Nina Kaufman

Attorney Nina Kaufman outlines why you should have the right policies in place online.

With Foursquare landing $20 million in a recent venture capital funding deal, entrepreneurs are starting to ask, “Why not me, too?” Increasingly, they’re turning to internet sites to attract investors who otherwise might never have heard of them. But is that a legally prudent way to go? Using the internet to interest VCs in your […]

Unpaid summer internships can be a rite of passage for many college students. But for the companies who offer them, unpaid summer internships could start them on a trip down the labor law rabbit hole. Unpaid internships used to be all about “the experience”–an opportunity for young students to break into a new field, to […]

Small businesses are already besieged by the prospect of rising taxes, health care costs, and tightening access to credit. A recent report by the Congressional Oversight Panel indicates that there may be more troubles in store. Small business may get another punch to the gut when commercial real estate mortgages come due over the next […]

More and more states have enacted legislation concerning data breaches . . . but the rogue hacker is not the only way small businesses gets breached. It’s tempting to think that firewalls are the only security protection your computer data needs. But increasingly, data gets into the wrong hands for more prosaic reasons. It’s not […]

Whichever side of the coin you’re on–service provider or service requester–it’s important to know that employment audits are on the rise. Let’s leave aside my cynicism about the government’s use of this tool as a revenue-generation activity . . . The fact is that the Department of Labor, the IRS and numerous state labor authorities […]

You’ve poured your heart and soul (and $$) into launching the Next Great Thing and unleashing it upon the world. Have you made sure that no one can take it away from you? Join me as I lead this webinar for Office Depot–TODAY!–May 11 at 4 p.m. (ET) Through this fun and interactive session, you’ll […]

You may have heard by now that the Lib Dems got trounced at the polls, despite promising predictions to the contrary. Apparently, fear tactics got in the way of voting for a change. When times are tough, what do your customers want? The comfort of what they know (even if it may not be what […]

When striving for a business goal, when is enough . . . enough? We were having dinner the other night with Lib Dem candidate Ron Beadle and his friend Eileen. Ron has been running himself ragged with this campaign, and we were talking about the toll it has taken on his health and his family […]

It’s all fine to automate and be online, but sometimes, success requires a personal touch. More lessons from the UK campaign trail. Got four hours of sleep last night and have been pounding the pavement with “Good Mornings” (the name they give leaflets they hand out on the morning of election day) since 6:15 a.m. […]

Any number of factors can slow down your business processes. Are you delivering your product or service to your clients as efficiently as possible? Here’s what I encountered while leafleting on the campaign trail. It’s 8:15am, and I’m trying to focus on about 5 hours of sleep. Thankfully, my first task of the day doesn’t […]

It’s deja vu all over again. Or nothing new under the sun . . . ? If you read the political manifestos from the three major parties (Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrats), you’d almost swear you were right at home . . . I was curious to know where the different parties stood regarding legislation affecting […]

The British excel in verbal fisticuffs. Could our political debates benefit from their seemingly transparent and direct approach? Maybe it’s something in their educational system, but the British (and yes, I’ve noticed this with all of the English, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish people I’ve met) love a good political discussion. They gnaw on it like […]

Like the animals in Noah’s Ark, bicameral legislatures (lit. “two chambers”) come in twos. We have Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate for federal issues. The UK has Parliament, made up of the House of Commons and House of Lords. Although the UK is a multi-party system, it has been […]

It’s bad enough that the fine print in agreements often comes in microscopic font. But what if your vendors want your heirs to be responsible for your debts? Q: I want to sell my product online. One of the credit card processors has in their contract a paragraph for me to sign an acknowledgment which […]

You’ve poured your heart and soul (and $$) into launching the Next Great Thing and unleashing it upon the world. Have you made sure that no one can take it away from you? Join me as I lead this webinar for Office Depot on May 11th at 4:00pm (ET). Through this fun and interactive session […]

“Aw, c’mon,” you cry, “so what if I have my friend’s daughter coming in to handle my bookkeeping and I just pay her hourly?” Well, that “so what” could cost you thousands of extra dollars in penalties and interest if you don’t classify your “work force” properly. Whenever your business benefits from someone else’s time, […]

Just went through a “spot” of turbulence so wild it shook the tea out of my Styrofoam cup. Is that where politics is headed? I thought I’d wash down the surprisingly rich and moist triple-chocolate brownie from my airplane dinner with a cup of tea. No sooner did the trying-to-be-perky-but-too-exhausted-to-succeed air steward pour it then […]

What can we learn from the upcoming general election in the UK this week? In college, I toyed with the idea of journalism as a career. Note that I said “toyed with the idea of,” not “toyed with the career.” Would that I had the intestinal fortitude to drop into the bowels of some war-torn […]

Are verbal agreements valid? Does it make a difference if they come up in an employment situation? Q: What are the laws regarding verbal agreements concerning workers’ compensation cases? A: Generally, most states provide that verbal agreements are enforceable, just like written agreements (except for certain defined exceptions in the law, such as real estate […]

Or any other content for that matter? Do you? Or does the copywriter that you hired for the project? That’s what got me thinking after reading that the U.S. Supreme Court resurrected a possible settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by freelance writers. In that case, New York Times v. Tasini, freelance writers brought a […]

Entrepreneurs often get so excited (and involved in) getting the business off the ground, that’s it’s not until much later that they look back and realize they may not have protected themselves adequately when it comes to ownership rights. Is it ever too late to revisit history? Q: I have been the sole creator, brand […]

Website Legal Audits

Q: I am concerned with protecting the intellectual property for a business startup that I’m currently engaged in. It has to do primarily with a certain business process/practice. How can I protect these practices? A: You’re wise to be concerned with protecting your company’s intellectual property, as that can provide a valuable asset for the […]

Whether we like it or not, social media’s tentacles now have an impact on how we handle employees before, during and after the course of the employment relationship. As Renee Jackson points out in the National Law Journal, “[t]he increased use of social media in the workplace . . . presents both opportunities and risks […]

Hot off the press! The SBA has proposed a rule that (if passed) could open up federal contracting opportunities for women-owned businesses in dozens of industry categories. Listen in as I interview Ana Harvey, director of the SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership. We cover: What federal contracting opportunities mean for women-owned businesses What the […]

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