Corporate & Commercial

RSS Link
Agricultural Law Updates for Illinois Farmers and Agribusinesses: July 2026 reviews several recent federal and state developments affecting producers, processors, rural communities, and agricultural businesses. In the July 2026 issue of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Agricultural Law newsletter, Rincker Law attorneys Sam Ellis and Cari Brett Rincker co-authored “Ag Law in the News: July 2026,” an overview of developments involving meat processing, fertilizer costs, agricultural research, rural water infrastructure, farm labor, conservation programs, biofuels, and the Illinois agricultural budget. Cari also serves as editor of the ISBA Agricultural Law newsletter.
Agricultural law is constantly shaped by changes in government

…
Continue Reading Agricultural Law Updates for Illinois Farmers and Agribusinesses: July 2026

Rural Lawyer Shortages and Access to Justice: What Illinois Communities Can Learn From National Trends examines a growing challenge facing small towns and rural communities throughout Illinois and across the country. In the July 2026 issue of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Rural Practice newsletter, Rincker Law attorneys Cari Brett Rincker and Sam Ellis co-authored “Rural Law Practice in the News,” an overview of recent efforts to address legal deserts, strengthen rural legal services, and recruit attorneys to underserved communities. Cari also serves as a co-editor of the Rural Practice newsletter.
The developments highlighted in the article show that…
Continue Reading Rural Lawyer Shortages and Access to Justice: What Illinois Communities Can Learn From National Trends

The Utah medical cannabis pharmacy license window opens August 3, 2026 and closes September 2, 2026. Thirty days. One license. When Utah ran this exact process last year, 14 groups applied and exactly one walked away with a license. If you are thinking about applying, the work starts now — not on August 3.
This is the second and final independent pharmacy license created by H.B. 54 (2025 General Session). After this one is awarded, Utah’s medical cannabis retail map is closed. Below is what the state actually scored last round, where applicants died, and the seven rules that decide…
Continue Reading Utah Medical Cannabis Pharmacy License: 7 Critical Rules

Investing in non-traditional assets, unlike stocks, bonds, treasuries, and index funds that are readily marketable, creates substantial and new risks. Investors looking into crypto, fine art, rare wine and spirits, classic automobiles, and other non-traditional opportunities need to be wary. Investment requires knowledge, documentation, vetted sources, and trusted advisors to evaluate and profit from these unique assets. While claimed returns are higher, so are your risks. For you or your estate to profit from investing in non-traditional assets you should consult your legal counsel, tax advisor, and an asset category expert for acquisition, valuation, protection, disposition, inheritance, and tax advice.
Continue Reading Investigation in Valuable Collectibles

You and your partner built the company as equals. Fifty-fifty feltfair at the start. It does not feel fair now. One of you wants to cash out and the other wants to keep building. Or you cannot agree on payroll, on a distribution, on whether to take the loan, and every vote splits two to two. Checks wait for a second signature that never comes. Employees ask who is in charge, and you no longer have a clean answer.
A 50/50 company that stops agreeing can freeze in place. The deadlock feels permanent because neither owner can outvote the other,…
Continue Reading Business Divorce in Illinois: How 50/50 Owners Break a Deadlock and Force a Fair Buyout

The complaint arrives styled as a class action, and the number at the bottom of the page is built to frighten you. A single fee, a single line in a form contract, or a single advertisement, multiplied across every customer you have served for years, until the demand looks large enough to swallow the company. The plaintiff’s lawyer wants you to see that number and reach for the checkbook before anyone asks the harder question. Can this case be a class action at all?
Most consumer fraud class actions are won or lost at class certification, the stage where the…
Continue Reading Sued in an Illinois Consumer Fraud Class Action? How Defendants Defeat Class Certification

By Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso
You own half of a company you helped build, and the other owner has turned on you. The distributions stopped, but the salary he pays himself did not. You asked to see the books and got silence. Maybe he changed the password on the shared drive, put his brother-in-law on payroll, or started a side venture that looks a great deal like yours. You do not know whether you are about to lose the business, your investment, or both, and every day you wait feels like a day he is using against…
Continue Reading Business Partners at War in Illinois: What a Chicago Commercial Litigator Actually Does to Protect You

By Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso
A process server hands your company a class action complaint late on a Friday. By Monday you are reading a theory that turns one disputed
charge or one form document into a claim brought on behalf of thousands of people. The instinct is to wait, to answer the complaint, and to see how bad it gets. That instinct is a mistake. What a defendant does in the first thirty days often decides the case, because the early choices
about where the lawsuit is heard and whether the plaintiff can clear the threshold…
Continue Reading Served With a Class Action in Illinois? The First Moves That Decide the Case

Illinois HB 4462: Proposed Changes to Power of Attorney Acceptance Requirements addresses a practical problem that can arise when an agent attempts to use a valid power of attorney for property, but a bank, financial institution, title company, or other third party demands additional documentation before honoring it. The enrolled bill would amend Section 2-8 of the Illinois Power of Attorney Act by removing two specific grounds currently identified as reasonable cause for refusing to honor a power of attorney.
As of July 27, 2026, HB 4462 has passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly and was sent to…
Continue Reading Illinois HB 4462: Proposed Changes to Power of Attorney Acceptance Requirements

7 Farm Succession Planning Mistakes That Can Tear a Family Apart addresses a problem many farm families quietly postpone. Parents, farming children, and off-farm siblings may each hold different expectations about what will happen. When those expectations are never discussed or documented, grief can quickly become conflict.
Farm succession planning should coordinate land ownership, management, retirement, incapacity planning, equipment, leases, and family expectations. Avoiding these mistakes can help preserve the operation and family relationships.
Mistake 1: Waiting for a Health Crisis or Death
Families often delay planning because the current arrangement still works. Illness, injury, incapacity, or death rarely arrives…
Continue Reading 7 Farm Succession Planning Mistakes That Can Tear a Family Apart

When an Aging Parent Can No Longer Make Decisions: 7 Signs It May Be Time to Consider Guardianship in Illinois is a difficult topic for many families. No one wants to take away a parent’s independence, and occasional forgetfulness does not automatically mean guardianship is necessary. However, when an older adult can no longer understand or communicate responsible decisions about personal care, finances, or safety, court-appointed guardianship may become one option for protection.
Illinois law treats guardianship as a serious measure. It should be used only to the extent necessary to protect a person from neglect, exploitation, or abuse while…
Continue Reading When an Aging Parent Can No Longer Make Decisions: 7 Signs It May Be Time to Consider Guardianship in Illinois

Back-to-School Parenting Disputes: How to Resolve School, Activity, and Schedule Conflicts Early is an important topic for separated and divorced parents as summer winds down. By late July, many Illinois families are already thinking about school registration, supplies, transportation, extracurricular activities, and new routines. These decisions can become stressful when parents disagree or when the parenting plan does not clearly address the issue.
Back-to-school season does not have to lead to another court dispute. Many conflicts can be addressed through early communication, attorney-assisted negotiation, mediation, or a clearer written agreement.
Why Back-to-School Parenting Disputes Happen
The transition from summer to…
Continue Reading Back-to-School Parenting Disputes: How to Resolve School, Activity, and Schedule Conflicts Early

280E tax compliance cannabis rules split down the middle in 2026. On April 23, the Department of Justice moved state-licensed medical cannabis into Schedule III, and just like that, Section 280E stopped applying to that slice of the business. Adult-use cannabis didn’t move. It’s still sitting on Schedule I, which means the same dispensary can now run two completely different federal tax profiles under one roof.
If your license only touches one market, this is a simpler story. If you’re like most of Collateral Base’s Illinois clients — holding both a medical dispensary license and an adult-use license, sharing a…
Continue Reading 280E Tax Compliance Cannabis: 7 Critical Moves for the Medical vs. Adult-Use Divide

Good dispensary inventory management is the difference between a store that prints cash and one that quietly bleeds it. Your margins are already thin, your best-selling flower loses value while it sits, and federal tax law punishes you for every dollar trapped on the shelf. If you can only fix one system this quarter, fix this one.
Here is the good news: you are already sitting on the data you need. Every state-legal dispensary runs a real-time point-of-sale and seed-to-sale system, which means every sale, every reorder, and every markdown is already logged. The problem is not a lack of…
Continue Reading Dispensary Inventory Management: 5 Costly Cash Leaks AI Kills

Before Harvest Begins: Family Farm Succession Planning Conversations to Have Now is a timely reminder for farm families in late July. Once harvest season begins, there may be little time for difficult conversations about ownership, management, retirement, family expectations, or what happens if a key decision-maker becomes unavailable.
Farm succession planning is not just an estate-planning exercise. It is also a business-continuity plan, a family communication plan, and a risk-management tool. The earlier those conversations happen, the more options the family may have.
Why Late Summer Is a Good Time to Talk
Harvest brings pressure. Equipment needs to be ready,…
Continue Reading Before Harvest Begins: Family Farm Succession Planning Conversations to Have Now

In this installment of Ask Sam and Kendal, Rincker Law, PLLC associate attorneys Sam Ellis and Kendal A. Schoepfer explain the current status of FinCEN’s Residential Real Estate Reporting Rule and why its continuing legal uncertainty matters to farmers, landowners, estate-planning clients, attorneys, title professionals, and others involved in transferring real estate to a trust or business entity.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, commonly known as FinCEN, created a nationwide reporting rule intended to increase transparency in certain non-financed residential real estate transactions. Although the rule was primarily promoted as a tool to combat money laundering, its broad language could…
Continue Reading Ask Sam and Kendal: What Is the Current Status of FinCEN’s Residential Real Estate Reporting Rule?