The administrative agencies are having a busy week! In addition to the DOL issuing an updated rule on the salary basis to be overtime exempt, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 on its long-awaited non-compete ban, which was initially issued as a proposed rule in January 2023. The FTC estimates that this rule will affect 2,301,874 employees in Wisconsin and increase wages of each of those employees by $524 annually. Under the FTC’s rule, which is scheduled to go into effect 120 days from publication in the federal register, “non-compete clauses” are banned in alm ..read more

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime pay at 1.5 times their regular rate for all hours worked in a workweek in excess of 40. In order to be considered exempt, an employee must be paid a salary in excess of a certain amount and must perform certain job duties, generally of a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional. Currently, the salary basis is $35,568 per year ($684 per week), which was most recently updated in 2019. On Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the Department of Labor announced its final rule, entitled Defining and Delimiting the Exemp ..read more

What is a Trademark? A trademark can be any mark representing words, phrases, symbols, designs, or a combination of these that identifies your goods or services. In practice, the most common trademarks are business names and logos. Trademarks accomplish several objectives. They (1) identify the source of your goods or services; (2) provide additional legal protection for your brand; and (3) help to guard against counterfeiting and fraud. Creative and unique trademarks are the most effective in accomplishing these objectives and are easier to protect in the long run. How Are Trademark Rights Ob ..read more

O’Neil Cannon advised Engendren Corporation in its recent sale to Cummins Inc., a global powertrain manufacturer. Over the past couple of years, Engendren has experienced tremendous growth, and it looks forward to continued advancement and expansion as Cummins invests in improving Engendren’s capabilities. This support will further enable Engendren to provide world class cooling solutions for all its customers. Engendren is part of the Cummins Power Systems Business but will continue to operate independently. The O’Neil Cannon deal team was led by Chad Richter with assistance provided by Pete ..read more

Wisconsin families received a significant boost with the recent signing of Assembly Bill 1023. The bill was signed into law by Governor Tony Evers on Monday, March 4, 2024. This groundbreaking legislation, effective immediately for the 2024 tax year, expands the state’s child and dependent care tax credit from 50% to 100% of the federal credit, potentially providing substantial relief to families grappling with childcare expenses. The amended law not only doubles the benefit percentage, but it also raises the cap on allowable childcare expenses, allowing taxpayers to claim up to $10,000 for on ..read more

Attorney Emily Behn, a cum laude graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, has joined O’Neil Cannon. Emily is a member of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group, where she assists clients in a wide variety of both personal and commercial litigation matters ranging from inheritance and contract disputes to business shareholder disputes, property disputes, and renovation and construction disputes. Prior to law school, Emily studied journalism and worked in public relations telling the stories of both public and private sector clients in the health care, food and beverage, agriculture, an ..read more

In the summer of 1982, when Glenn “Doc” Rivers was a student-athlete at Marquette University, he was a messenger at our firm, running errands and playing on the firm’s softball team (he pretty much covered the entire outfield). Likely due to the tremendous training and experience he received from our firm, Doc has had great success since then. He played in the NBA for 14 years; has been a head coach in the NBA for 25 years; won an NBA championship; was named Coach of the Year in the NBA; and is now the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Welcome back to Milwaukee, Doc. It was clear to us way ba ..read more

Newsletter Article Highlights: Navigating the Corporate Transparency Act: A Must-Read for Every Business Owner IRS Announces Changes to Estate and Gift Tax Exemptions for 2024 Important Update for PayPal and Venmo Users: IRS Postpones 1099-K Reporting Requirement! Firm News: Super Lawyers Recognizes 28 O’Neil Cannon Attorneys Firm Prevails in Three Cases in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in a 45-Day Time Span Tax Reform Bill Passes with Advocacy from Britany Morrison and Nancy Wilson O’Neil Cannon Ranked in 2024 “Best Law Firms” Click the image below to read more. The post The WiLaw Quart ..read more

Each year, Super Lawyers surveys the State of Wisconsin’s 15,000 attorneys and judges, seeking the State’s top attorneys. Recently, Super Lawyers published its lists for 2023, which include the Top 10 Attorneys in Wisconsin, Top 50 Attorneys in Wisconsin, Top 25 Attorneys in Milwaukee, Super Lawyers (consisting of the top 5% of attorneys in Wisconsin), and Rising Stars (consisting of attorneys who are 40 years old or younger or who have been in practice for 10 years or less). Twenty-nine of our attorneys were recognized by Super Lawyers, which has referred to the firm ..read more

Dean Laing of our firm recently won three cases in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals in a time span of 45 days. In the first case, Sims v. Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, Inc., Appeal No. 2022AP1590, 2023 WL 7138521 (Oct. 31, 2023), the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the trial court in Milwaukee County on issues dealing with whether members or directors have the authority to adopt and amend corporate by-laws. A copy of the decision can be found here. In the second case, Tikalsky v. Tikalsky, Appeal No. 2020AP1345, 2023 WL 8447227 (Dec. 6, 2023), the Court of Appeals affirmed the d ..read more