Law Letters - Archives 
  • BusinessTaxLawLetter-Winter 2003 - Auditor Independence Rules Under Sarbanes-Oxley: Large Firm’s Loss Could Be Smaller Firm’s Gain
    One prominent feature of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is its mandate regarding auditor independence. The act charged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with promulgating rules intended to strengthen auditor independence by prohibiting auditing firms from providing certain non-audit services to their audit clients.
  • RealEstateLawLetter-Fall2004 - Clean Ohio Fund Revitalizes Ohio’s Brownfield Development
    Some Ohio developers and commercial real estate property owners are finding gold in polluted property. The state of Ohio, through an innovative funding program known as the Clean Ohio Fund (COF), provides a development opportunity for areas polluted and once abandoned.
  • BusinessTaxLawLetter-Fall 2004 - Proposed State Bill Creates Increased Reporting Requirements for Recipients of Public Money
    Financial scandals are fresh in the minds of many frustrated Americans.  Proposed Ohio Senate Bill (S.B.) No. 153, currently before the Ohio General Assembly, is apparently targeted at preventing the environment which led to these scandals.
  • EmploymentLawLetter-Summer2004 - Labor Specialist Fred Seleman Panelist With NLRB Chair Battista at 2004 ABA Mid-Winter Meeting
    Fred Seleman, a member of Ulmer & Berne’s Employment & Labor Law Group, had the privilege
    of being a panelist with the National Labor Relations Board’s chairman, Robert J. Battista, at
    the 2004 mid-winter meeting of the ABA’s Committee on Practice & Procedure.
  • BusinessTaxLawLetter-Summer 2004 - Conservation Easements Generate Income and Estate Tax Savings
    If you own family lands... it may be possible to preserve your lands and protect your family’s financial future through the use of conservation easements.
  • EmploymentLawLetter-Summer2003 - Get That Employee Handbook Off Your “To Do” List
    If writing or revising an employee handbook is still on your business’ “to do” list, now is the time to move that project to the top of the list. This is the time of year when clients ask members of Ulmer & Berne’s Employment & Labor Law Group to assist them in revising personnel manuals, updating policies or writing employee handbooks. Clients can decide how much or how little to do themselves or delegate to our attorneys.
  • RealEstateLawLetter-Summer 2003 - Shopping Center Trends
    Even in the recent sluggish economy, developers continue to build new shopping centers and national tenants continue to expand and open additional stores. Ulmer & Berne represents developers of upscale lifestyle centers, grocery store-anchored centers and strip centers.  We also represent tenants in each of these types of centers, including Claddagh Pubs, which has executed a lease at Legacy Village in Cleveland. In the course of such representation, we have noticed certain trends and issues which deserve attention.
  • BusinessTaxLawLetter-Summer2003 - S Corporation Technique for Maximizing Capital Gain on Land Development
    What follows discusses some of the details of the technique for maximizing capital gain and minimizing ordinary income from a land development project. We also included some guidelines for structuring the transaction. These are drawn from court cases that have upheld as well as denied the capital gain goal of similar arrangements.
  • EmploymentLawLetter-Spring 2003 - U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Whether ADA Requires Reinstatement of Employee Discharged for Drug Use
    Does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require an employer to reinstate a former employee who was discharged after testing positive for cocaine in violation of the employer’s drug testing policy?
  • RealEstateLawLetter-Spring 2003 - Is Port Authority Financing Right for Your Next Project?
    Companies are constantly looking for creative ways to finance construction and expansion projects. One innovative option is port authority financing.