Several years of efforts in support of our client, Citizens for Conservation, paid dividends in the acquisition of 31 additional acres of land in Barrington for the Craftsbury Preserve, the client’s second largest conservation preserve, now totaling 52 acres. Portions of the land appears to have never been plowed, suggesting that the potential for complete…

Please be my guest on Monday, July 29th at 6:00 at the Union League Club of Chicago for a presentation by Michael J. Manning, hosted by the Entrepreneur Group and David Lynam, Chair: Embracing our Nature | Creating the Midwest Craft Beverage Experience  Join us at the Union League Club for this special presentation by Michael…

Action Item: Update your employee policies before 1/1/2020 On June 25, 2019, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation which will end state law cannabis prohibition in Illinois and replace it with a system to tax and regulate cannabis for adults 21 and over. The new law is comprehensive in its approach: in addition to legalizing state…

Workplace violence is one of the primary causes of all homicide incidents in the U.S., and the devastation after a violent incident in the workplace is costly to persons and the entities exposed to this type of violence. The business impact of workplace violence can result in low employee morale, loss of productivity, worker’s compensation…

Owning a home can be a long-term proposition, so it is not a surprise that older Americans are more likely than their younger peers to have paid off their mortgages. On average, 36% of owner occupied housing units in the United States do not have a mortgage, and for homeowners who are 65 and older, the…

You are cordially invited to a presentation at The Union League Club of Chicago on the day after Labor Day -May 28th, 2019 at 6PM- on the Power of Micro Finance Entrepreneurship.Micro-Finance lending is changing lives and empowering entrepreneurs in Developing Countries like never before. We will feature a presentation on micro-finance by Jeffrey L. Hartman. …

The DOL has issued its much-anticipated proposed rule on white-collar overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). This rule replaces the prior Obama-era rule that has been enjoined by a federal court judge since 2016.The DOL’s proposed rule increases the annual salary threshold employees must meet to qualify as “exempt” from…

The Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA) requires all Illinois companies to notify and obtain consent when collecting biometric information. In a new BIPA case, the Illinois Appellate Court found that employees of the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago who had brought a class action suit against the hotel were not required to pursue arbitration as sought…

The beneficiary form could pose a serious danger to your financial and estate plan because its importance is frequently overlooked. Unless the estate is the beneficiary, a result which is not reccomended as it results in all of the IRA being subject to income tax at the death of the IRA owner, the IRA will…

As we warned in our blog post of March 11th, 2019 on “The New Perils of Using Electronic Means to Identify Your Workers or Customers”, Highland Baking in Northbrook has been sued for potentially hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in damages in a class action violation of the new biometric privacy laws by…