This guide covers the ten typical sections and provisions of a contract. It also identifies the sections that are often negotiable. Contracts can be complex and contain nuance. Protect your interests by making sure that you understand your rights and responsibilities before entering into the contract. Spending time reading and discussing the terms upfront goes a long way to ensuring that you are making the deal that you want to make.
Participant: Everyone
What to Know About Entering into Contracts
A contract is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties to exchange something of value. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to transfer any of these in the future. Contracts serve several important purposes, including formalizing relationships, outlining legal obligations, and providing a record of rights and responsibilities. This guide will explain what is needed to form a contract and the different types of contracts.
How to Enforce Contracts and Seek Remedies
While parties enter a contract hoping for a mutually satisfactory outcome, sometimes the parties are not able to complete the terms of the agreement. This guide discusses the options and processes available to you when a problem arises.
Risks of Operating as a General Partnership
If a business has two or more owners, and the owners have not formed a legal entity, they are operating a general partnership. This legal guide will review the risks associated with not forming a legal entity.
Introduction to Cooperatives
Cooperatives as a business structure help maximize resources and distribute profits equally among members. They can also foster a strong community since members work and vote alongside each other. This webinar, presented by attorney Erika Dunyak of Vermont Law and Graduate School, reviews the different types of cooperatives and what to consider before filing.
Branding Best Practices
As a small business owner, you want to develop and protect your brand, but you don’t yet have the funds to file for trademark protection. In this webinar, Attorney Christina Licursi of Wolf Greenfield covers steps you can take to have some level of protection from the beginning as well as when to take the plunge and file for protection.
Preparing an Offer of Employment Letter
An offer letter is an important start to any employment relationship because it ensures the employer and employee have a mutual understanding about the key terms of employment. This guide identifies the key elements of an employment offer letter and provides a sample letter for you to review and consider when drafting your own offer letter. As a future employee, this guide will help you to clarify some points of employment before accepting.
Onboarding New Employees
Congratulations! Your small business is ready to hire your first employees. This is both an exciting and daunting process. Luckily, we have Tara Walker and Bill Wahrer of Bernstein Shur Portland, Maine who will walk you through this process. They will cover common legal traps for the hiring manager in the hiring and interview process, she will provide a checklist of best practices, and recommended documentation for your new employees.
Presenters: Attorneys Tara Walker and Bill Wahrer of Bernstein Shur
Media and Marketing 101
As a small business, you are likely using emails, text, and social media to advertise your business and communicate with your customers. You may also have your own webpage spotlighting customer reviews and other content. With all these forms of social media and communication comes a web of laws that are difficult to navigate. During this webinar, a team of attorneys from Bernstein Shur will help you detangle these laws. We will cover topics such as email, text, and social media marketing, claim substantiation, website policies, the proper use of logos and other copyrighted material, endorsements, testimonials, and customer reviews, and other hot topics in advertising law.
Presenters: Attorneys Elliot Brake, Kevan Lee Deckelmann, Chad W. Higgins, Matthew J. Saldaña
Labeling Your Food Product
Small food businesses and farms with value-added processing often sell their products locally, but understanding the Food and Drug Administration’s rules for labeling those products can be challenging. This webinar will prepare you to feel confident creating a food label and selling your product.
Presenters: Rachel Gartner & Zac Maciejewski, Faegre, Drinker Biddle and Reath.
Starting your Farm or Food Business: Succession Planning
When you’re forming your LLC or other business entity, it is important to plan for the future. This webinar will prepare you with key questions to consider about succession planning when forming your business.
Presenter: Kim Memmesheimer, Hoefle, Phoenix, Gormley & Roberts, PLLC.
Intro to Co-Op Formation, New Hampshire
A cooperative (“co-op”) is a type of for-profit business that is communally owned and democratically managed by its members. This legal guide covers common types of co-ops, tax benefits of co-ops, benefits and risks, as well as how to form a co-op. It also covers a few requirements specific to New Hampshire.
Intro to Co-Op Formation
A cooperative (“co-op”) is a type of for-profit business that is communally owned and democratically managed by its members. This legal guide covers common types of co-ops, tax benefits of co-ops, benefits and risks, as well as how to form a co-op.
Incorporating a Non-Profit in New England
Explore whether a non-profit structure is the right fit for your organization. Learn how to incorporate as a non-profit corporation.
This legal guide:
- discusses the pros and cons of non-profit organizations
- details how to become a nonprofit organization
- explains how to apply for federal 501(c)(3) charitable organization status
- discusses fiscal sponsorship as an alternative to 501(c)(3) status
What is Mediation?
Mediation is a voluntary process in which a neutral third party (the mediator) assists the parties in resolving their dispute or conflict by facilitating their negotiation. Mediation can be used as an alternative to a lawsuit. This guide will go through the ins and outs of mediation as well as the advantages of it as a tool for conflict resolution.
Step-by-Step Guide to Forming a Limited Liability Company
This legal guide discusses the features and obligations of operating your business as a limited liability company (“LLC”) and provides step-by-step instructions for forming an LLC including:
- How to register an LLC
- What to include in an operating agreement
- Additional filings to be aware of
Employment Payroll Tax Basics
The rules governing payroll taxes can be complex. Payroll taxes are generally calculated as a percentage of the employee salary. Farms that employ workers must withhold money from their employees’ paychecks, timely submit withheld amounts to the appropriate tax authorities, and file payroll tax returns with state and federal agencies. This guide outlines what payroll taxes are, and how and when to pay them. After reading this guide you will know:
- what are payroll taxes and who is responsible for paying them
- the different types of payroll taxes
- the special exemptions given to agricultural employees
New England Food Policy Advocacy Guide
This guide is designed to provide organizations and advocates with information, support, and inspiration to promote policy changes that build a more robust and resilient regional food system. The report is intended as a tool to guide individuals, organizations, coalitions, agencies, and policymakers to pursue supportive public policies and remove policy barriers. It was developed by American Farmland Trust, Conservation Law Foundation, and Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.
How to Work with a Lawyer
While there are a lot of legal needs you can tackle yourself, sometimes you need help or information from an attorney. Learn how to work best with your lawyer to get the results you want. Your lawyer will likely ask a lot of questions at the first meeting. Here’s how to be ready for them, and how to prepare relevant questions of your own.
Rhode Island and Federal Leave Laws
Employment leave laws help balance employers’ needs for a reliable work force with employees’ responsibilities outside work. Leave laws also protect workers by allowing them to take time off without fear of losing their job. Both Federal and Rhode Island state laws allow employees to take reasonable unpaid leave for family and medical reasons. Whether you are an employer or an employee, it is important to know your rights and obligations under these state and Federal laws.
Copyright Law Basics
Copyright law can seem complicated. But it’s simply a law that says that if you create something, then you own it. For businesses, copyright can apply to things you use everyday such as graphics used on websites and in advertising or blog content. Get to know how to create and protect your copyrights. This guide examines how to protect your own copyrighted materials and avoid improper use of copyrights belonging to others.
Operating a Sole Proprietorship
As the owner of a farm or food enterprise, you choose how you want to operate it. Choosing the right business structure is important because it affects many aspects of your company. For example, it can influence tax treatment, exposure to risk and liability, and personal control over the business. New farmers or food entrepreneurs often operate as sole proprietors. This legal guide discusses the features and obligations of operating your business is as a sole proprietorship.
Cultivating Good Food Policy
This policy advocacy guide is aimed at farmers, food entrepreneurs, nonprofits, activists, and anyone interested in driving policy solutions to make long-lasting change. It is designed to be a tool to help you understand the policymaking process in Massachusetts and how to develop high-impact advocacy campaigns. Using these strategies, you and your allies can contribute to creating policy that helps the food system thrive.
Community Kitchens Legal Guide
Across New England, community kitchens are springing up to support food entrepreneurs, improve access to locally grown food, and support local farmers. This guide helps community kitchens and kitchen users – including small businesses and nonprofit groups – understand how to make use of these invaluable spaces and how to comply with the laws governing their operation.