Insights

Analysis from the front lines of IP & technology law.

Our attorneys write about the developments shaping intellectual property — from the PTAB and the Federal Circuit to the practical realities of protecting fast-moving technology.

Real EstateCommercial Ownership

Real Property Transactions Toolkit: Title, Survey, Easements, and Closing

A real property transaction is a diligence exercise with a closing attached, and every problem that surfaces at closing was disclosed weeks earlier in a document somebody filed without reading. This toolkit sequences the work: the agreement and the diligence period it buys, the title commitment converted into a task list and a risk list, the survey that reveals what a title search cannot, the zoning and environmental review, the lease and tenant analysis, the financing and the lender's requirements, the tax structure including a like-kind exchange, and the closing itself with the wire verification step that prevents the industry's most common uninsured loss. It closes with post-closing obligations and the ownership questions that arise afterward. It ends with the closing itself and the post-closing recording and policy review that confirm you bought what you thought you were buying.

Casey Scott McKayMay 1, 202614 min read

LitigationCivil Rights

Civil Rights Litigation Toolkit: Claims, Immunities, Damages, and Fees

This toolkit supplies the operative documents of civil rights practice. It contains the preservation letter that must go out within days, a notice of claim template, public records request language, a complaint framework with Monell allegations that survive dismissal, a qualified immunity opposition outline and a method for the clearly established precedent search, the Monell document demand set and Rule 30b6 topic list, a damages worksheet, and a Section 1988 fee petition framework with the Rule 68 analysis that should precede any rejection. It also includes a Heck decision tree and the PLRA screen for incarcerated plaintiffs.

Casey Scott McKayApril 30, 202615 min read

ConsumerTimeshares

Timeshares and Vacation Ownership: Contracts, Maintenance Fees, and Getting Out

A timeshare is the only consumer purchase most people make where the ongoing cost is unlimited, the resale value is frequently negative, and the obligation may outlive them. This article explains what a timeshare interest actually is — deeded fractional ownership, a right-to-use license, or points in a club — and why the difference determines everything about exit. It covers the sales presentation and the misrepresentations that recur, the rescission period that is the single most valuable right in this field and the tactics used to run it out, and the maintenance fees and special assessments that grow without limit. It then addresses the exit problem honestly: the deed-back programs that resorts actually operate, the resale market where interests trade for a dollar, the exit companies that take fees and deliver nothing, and what actually happens on default, in foreclosure, and at death.

Casey Scott McKayApril 28, 202628 min read

CriminalWhite Collar

Conducting an Internal Investigation: Scope, Privilege, and Reporting

An internal investigation is a legal proceeding the company runs against itself, and it fails in predictable ways: scoped too narrowly to find the real problem, conducted by people who report to the executives under scrutiny, documented in a way that destroys privilege, and concluded without remediation that anyone can verify. The threshold decisions are who the client is, who conducts the work, and what the deliverable will be, and each has consequences that are difficult to reverse later. This guide runs the process from the triggering complaint through scoping, document collection, interviews, findings, and remediation, with attention to the privilege mechanics that determine whether the work product can be protected and to the disclosure decision that frequently follows. It also covers the cross-border complications that arise the moment employee data must move across a border.

Casey Scott McKayApril 26, 202625 min read

EmploymentWage and Hour

Wage Claim and Unpaid Overtime Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a wage claim from the habit that costs ten seconds a day through the agency filing and collection. It opens with the daily hours log and the pay stub audit that catches the four most common violations, including the regular rate error that appears on no pay stub and is arithmetically certain once a bonus is identified. It sets out the salary basis and duties tests that decide exempt status, the classification tests that decide contractor status including the ABC prong that fails for anyone doing a company's core business, and the evidence that reconstructs hours when an employer kept no records. It covers the written complaint that creates a retaliation claim, the choice among forums and what each preserves, and the parties to name when the employer has no money.

Casey Scott McKayApril 25, 20269 min read

Family LawSupport

Child Support: Guidelines, Imputed Income, Modification, and Enforcement

Child support is calculated by formula in every state, which makes it look simpler than it is. The formula's inputs — what counts as income, what a parent could earn, how many overnights each parent has, and which expenses are added on top — are contested constantly and produce most of the litigation. Federal law requires each state to adopt presumptive numerical guidelines, to review them regularly, and to permit deviation only on written findings, which means the argument is usually about the inputs rather than the result. This article covers the three guideline models and how they differ, the definition of income and the rules for imputing it, the add-ons and adjustments, modification standards including the trap of retroactivity, and the interstate framework and enforcement tools that make support orders unusually collectible.

Casey Scott McKayApril 25, 202625 min read

CorporateNonprofit

Nonprofit Governance, Unrelated Business Income, and Private Inurement

A nonprofit board is asked to do three things at once that pull against each other: raise money aggressively, spend it on mission, and avoid every arrangement in which anyone connected to the organization benefits financially. Most governance failures at exempt organizations come from not seeing the tension until a transaction has already closed. This article covers the fiduciary duties of nonprofit directors and how they differ from the corporate versions, the private inurement and private benefit doctrines that have no analogue in for-profit law, the intermediate sanctions regime and the rebuttable presumption procedure that makes compensation decisions defensible, the unrelated business income tax and the exceptions that swallow much of it, and the reporting, lobbying, and solicitation rules that generate the most avoidable problems. Running throughout is a single practical point: the difference between a defensible transaction and an indefensible one is usually contemporaneous documentation rather than the substance of the deal.

Casey Scott McKayApril 24, 202625 min read

Intellectual Property and TechnologyCopyright

How to File a DMCA Takedown Notice (And Respond to One)

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act's notice-and-takedown system is the engine of online copyright enforcement: a compliant notice obliges a hosting provider to remove material to keep its safe harbor, and a counter-notice can restore it unless the rights holder sues. This guide covers both sides—drafting effective notices, the six statutory elements and the deficiencies that sink them, the counter-notice procedure and its consent to federal jurisdiction, and the doctrines that decide everything around the edges: the safe-harbor framework of Section 512(a)–(d), the specific-knowledge and red-flag standards from Viacom v. YouTube, the repeat-infringer rule that cost Cox its safe harbor in BMG v. Cox, Section 512(f) misrepresentation liability and the fair-use duty announced in Lenz v. Universal, and the Section 512(h) subpoena. It adds annotated sample documents, platform-specific practice (Content ID, e-commerce, search), and the international picture after the EU Digital Services Act became fully applicable in 2024. Written for creators, platforms, and counsel on either side.

Casey Scott McKayApril 24, 202643 min read

CriminalVictims' Rights

Victims' Rights and Compensation Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a crime victim's matter from the first week through the years after the case ends. It covers obtaining the report and finding an advocate, the notification registrations that must be made in writing with every office, exercising the rights to confer and to be heard, building the loss file category by category before sentencing, writing and delivering an impact statement, applying for compensation and appealing a denial, coordinating insurance and a civil claim with their independent deadlines, privacy and safety measures including address confidentiality, and the post-case tasks of parole input, custody notification, and judgment renewal.

Casey Scott McKayApril 23, 20268 min read

Intellectual PropertyTrademark

Trademark Use and Protection: How Brand Rights Are Born, Built, and Lost

A trademark is the quiet shorthand a business uses to say "this came from us"—and the law that protects it is built on one stubborn idea: rights flow from use, not paperwork. This guide explains how trademark rights are born through bona fide use in commerce, how a mark's strength tracks its place on the Abercrombie distinctiveness spectrum, and why federal registration on the Principal Register is so valuable. It walks through likelihood of confusion, dilution of famous marks, and the three quiet ways owners lose marks—abandonment, naked licensing, and genericide. It closes with a practical playbook for policing, enforcement, and maintenance, grounded in the Lanham Act and the cases that interpret it. Written for founders, in-house teams, and curious lawyers alike.

Casey Scott McKayApril 23, 202643 min read

Legal ResourcesProfessional Responsibility

Law Practice Management and Professional Responsibility Toolkit

This toolkit supplies the documents and systems a law practice runs on. It includes an intake script that begins with a conflicts check, the fields a conflicts database must contain, engagement letter templates with the scope exclusion language that prevents most malpractice claims, non engagement and closing letters, conflict waiver and entity representation language, a three way trust reconciliation worksheet and client ledger format, a wire verification protocol, docketing standards, a file review form, a generative AI use policy, an incident response outline, succession plan documents, and a one page metrics dashboard.

Casey Scott McKayApril 22, 202615 min read

TaxTax Credits

Claiming the Research and Development Tax Credit

The research credit rewards activity that most companies are already doing and do not think of as research: developing a product, improving a process, writing software, or engineering a solution where the outcome was uncertain at the outset. Eligibility turns on a four-part test applied to each business component, and the credit is computed on a narrow set of expenses — wages for qualified services, supplies consumed in the process, and a fraction of contract research payments. The credit is also among the most heavily examined positions on a return, and the difference between a defensible claim and a disallowed one is almost entirely documentation created while the work happened. This guide covers eligibility, the expense categories, the two computation methods, the payroll tax offset available to small companies, the filing and refund claim requirements, and how to survive an examination.

Casey Scott McKayApril 22, 202626 min read