If you are an employer in San Jose, you are most likely aware that on January 1, 2014, the minimum wage increased to $10.15 per hour for your business; California’s minimum wage increase was to $9 per hour. In addition to new employment laws, there, there have been other new…
Business Lawyers Blog
Founders’ Equity: Repurchase of Unvested Stock by a Company
I spend a lot of time talking to founders of Silicon Valley start-ups about the stock they will receive in exchange for their contributions to their new company, and then preparing restricted stock purchase agreements for the founders. In the last couple of blogs, I have discussed the issues surrounding…
Common Pitfalls in Real Estate Loan Documents: A Top Ten List – Part 2
At a recent conference with San Jose and Silicon Valley real estate owners and lenders, Attorneys Jack Easterbrook and Tamara Pow presented their “Top 10 List” of issues that commonly arise in commercial real estate loan transactions. Having been involved in countless real estate and commercial loan transactions, Tamara and…
Founders’ Equity – Stock Vesting Schedules
Working with start-ups in San Jose, I have often had to counsel founders on the intricacies of business law as it relates to issuing stock. A large part of initial discussions with the founding group involves the funding needs of the new corporation, how shares will be divided, and the…
Common Pitfalls in Real Estate Loan Documents: A Top Ten List
Attorneys Tamara Pow and Jack Easterbrook recently participated in a panel discussion of San Jose and Silicon Valley commercial real estate owners, lenders, borrowers and other professionals about issues arising in recent commercial real estate transactions. Jack and Tamara, at the conference, presented a “Top 10 List” of things to…
The Vesting of Stock – Founders’ Equity
Practicing business law in Silicon Valley over the past year, I have seen start-up activity pick up. We are in that part of the cycle where the survivors of the not so great recession have decided that they are better off on their own and have decided to make their…
California Has a New Rule for Tracking Deferred Taxes from Section 1031 Exchanges
As a business and real estate attorney in California, I often assist clients in real estate transactions using Internal Revenue Code Section 1031 to defer the tax on the sale of their real estate by transferring the tax attributes of that property into a new, like-kind, property. IRC Section 1031…
Tax Planning Reminders for Businesses Before Year-End
It is that time of year again. Every year in the fourth quarter, businesses in San Jose and all over the United States are looking at the quickly approaching year-end and trying to figure out what they can do now before it is too late to save on taxes for…
Crowdfunding Made Easy? Not So Much
I have always known that Silicon Valley is home to many innovative companies and has a lot of entrepreneurial talent, but I was still amazed to read that start-ups in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Redwood City, Sunnyvale and San Jose received a combined $980+ million in funding in Q2’13. [Source:…
Limited Personal Guarantees: It Pays to be Precise!
The personal guarantee has long been used to bolster the quality of a commercial loan, real estate loan or business loan. Often the personal guarantee is a full guarantee, extending to all obligations of the borrower and giving a lender potential recourse to all property of the guarantor in an…