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.

HealthMental Health Law

Navigating a Mental Health Crisis and Commitment Hearing: A Practical Guide

This guide walks through a mental health crisis from the phone call to the hearing to the discharge, from the perspective of the person in it and the family around them. It explains who to call and what happens when each option arrives, how to give a crisis team the specific facts that actually change an evaluation, what an emergency hold is and is not, and how to prepare for a commitment hearing in the two or three days you will have. It covers the separate fight over medication, how to find and use a public defender or appointed counsel, what a discharge plan needs to contain to be granted, and the paperwork — advance directive, health care proxy, release of information — that changes every subsequent conversation. It closes on what to do in the weeks after, including insurance appeals, firearm rights, employment protections, and the protection and advocacy agency almost nobody knows about.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 21, 202628 min read

ImmigrationRemoval Defense

Immigration Court Removal Defense Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a removal case from intake through judicial review. It front-loads the relief screening that must happen before anything is conceded and the criminal analysis that determines detention and eligibility, then covers the notice to appear review that sometimes preserves cancellation, the bond package, the application deadlines including the one year asylum bar, the declaration and corroboration work that decides asylum cases, hearing preparation and credibility reconciliation, and the appeal and petition for review deadlines that are jurisdictional in effect. Separate sections address unaccompanied children, detained clients, and survivors of abuse and trafficking.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 21, 20269 min read

ConsumerHome Improvement

Home Improvement Contracts and Contractor Disputes: Licensing, Liens, and Getting the Work Done Right

A home renovation is the largest contract most people ever sign without a lawyer, and it is governed by a body of consumer protection law that almost nobody reads until something has gone wrong. This article explains what a home improvement contract must contain under most state statutes, why the three-day right to cancel exists and how often it is silently violated, and what contractor licensing and bonding actually get you. It then covers the mechanics lien system from the homeowner's side — how a subcontractor you never met can encumber your house even after you paid the general contractor in full, what preliminary notices mean, and why lien waivers exchanged at each payment are the single most protective habit available. It closes with the remedies when work is defective or abandoned: the licensing board, the bond, the state recovery fund, the deceptive trade practices act, and the arbitration clause that may have quietly taken your day in court.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 21, 202628 min read

PropertyWater Law

Water Rights Toolkit: Applications, Transfers, Adjudications, and Enforcement

This toolkit assembles the working documents of a water rights matter: a water right abstract and due diligence request, purchase agreement and deed language, a new appropriation application outline with proof of beneficial use, an annual use log and forfeiture defense memorandum, a change application outline with an engineer engagement scope, a protest letter, a curtailment response and futile call demand, a dry-year lease term sheet, an augmentation plan outline, adjudication statement of claim and objection outlines, a district records request, and a pre-application meeting agenda for physical permitting.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 20, 202613 min read

Intellectual PropertyTechnology Transfer

Technology Transfer Toolkit: Invention Reporting, License Terms, and Sponsored Research

This toolkit collects the documents a technology transfer practice runs on, from the invention disclosure form that starts every statutory clock through the utilization report request that keeps an institution compliant. It includes a deadline tracker keyed to the Bayh-Dole obligations, present assignment language, a license term sheet with the provisions that actually get negotiated, a net sales definition with combination-product allocation, sponsored research and material transfer terms, inter-institutional agreement structure, and startup-specific accommodations. Each template is annotated with its purpose, its owner, and the failure it prevents. Each template carries drafting notes on the federal obligations that cannot be negotiated away. Adapt everything to the institution's policies and the funding agency's terms.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 20, 202613 min read

ConsumerConsumer Credit

Small-Dollar Credit and Credit Repair Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist gives the sequence for someone already inside a payday or title loan, starting with the step that stops the largest ongoing loss. It covers revoking the ACH authorization and stopping the bank fee cascade, the two-minute lawfulness check that in many states produces a void loan, the transaction history where rollover violations become visible, and the extended payment plan many states require lenders to offer on request. It sets out the cheaper credit available to refinance out, the title loan sequence with its redemption and notice rights, the collection threats that are unlawful, and the defenses that work in a collection lawsuit. It ends with what actually improves a credit report and the advance fee prohibition that makes most credit repair contracts unlawful.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 20, 202610 min read

GovernmentProfessional Licensing

Professional Licensing and Discipline: Boards, Investigations, Hearings, and Sanctions

A professional license is a property interest that a state agency can suspend or revoke, often through a board composed of the licensee's own competitors, and the consequences reach far beyond the license itself. This article explains how licensing boards are structured and why that structure creates recurring due process and antitrust problems, how a complaint becomes an investigation and an investigation becomes charges, the summary suspension power and the prompt hearing it requires, what process is actually due and what the standard of proof usually is, the sanctions available and the negotiated resolutions that resolve most matters, the reporting databases and reciprocal discipline that multiply a single sanction across states, and the reinstatement path.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 20, 202628 min read

TaxTax Controversy

Tax Problem Resolution Checklist

A working checklist for a tax debt, sequenced from the emergency to the resolution. It opens with the deadlines that must be calendared the day a notice arrives and the immediate steps for a levy in progress. It covers pulling and reading all four transcript types, identifying unfiled years and substitute returns, reconstructing records, and computing reasonable collection potential before anyone quotes a fee. It includes the financial statement documentation list with the expense categories most often under-claimed, the four resolution paths with the facts that point to each, penalty abatement and innocent spouse requests, lien withdrawal and discharge, and the free representation most people do not know exists.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 19, 202610 min read

TaxTax Controversy

Tax Controversy Toolkit: Hearing Requests, Financial Statements, and Relief Applications

Working templates for a tax collection case. It includes a notice triage worksheet that converts an envelope into a deadline, a transcript request and collection statute worksheet, an emergency levy release request, and a collection due process statement that actually raises the issues Appeals can act on. It provides a record reconstruction log for filing old returns, a reasonable collection potential worksheet you can complete before anyone quotes a fee, and an allowable expense worksheet with the categories most often under-claimed. It closes with penalty abatement and reasonable cause letters, an innocent spouse declaration outline, lien withdrawal and discharge requests, and a Taxpayer Advocate hardship request.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 19, 202624 min read

TaxTax Controversy

Resolving a Tax Debt with the IRS: A Practical Guide

This guide walks through resolving a tax debt in the order the work actually happens: stop the bleeding, pull the transcripts, get compliant on filing, compute the numbers, then choose the resolution that fits. It explains how to read an account transcript for the collection statute expiration date, how to reconstruct records for years you no longer have, and how to compute your own reasonable collection potential before anyone quotes you a fee. It covers emergency levy releases, the thirty-day hearing deadline, the four resolution paths and how to choose between them, penalty abatement requests that are granted for the asking, and the free representation available to people who assume they cannot afford help.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 19, 202628 min read

TaxTax Controversy

Personal Income Tax Problems: Unfiled Returns, Liens, Levies, and Offers in Compromise

Almost every tax problem is a collection problem, and almost every collection problem has a procedural answer that most people never learn about. This article explains what actually happens when returns go unfiled, how a substitute return inflates a balance and why filing a real one usually reduces it, and what a federal tax lien does that is different from a levy. It walks through the two hearing rights that stop collection while a case is reviewed, the four ways to resolve a balance you cannot pay in full, and the penalty relief that is granted for the asking far more often than people expect. It covers innocent spouse relief, the deadlines that quietly end both refunds and collection, and where to get free help that is genuinely good.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 19, 202629 min read

Intellectual PropertyTechnology Transfer

Bayh-Dole Compliance Checklist: A Practical Checklist

Bayh-Dole compliance is a system of deadlines and records, and institutions lose rights for administrative reasons rather than substantive ones. This checklist runs the full sequence: identifying subject inventions when funding is mixed, meeting the disclosure and election deadlines, including the government support statement, flowing the statutory conditions through to licensees, collecting the utilization data that only licensees possess, and maintaining the title records that determine whether a patent is enforceable at all. It includes sections for licensees receiving Bayh-Dole flow-through terms, for sponsored research negotiation, and for audit readiness. It runs from invention disclosure through election of title, filing, and utilization reporting. Every item is written so that a "no" tells you what to do next.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 19, 20267 min read