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  • A well-negotiated commercial lease can lead to a happy landlord-tenant relationship.
  • However, unlike residential leases, commercial leases contain very few protections for the tenant.
  • Sometimes you can negotiate for favorable terms. Sometimes your best option is to walk away.

This article was derived from a livestream with Michelle Green and attorney Rebecca Lyon.
The Commercial Lease: Top Six Issues for Businesses
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people had to shutter their businesses, and they had lots of questions about how to get out of their commercial leases. Commercial leases, especially for small business owners, often favor the landlord very,…
Continue Reading Commercial Leases: Top 6 Issues for Businesses

  • Trademarks are a key part of people’s businesses, protecting their names, logos, and associated phrases.
  • Office actions are like roadblocks to getting your trademark registered.
  • Some office actions are easy to predict and get around, but others might force you to find a new path to registration.

This article was derived from a livestream with Michelle Green and trademark attorney Michael Reed
What is an office action?
An office action is a letter that you receive from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) informing you that your trademark application has been put on hold because there are some issues…
Continue Reading Trademark Troubles: Office Actions 101

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness. You can view the entire livestream here.
 
Michelle: Thank you, Rebecca, for being here. Rebecca has done a ton of deep diving into trademarks and trademark law over the past couple of years. One of my favorite things to do is talk to Rebecca about trademarks because she’s into it, so I wanted to invite her for this livestream so that all of you could share in Rebecca’s knowledge and interest. So, to dive into trademarks. There’s often a lot of confusion just at the basic level of,…
Continue Reading Making Your Mark: Your Trademark, Your Business, and You

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  • As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, only three new laws take effect this year that affect Illinois businesses.
  • The statewide minimum wage increased.
  • The minimum wage in Chicago will increase this summer.
  • Chicago has also extended some licensing and permitting deadlines.

New Laws for Businesses in 2021
Normally a new year brings a bevy of new laws. Last year’s legislative slate of over 50 laws included mandatory sexual harassment training, new protections for employees, an increase in the minimum wage, legalized cannabis, and more.

This year there are three.

While the scant handful of legal updates serves as a…
Continue Reading New Laws for Businesses in 2021

  • The USPTO is raising many fees in 2021.
  • Some other fees will decrease or go away.
  • A trademark is still a worthwhile investment

Trademark Cost Change: USPTO Updates Fees in 2021
How much does a trademark cost? The answer is about to change. On January 2nd, 2021, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will implement a fee change that’s been a couple of years coming. Many fees will rise, but some will decrease and others will be removed entirely.
Despite these increases, however, the fees still pale next to the benefits of having a trademark. It protects…
Continue Reading Trademark Cost Change: USPTO Updates Fees in 2021

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Here at G & G Law, one of our core values is “highest ethics.” As lawyers licensed in Illinois, we’re obviously bound by the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct (“Illinois Rules”), and we take that responsibility seriously. 
Our “highest ethics” core value goes even further, though. In everything we do, we consider whether it is the right thing to do: for our clients, for our society, for our country, for our globe, for ourselves. 
Tuesday, November 3rd is Election Day. It’s a big one. 
The Illinois Rules require that lawyers: 
“[F]urther the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule…
Continue Reading Election Day 2020

  • Face masks are required in Illinois.
  • Employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities recognized by the ADA.
  • Accommodations regarding masks vary by situation, but the ADA is not a blanket protection against wearing a mask.

Can I Make My Employee Wear a Mask Under the ADA?
Public health requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic have caused contention for many businesses and individuals, few as much as being forced to wear a mask. Many people claim that wearing a face mask violates their rights. This leaves businesses facing concerns from all directions, such as:

  • Can I require

…
Continue Reading Can I Make My Employee Wear a Mask Under the ADA?

  • After months of delays, Illinois finally released top scores for coveted cannabis dispensary licenses.
  • The 75 available licenses went to only 21 companies. These companies will be entered into a lottery, which the state will hold next month.
  • The scoring process and implementation of the law have come under intense scrutiny. Allegations of unfair scoring and mismanagement of the social equity intent of the law triggered multiple lawsuits.

Illinois Dispensary Licenses Released
Illinois’ long-awaited announcement of the winners of the cannabis dispensary licenses has drawn much criticism from around the state. Earlier this month, the Illinois Department of Financial and…
Continue Reading Illinois Dispensary Licenses Disappoint

PLLCs now required. Professionals licensed by the IDFPR: there has been a major change to the LLC statute in Illinois. It likely affects you and your business. Previously, licensed professionals were able to form their businesses as LLCs. Now, these businesses must register as a Professional LLC (PLLC).
This change went largely unenforced, but no longer.
Attention IDFPR Licensed Professionals: An Illinois LLC Statute Change Applies to You
Are you a professional licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR)?
In Illinois, the IDFPR issues licenses to professionals like therapists, counselors, licensed social workers, occupational therapists, psychologists,…
Continue Reading IDFPR Cracking Down: PLLC vs. LLC

In the last bit of employment news last week, the BACP reminded employers of the Anti-Retaliation Ordinance. Enacted in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Ordinance protects workers from retaliation for obeying certain health orders related to COVID-19.
What Health Orders are Covered Under Chicago’s Anti-Retaliation Ordinance?
The Anti-Retaliation Ordinance applies to several kinds of health orders:

  • Stay at home to minimize the transmission of COVID-19.
  • For example: A stay-at-home order closes your workplace and requires you to stay home.
  • Remain at home while experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or sick with COVID-19.
  • For example: A doctor tells you to stay home

    • …
    Continue Reading Anti-Retaliation Ordinance: Employee Accommodations for COVID-19

    Earlier this week, on July 1st, 2020, Chicago enacted the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance. Coming at the same time as an increase in the minimum wage, the Ordinance supports and enforces workers’ rights to a fair and predictable schedule. The Ordinance requires certain employers to post schedules 10 days in advance and pay employees extra for sudden schedule changes, plus a couple of other requirements. Do the new scheduling requirements apply to your business? What even are they? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out.
    What Employees Are Covered by the Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance?
    We’ll get to…
    Continue Reading New Scheduling Requirements for Employers

    Today, July 1st 2020, Chicago’s minimum wage goes up. The increase marks the second stage of a plan to incrementally reach $15.00/hour by 2021. The BACP published full rules on their website; here are the essential details:
    What is the Minimum Wage in Chicago?
    The minimum wage used to be $13.00 across the board. The rules taking effect today (July 1st, 2020) introduce a little more nuance. The minimum wage now depends on the size of your business; businesses with a workforce over a certain size pay a little bit more.

    • Tiny (Fewer than 4 workers): $10.00 (was $9.25;

    …
    Continue Reading Minimum Wage Increases Today

    Freelancers work at the mercy of the market. If you’re freelancing during COVID-19, the see-sawing economy may make you want to shelve your business for a while. But this may actually be the ideal time to officially form an LLC for your freelancing business. Seems crazy, right? But official registration confers many benefits, we think that by the end of this post you’ll agree. Here are the top five reasons why freelancers should form an LLC.
    Protect Your Personal Assets and Limit Your Personal Liability
    First and foremost, LLCs limit your personal liability as a business owner. When you freelance…
    Continue Reading Freelancing During COVID-19? Five Reasons For An LLC

    “Social equity” status was a trademark of Illinois’s cannabis legalization legislation. It aims to give a leg up to license applicants from overpoliced, underinvested, and primarily minority neighborhoods. However, despite the promise of fairness, they must wait a while longer.
    Cannabis Licenses for New Businesses Delayed
    The state postponed the issuance of 75 new dispensary licenses for recreational adult use of cannabis until mid-July, more than two months past the target date of May 1st. These licenses prioritized “social equity” business owners in an effort to diversify a white- and male-dominated industry.
    The delay can be largely attributed to the…
    Continue Reading New Cannabis Licenses Delayed, Leaving Minority Entrepreneurs In The Lurch

    Last updated June 9th, 2020
     
    Another day, another round of revisions to the PPP.
    On June 5, 2020, the President signed the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act (“the Act”), a set of changes to the current rules for the paycheck protection program. Three days later, the SBA administrator and US Treasury Secretary issued a statement “clarifying” the rules in the Act. The news is mostly good, but don’t get too excited just yet – the Treasury and SBA are going to issue even more new rules and guidance for the Act, and we’ll write about those when they happen.
    Continue Reading The New PPP Rules: Updates from the Latest Law

    I recently had an epiphany about PPP loan forgiveness, thanks to a wise G & G Law attorney, Rebecca Lyon. For weeks, she was gently explaining to me that I didn’t need to stress about loan forgiveness quite so much. Global Pandemic Brain (anyone else experiencing this?) combined with cobbler’s children syndrome prevented me from understanding how the PPP terms applied to my own business’s loan.
     
    Here’s my revelation: Forgiveness is not all-or-nothing. Partial forgiveness is likely available for PPP loans. I was stuck on all or nothing thinking. I thought that if I couldn’t figure out how to…
    Continue Reading PPP Stress: Our Founder’s Revelation