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.

Family LawDivorce

Negotiating a Marital Settlement Agreement

A marital settlement agreement resolves in one document what would otherwise take a trial: how property is divided, whether support is paid and for how long, how retirement accounts are split, who takes which debts, and how the children's arrangements are structured. It is a contract that becomes a court judgment, and the two characters carry different consequences for modification and enforcement that the drafting must address deliberately. The work that determines the outcome happens before the negotiation — assembling complete financial disclosure, valuing the assets that need valuing, and understanding the tax consequences of each proposed transfer, several of which are irreversible. This guide covers the preparation, the substantive issues in the order they should be negotiated, the drafting provisions that prevent later disputes, and the mechanics of entry and enforcement.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 4, 202526 min read

LitigationCivil Procedure

Proving Damages in Civil Litigation: Certainty, Causation, and the Numbers That Survive

A plaintiff can prove every element of liability and still walk out with nothing. Damages is a separate element with its own rules of proof, and the rule that kills more cases than any other is reasonable certainty: the fact of injury must be proved with reasonable certainty, and the amount must be proved with enough evidence to permit a just and reasonable estimate. This article explains how courts distinguish the fact of damage from its amount, why the foreseeability rule of Hadley v. Baxendale still decides consequential damages disputes, how mitigation shifts the arithmetic, what a damages expert must do to survive a Daubert challenge, why a damages model must match the liability theory after Comcast v. Behrend, and where the constitutional ceiling on punitive damages sits. Worked examples run the numbers.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 3, 202528 min read

LitigationPre-Litigation Practice

Writing a Demand Letter: The Basics

A demand letter is the workhorse of pre-litigation practice: a written notice that lays out the facts, the legal basis for a claim, and a specific demand with a deadline, often resolving a dispute long before a lawsuit is filed. This guide explains what a demand letter is, why it works, and how to draft one that is firm, credible, and legally safe. It covers the anatomy of an effective letter, the settlement-privilege questions that surround Federal Rule of Evidence 408, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act traps that catch anyone collecting a consumer debt, the duty to preserve evidence that a demand letter can trigger, the statutes that require a pre-suit demand, and the critical line between vigorous advocacy and unlawful extortion (never threaten criminal charges to gain a civil advantage). A complete model letter, a worked hypothetical, and an FAQ round out the discussion. The article is general legal information, not legal advice.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 1, 202557 min read

Labor and EmploymentLeave and Benefits

Drafting a Maternity Leave Policy: Five Things You Should Know

A maternity leave policy is one of the most legally layered documents a small employer will ever write, sitting at the crossroads of at least five federal statutes and a thicket of state programs. This guide walks through the five things every employer should understand before drafting one: the legal floor set by the FMLA, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the 2023 Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the PUMP Act, and the ADA; why offering more than the minimum is often the smartest business move you can make; how to plan operationally for predictable absences; why the policy is only the beginning of being truly family-friendly; and the legal danger of writing a "mothers only" policy in a world that increasingly expects parental-leave equality. It reflects the law as it stands in mid-2026, including the permanent, enhanced Section 45S paid-leave tax credit and the 2025 court decisions shaping the PWFA. Written for owners, HR professionals, and the lawyers who advise them, it explains every term of art in plain language and flags where the law is unsettled or varies by state. Worked hypotheticals show how the statutes interact in real life, and a closing FAQ tackles the questions employers ask most. This is general legal information, not legal advice.

Casey Scott McKayMarch 1, 202552 min read

Legal ResourcesLegal Research

Legal Research Guide: Case Law

Case law is the body of law built from judicial decisions, and learning to find it, read it, and confirm it is still "good law" is the single most useful research skill a lawyer or curious non-lawyer can have. This guide walks through the American court systems and the doctrine of precedent (stare decisis), the anatomy of a written opinion, and the crucial distinction between a holding and mere dicta. It explains reporters, parallel citations, and how to read a case citation at a glance, then shows you how to brief a case and how to find decisions by topic, by citation, and through statutory annotations. It closes with the indispensable step that separates competent research from malpractice: using a citator to verify that a case has not been reversed, overruled, or quietly undermined. Free tools (CourtListener, Google Scholar, govinfo) and paid platforms (Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg Law) are compared throughout. This is the deeper companion to our beginner's guide to legal research.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 28, 202547 min read

Real EstateCommercial Leasing

Commercial Lease Review Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A commercial lease is usually the second largest financial commitment a small business makes, and it is drafted by the landlord. This checklist covers the review in the order the money moves. It begins with the letter of intent, where the leverage actually exists, then rentable area and the load factor that determines what a stated rate really costs. It works through operating expense pass-throughs and the four provisions that control them, the tenant improvement allowance and delivery mechanics, and the use and exclusivity clauses that decide whether the space works for the business. Later phases cover the transfer provisions that matter if the company is ever sold, the personal guaranty and how to limit it, the lender documents that protect a tenant in a foreclosure, and the end-of-term obligations that produce most post-lease disputes.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 27, 20259 min read

HealthcareProduct Regulation

Life Sciences Regulatory Toolkit: FDA Pathways, Labeling, and Promotion

Almost every question in life sciences regulation reduces to two prior questions: what is this product, and what does the company say it does. Classification determines the pathway, the manufacturing standard, the reporting obligations, and whether a state tort claim is preempted, and classification turns substantially on the company's own claims. This toolkit runs the product lifecycle: intended use and classification, pathway selection and the clinical work each requires, quality systems, labeling and promotion including the constitutional limits on off-label enforcement, postmarket reporting and recalls, the enforcement ladder from inspection through consent decree, and the preemption doctrines that determine whether an approved product can still be sued over. It ends with enforcement, recalls, and the promotional review process that keeps a compliant product from becoming a misbranded one.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 25, 202513 min read

Family LawDivorce

Getting Divorced: A Practical Guide from Filing to Final Decree

This guide runs a divorce in the order it happens. It covers the preparation that should occur before anything is filed, how to choose among do it yourself, mediation, collaborative, and litigated processes and what each actually costs, how to hire and pay counsel including limited scope options, filing and service, the temporary orders hearing that sets a status quo that tends to stick, mandatory financial disclosure and when to go further with discovery, valuing a house, a pension, and a business, negotiating property and support with tax awareness, drafting a parenting plan specific enough to be enforceable, mediation and trial, and the post decree follow through that determines whether the settlement you signed is the settlement you actually get.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 24, 202528 min read

Labor and EmploymentTermination and Layoffs

Drafting a Severance and Release Agreement That Holds Up

A severance agreement has one job, which is to make claims go away, and a surprising number of them fail at it. This guide covers what makes a release enforceable and what makes it worthless. It starts with consideration, which must be something the employee is not already owed, and the knowing and voluntary standard courts apply, then works through the OWBPA requirements for waiving age claims including the group disclosure that most employers get wrong. It covers the claims that cannot be released at all and the ones that require special handling, then the restrictive provisions that have become the most heavily regulated part of the document, including confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses that federal labor law, the Speak Out Act, and several state statutes now constrain. Later sections address the operational provisions, tax treatment including Section 409A, and a clause-by-clause drafting walkthrough.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 24, 202525 min read

TechnologyPrivacy

Children's Privacy Under COPPA and the Age-Appropriate Design Codes

Children's privacy is governed by a 1998 statute that applies only to children under thirteen, only to operators with actual knowledge or a child-directed service, and only to a defined list of personal information — and by a newer generation of state design codes that attempt to regulate the experience itself rather than the data. The two regimes ask different questions and a company can satisfy one while violating the other. This article covers the COPPA Rule as amended, including who is an operator, what makes a service child-directed, the verifiable parental consent methods that actually exist, the internal operations exception that most services rely on, and the retention and deletion obligations recently strengthened. It then addresses the design codes, the constitutional litigation that has reshaped them, teen privacy under state comprehensive laws, and what an age assurance program looks like in practice.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 23, 202526 min read

TechnologyArtificial Intelligence

AI Governance and Compliance: Building a Program for the EU AI Act, State AI Laws, and Everything After

Artificial intelligence regulation arrived faster than most compliance functions expected and in a shape most were not built for: a comprehensive European statute with extraterritorial reach and staged deadlines, a growing set of state laws targeting algorithmic discrimination and disclosure, a federal posture that swung sharply between administrations, and enforcement by agencies applying decades-old consumer protection, employment, and lending statutes to new technology. This article maps that terrain and then explains how to build a governance program that satisfies most of it at once. It covers the EU AI Act's risk tiers, prohibited practices, high-risk obligations, general purpose model rules, and penalty structure, along with who counts as a provider and who counts as a deployer, which is the classification that determines everything else. It then covers the American picture: Colorado's algorithmic discrimination statute, Texas's intent-based approach, Illinois and New York City employment rules, California's transparency and training data laws, and the federal agencies enforcing existing law against AI systems. A long practical section covers the program itself: inventory, risk classification, impact assessments, human oversight design, testing and documentation, procurement and vendor contracts, incident response, and training. It closes with checklists, a worked example, an FAQ, and related reading.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 23, 202525 min read

TechnologyPrivacy

Data Subject Rights Request Handling Checklist: A Practical Checklist

A rights request is a deadline running against a company that usually does not know where its data lives. This checklist covers the operational path from intake to closure: recognizing a request whatever channel it arrives through, verifying identity without collecting more data than necessary, determining which statutes apply and what each requires, searching systems of record and vendors, applying exemptions correctly, responding within the deadline, handling appeals, and logging everything. Separate phases cover opt-out signals, which are processed differently and on a shorter clock, and the requests companies forget to plan for, including employee and applicant requests in California and requests received through a support ticket rather than the privacy portal. The goal throughout is a process that can be demonstrated to a regulator from the log alone, without reconstructing anyone's memory of what happened.

Casey Scott McKayFebruary 18, 20258 min read