October 30, 2024
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this piece reprinted from the American Bankruptcy Institute’s September 2024 Real Estate Committee Newsletter, Timothy W. Brink examines one of the Bankruptcy Code’s most important, yet underutilized protections for landlords when their tenants file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Section 365(l) of the Bankruptcy Code (“section 365(l)”), which entitles a landlord to…
August 9, 2024
The president of a small manufacturing business, one of the firm’s three equal founding shareholders, decided to buy out one partner’s interest at market value. He convinced the third shareholder, who at the time was gravely ill with cancer and on leave from the business, to go along with the buyout, making each of them…
August 8, 2024
On August 2, 2024, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law an amendment to the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). This amendment is intended to address concerns about potentially crippling damages that could be awarded under BIPA following a 2023 Illinois Supreme Court decision in a case brought by White Castle restaurant workers against the fast…
June 6, 2024
Meltzer, Purtill & Stelle LLC welcomes Isaiah A. Fishman as a partner in its commercial litigation and restructuring groups. Isaiah brings a broad array of experience handling business disputes, particularly those involving commercial real estate, corporate disputes, bankruptcy, and employment issues where he serves as the “outside inside counsel” for several clients. Fishman’s arrival was…
May 21, 2024
On Tuesday, June 4, MPS is pleased to sponsor the Connect Midwest: Multifamily, Affordable, Student & Senior Housing conference from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the W Chicago – City Center hotel, 172 W. Adams in Chicago. There are three panels covering timely topics and time to meet and converse with industry experts. At…
May 7, 2024
On January 1, 2024, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) became effective, thereby imposing significant new reporting requirements on more than 32,000,000 small businesses. The stated purpose of the CTA is to expose illegal activities, including the use of shell companies and other opaque ownership structures to launder money and evade taxes. To help uncover such…
March 20, 2024
The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which became effective on January 1, 2024, requires a “reporting company” to file Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The BOI reports require the disclosure of information about the reporting entity itself and two categories of individuals:…
November 30, 2023
Rich Payne is a new partner at MPS. He joined the firm on July 1, 2023 from his previous firm, Robinson Payne LLC. Rich’s legal practice crosses a wide range of business law, however his expertise and passion lie in serving family businesses and privately held businesses. Q. How did your practice evolve to focus…
November 29, 2023
The Josselyn Center NFP in Northfield is a well-known and well-respected resource for individuals who are experiencing mental health challenges on Chicago’s North Shore. Mental health care for everyone is one of the Center’s core objectives. The Center is a not-for-profit corporation that offers counseling and community-based mental health care, as well as what the…
November 9, 2023
Small business owners will have one more item on their compliance to-do list when the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) takes effect next year on January 1, 2024. The CTA1, enacted as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA), places new reporting requirements on many business entities in an effort to expose illegal activities,…
November 3, 2023
Several years ago a national retailer became concerned with an increase in shoplifting, break-ins, and “smash and grab” crimes in the vicinity of its Sacramento, California location. It hired a third-party private security service to patrol the store’s parking lot in a marked vehicle. Shortly thereafter, the store manager noted that the marked patrol vehicles…
September 14, 2023
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that as of May 2023, 27% of adults in the United States have some sort of disability. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the definition of a person with a disability is “someone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more…
August 28, 2023
Russ Robinson, joined MPS Law as a partner on July 1, along with his Robinson Payne LLC colleagues Rich Payne and longstanding paralegals Wendy Widmayer and Melissa Wolf. Robinson’s law practice focuses primarily on estate planning, estate and trust administration, charitable distributions, and counsel for high-net-worth individuals and families. He’s been practicing for 40 years….
August 11, 2023
When an investor in a litigation finance company was sued by the trustee appointed in the company’s former owners’ chapter 7 bankruptcy case to recover repayment of the investor’s loan to the company as a “preferential transfer,” she was referred to MPS bankruptcy and restructuring partner Tim Brink by another firm client. Having represented numerous…
July 17, 2023
Frederick “Fred” Kaplan is a business lawyer with broad expertise in all aspects of real estate law, including commercial real estate development, finance, leasing, construction, joint ventures, acquisitions/dispositions, and land use planning and development. He is also widely recognized as an authority in the public accommodation and real estate provisions of the Americans with Disabilities…