Tennessee recently passed a law that abolishes judicial deference to state agencies in certain contexts and promotes limits on agency power. Tenn. Code Ann. § 4-5-326. The new law provides [...]

Pedal taverns are the talk of the town. To some, they are loud, dangerous, traffic-jam machines driving businesses out of downtown. To others, they are fun, grow the tax base, essential to [...]

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney famously said, “Corporations are people, my friend.” While that may or may not be true, corporations and other business entities are [...]

The economic losses that arise from a breach of contract can be varied and extensive, including disruptions to a business’s operations, lost profits, and other damages. But regardless of [...]

When business disagreements turn into lawsuits and commercial litigation, various idioms may come to mind: “Cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.” “Burning down your house to smoke out a [...]

Disputes between members of a Tennessee limited liability company (LLC) can come and go. Disagreements between business partners are often like those between spouses; inevitable and [...]

If you want to arbitrate a dispute (instead of litigate in court), you must agree to do so in advance. A party who has not agreed from the outset to arbitrate will not be compelled to arbitrate, [...]

You never know what – or who – lies beneath the surface. Imagine you are engaged in construction, landscaping, or some other improvement to real property, and suddenly you make a grim discovery.  [...]

In my last post, I mentioned that it is becoming standard for unsecured creditors in a Chapter 11 case to go after the debtor’s private equity backers: One issue that I am seeing in my practice [...]

For several years now, the number of private equity-backed bankruptcy filings has been on the rise. A few months ago in November, The Deal reported that, for private equity-backed companies with [...]