhaps you lost your job because of Covid and are trying to figure out how to pay your bills, as the Washington politicians bring out their assorted axes to grind in the last days of the Trump administration. And the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing. Be that as it may, we persevere. And so we move from deep thoughts about 2020 to the more navigable wat...

  In April, 2019, I wrote about the purchase and operating agreements for the Icon A5 light sport amphibious aircraft, a/k/a the "Jet Ski with Wings."  Come to find out that Law Insider has a Contract Teardown Show hosted by Mike Whelan where contract mavens can discuss the vagaries of contracts that populate cyberspace. So I thought that these unique Icon agreements would be suitable for the show, and the rest, as they say, is history.  I'd like to thank Mike for having me on the show and hope to return for a repeat engagement. (Next time: darker shirt, better microphone.) Would you like to pilot an Icon A5? Anyone can fly it in the safety of their own home, if you have a robust gaming PC and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.  It's a fun plane to fly in virtual reality, and you always walk away from a crash.  __________________________________ I f you find this post worthwhile, please consider sharing it with your colleagues. The link to this blog is  www...

  Are you a party to a Michigan employment contract that includes non-competition, non-solicitation, and confidentiality provisions? Have you wondered whether these restrictive covenants have teeth, i.e., are they enforceable via a preliminary injunction? That's a great question, and we have the answer from Michigan Business Court Judge Christopher Yates in his recent decision:  Aaron Symonds v Lighthouse Insurance Group, Inc. Let's start with the facts. Mr. Symonds was a shareholder (i.e., not a mail clerk) in the Lighthouse Insurance Group . He signed an employment agreement that included non-competition, non-solicitation, and confidentiality obligations. He then voluntarily left Lighthouse to work for a Lighthouse competitor,  Collins & Associates , as their Vice-President of Commercial Lines. In that capacity, he began to solicit several Lighthouse clients to move their property and casualty insurance over to Collins. Symonds conceded under oath that his work fo...

  Children's literature can provide unique insights into best practices and procedures related to my legal specialty: business and technology contracts. Consider Bilbo Baggins's frustration when faced with a contract rife with legal jargon in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, a subject that my colleague Michael Braem and I wrote about here . Or how about using Lewis Carroll's  Alice in Wonderland  to discuss - and refute - curious excuses for legal jargon in this Michigan Bar Journal article . And in J.M. Barrie's  Peter Pan , we hear Peter accuse the ineffectual Captain Hook of being a codfish, causing the old pirate Smee to consider if the brigands have been captained by a codfish, adding "it's lowerin' to our pride." Let's talk about leadership in the context of organizational contract management. In my experience, many companies - large and small - don't grasp the importance of the careful and continuous tending of their contracts. They are ...

  DISCLAIMER: probably not the real Marley. Still cute.  Having just survived the dog days of a Michigan summer, it's only fitting that we discuss a case involving a dog: Marley, a Labradoodle. How this cute canine could be the subject of a lawsuit before Kent County Judge Christopher Yates is questionable, but hey, lawyers argue, and they actually get over paid for it! (Most dogs don't argue, except for Huskies ; my working hypothesis is that Huskies are just reincarnated trial lawyers.) The plaintiff in the case is  Bainbridge Labradoodles , a Labradoodle purveyor at  $3K per puppy. Defendant is Susan Viele, a Labradoodle aficionado. In June 2016, Bainbridge and Viele signed a "breeder agreement," under which Bainbridge loaned Marley to Viele until Marley yielded four litters of puppies that would go to Bainbridge for breeding or placement. Marley gave birth to seven healthy puppies in September 2016, but despite repeated attempts, that was all. And now the th...

Consider the ubiquitous non-disclosure agreement ("NDA"): every business (and the White House) has one, and it's often employed for dubious ends. To  cover-up criminal activity.   Or to keep a lid on the President's past sexual shenanigans.  Most recently, President Trump's brother, Robert Trump, tried to use a family NDA from 2001 to stop the publication of Mary L. Trump's book entitled, Too Much and Never Enough. How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.   ( Mary Trump is Donald Trump's niece.) But the attempt to weaponize that NDA to ban Mary Trump's book failed. It was released on July 14 and is #1 on the bestseller list. So let's see where this NDA went wrong according to Judge Greenwald. And  p erhaps t he Court's opinion  (issued 7/13/2020) will help NDA drafters avoid some of the pitfalls that plagued the Trump family NDA. (This post doesn't discuss the constitutional issues decided by the Court.) First some context...