From its office in Clayton, Missouri, Danna McKitrick, P.C., delivers legal representation to new and growing businesses, financial institutions, non-profit and government-related entities, business owners, individuals, and families throughout the greater St. Louis region and the Midwest.
Danna McKitrick attorneys practice across many areas of law, both industry- and service-oriented.
Many small business owners are suffering financially due to the effects of COVID-19 and the unpredictable, rapidly changing economy in general. In this five-part series, we will discuss the various options available to small businesses in financial trouble, all the way from working out obligations informally to Chapter 11 reorganization to going out of business.
co-presented by Katherine M. Flett and Ruth Binger
Ruth Binger and Katherine Flett presented a webinar on keeping your business in business, which included employment and business strategies during the pandemic.
OSHA has released new guidelines for reopening to help non-essential businesses ensure the safety and health of their employees and customers from the spread of COVID-19.
Equal Pay Day was celebrated this month on April 2, 2019. This date symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. Thankfully, this date is not stationary. In fact, the date occurs seventeen days earlier than it did in 2005. While there is a lot to celebrate with that achievement, there is still a long way to go to completely close the gender wage gap.
In fact, the Supreme Court recently faced the opportunity to potentially close this wage gap even further when it granted cert to Rizo v. Yovino. See Katherine Flett’s blog post titled “Salaries Speak Louder than Words” for more discussion on the case. In Rizo, the Ninth Circuit sitting en banc found that the use of salary history to establish a starting salary violated the Equal Pay Act, as it perpetuated the discriminatory nature of women historically being underpaid in almost all sectors of employment. Thus, reliance on prior pay could no longer be considered as an affirmative defense under the Act’s fourth catchall exception, “any other factor other than sex.” Continue reading »
Restaurants fail for a variety of reasons, from failure to watch costs to failure to develop the right menu to a nearby construction project eliminating most of your on-street parking. If you followed the tips in my previous article, you should have some money to rely on going forward.
If your financial problems are operational or managerial, one of the things you can do at this late stage is to hire a consultant to help you tweak your menu, streamline your operations, or take any of a number of additional steps to bring you back to profitability. This is the time to be humble, rather than arrogant – ask for help! You should also consult with a bankruptcy lawyer at this point. That does not mean you are necessarily going to file bankruptcy, but an attorney knowledgeable in this area can tell you what to expect if different scenarios unfold. Unanswered ‘end-game’ questions will add to your stress and divert you from your primary mission of saving your restaurant. You can learn a lot of useful information for not a lot of money, and gain some peace of mind as well.
A bankruptcy attorney also can help with your current problems. For instance, the attorney can negotiate with the landlord, either to reduce the rent or give back some space. He can negotiate with your lender and your suppliers to negotiate better terms, or a temporary break in your monthly payments. Continue reading »
Failure is a topic most restaurateurs would prefer to avoid when setting up a new venture, when their heads are full with visions of success. However, the restaurant business is tough, and problems can arise due to circumstances both within and outside of your control.
A great time to protect yourself from potentially devastating problems is now, while you are setting up your business and you can plan calmly.
In this post, I will discuss several of the initial legal steps you can take to prepare for a potential failure. In my next post, I will turn to the ramifications of failure and what actions you can take at that time.
First, consult an attorney to prepare your initial legal documents. There are many issues of which you may be unaware, or that you may not know how to resolve. You need to choose an appropriate legal structure and learn about human resource issues. Especially if you have a partner, you will want to deal with buyout issues, succession issues and how to handle deadlocks if multiple owners are unable to reach decisions on major issues. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Continue reading »
