HOME ARTICLES CONTACT ARTICLES Business Entities and their Tax Consequences | Buying a House | Divorce | Attorney Fees | Drunk Driving | Misc | Humor Business Entities and their Tax Consequences AUGUST 25, 1999 The legal ins and outs of setting up a business The Declaration of Independence proclaims that all people are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These words are an invitation for us to dream big dreams. Two of the great American dreams include owning ... more >> SEPTEMBER 8, 1999 Establishing a company: corporation vs. the LLC Ray Martin is in the law office of Neal Able. Ray is a master electrician, who is about to form his own electrical contracting company. Ray is seeking Neal’s advice on how best to accomplish this. In their initial conference Ray and Neal determined that neither a sole proprietorship nor a partnership ... more >> SEPTEMBER 22, 1999 Business entities yield various tax pros, cons In the last two articles we talked about the legal characteristics of the most common business entities. I hope you’ve already had your double-almond latte this morning because today is the day we talk about the different tax consequences of corporations and limited liability companies, or LLCs ... more >> AUGUST 16, 2000 Revisiting corporate land In my last column, I talked about the various options available for starting up a new business entity. I focused primarily on the tax consequences of choosing either an S-corporation, a C-corporation, a limited liability company (LLC) or a general partnership. I am quite certain you still ... more >> SEPTEMBER 27, 2000 Partnership can ease tax bite for landowners A few weeks ago my friend, Clay Geittmann of Gonnella & Sullivan -- estate-planning lawyers right here in downtown Jackson -- helped me with an article on selecting and setting up the perfect business entity to implement your billion dollar money-making idea. It’s hard to keep a good man down ... more >> Buying a House OCTOBER 13, 1999 The American dream: buying a new house A few weeks ago when we began talking about owning a business, I made a reference to the pursuit of the great American dream(s). One of the greatest of those great dreams is owning one’s own home. That will be the subject of the next few articles. If you own your own home, you fall into one of two categories: ... more >> OCTOBER 27, 1999 Completing the purchase of your new home It’s Wednesday. Newspaper day. Thank heaven there’s a reason to get out of bed. I hope you remember a couple of weeks ago that you signed a contract to buy Fred Wilma Flintstone’s house for 4.5 times what it would have cost you in Peoria, Ill. You have applied for bank financing and are awaiting approval ... more >> NOVEMBER 10, 1999 The ground rules for building a house Your good friends recently bought a house and are now settled in and loving it. You are very happy for them. Your heart’s desire, however, has always been to buy a piece of land and build your own dream house. What’s involved in that process? ... more >> JUNE 6, 2001 Homeowners’ associations often breed bickering Is it just me, or does it seem to you lately that the world is divided into two categories -- those who belong to homeowners’ associations and those who do not. If you are among the former, then your world is further subdivided (no pun intended) into two subcategories: those who manage the homeowners’ association and ... more >> Divorce JUNE 2, 1999 Sorting through divorce Editors note: This column is the first of three installments discussing divorce and the legal system. The other two parts will run in the next two issues of the Guide. If you have not personally suffered through the experience this winter, you undoubtedly know one or two people who have ... more >> JUNE 9, 1999 So who pays for the kids after the divorce? Last week we left off talking about the equitable distribution of assets and liabilities. The concept of equitable distribution is difficult to explain without applying it to a particular set of circumstances. Let’s say you have been married between 10 and 20 years, have a couple of kids, and most ... more >> JUNE 16, 1999 Mediation can spare hassles of the court Editors note: This column is the final of three installments discussing divorce and the legal system. Mediation is a process being used with increasing frequency in divorce cases as an alternative to going to trial. What is it and why would you choose it? You may be thinking ... more >> JUNE 30, 1999 Unmarried couples and their legal rights after separation Ever since the concept of marriage became so darn popular, we have elevated it to a special status. Our laws, our customs and our religions treat the marital relationship differently than other relationships, affording it a privileged status. Ownership of property is one area in which the law ... more >> Attorney Fees JULY 14, 1999 Attorney billing varies widely between cases Let’s talk about a subject which is of great importance to my children -- lawyer fees. Most of us -- by which I mean everyone who is not a lawyer -- consider lawyer fees to be one of life’s great mysteries. They are probably the single greatest source of friction between lawyers and clients ... more >> JULY 28, 1999 Varied fee structures from the legal world In the last column, we began discussing lawyer fees. For those of you who don’t have the foggiest idea where we left off, and for those unfortunate folks who a couple of weeks ago missed the only bargain in Teton county in several years -- a 50-cent Jackson Hole Guide -- I will ... more >> AUGUST 11, 1999 Fees: How to coexist with your attorney Let’s get right to the heart of the matter and continue the discussion on lawyer fees. Studies at Harvard have shown that the mere mention of the phrase "lawyer fees" will cause a grown man or woman to take to bed for several days. My guess is that disputes over hourly billing are ... more >> Drunk Driving No Date Honest officer, I swear I only had two beers: The saga of driving under the influence This is the first of two articles on driving under the influence of alcohol. You have reflected on it in your mind over and over again. It is surreal. It is not possible. Yet here you are on a weekday morning lying on a cot in the Teton County Jail covered with a threadbare wool blanket, staring up ... more >> No Date Driving while intoxicated: A few good reasons why not to do it You are standing on the side of the road. Shivering. Frightened. Disoriented. Cars whizzing by on the highway. There you are for the whole world to see, silhouetted by the flashing lights of the patrol car in front of which you are standing. Keep it together, you tell yourself ... more >> Miscellaneous Subjects JULY 5, 2000 Winning a lawsuit doesn’t mean you collect the cash I received an e-mail the other day -- yet one more unsolicited piece of junk mail among the many pieces of junk mail which assault us on a daily basis in this age of the computer. I spent a moment or two skimming the contents with my finger poised over the delete key, ready to zap this irritating ... more >> JULY 17, 2002 Paternity: If you haven't tried it, don't knock it This job is not as easy as it looks. For weeks I have been agonizing whether to talk about unlawful searches and seizures, paternity, wrongful termination, tax-free disability benefits, or some other equally fascinating subject you simply cannot live another moment without learning about ... more >> No Date Making babies is not what it used to be: Navigating the law of assisted reproduction I was so ignorant about the subject that when I first saw the phrase "assisted reproduction" recently I thought it was a description of what happens when my secretary helps me make copies of legal documents. I was wrong. Assisted reproduction actually refers to the ... more >> No Date Wyoming Workers: You can be fired at any time. It’s a rare week that passes without a call from someone who says something like this: “I have been working for the Rio Grande Hotel as a chef for six months. My employer has told me at least a dozen times that I am the best employee he has ever had and he loves my work. But this morning he called me at home and told me ... more >> MAY 9, 2001 Workman's Compensation We are reminded on a regular basis that life is fragile and uncertain. The signs are everywhere. Even in this darling little paradise in northwest Wyoming. As I returned home with my kids from the annual community mecca in search of a warmer, moister paradise, I was not even out of the airport ... more >> No Date Notes From the Heartland: Some Thoughts On Healthcare Then And Now As a child I often heard the Wise Ones tell the story. About a time long ago in a land many valleys removed from our Shangri-la. The Wise Ones referred to the place simply as "the heartland." In the heartland the strong cared for the weak. In the heartland the ... more >> No Date Pro Bono Distills Dispute Resolution To Its Very Essence The world is awash in Conflict. It is all around us, virtually all the time. The world is a perfectly tuned perpetual motion Conflict machine. Recently the most visible Conflict on the world stage is, once again, the Middle East. It is profoundly disturbing to watch ... more >> No Date It's all so confusing: What is the right thing to do? I know it seems like just yesterday but Pro Bono has been a fixture of the JH Guide since May 1999. Forty or so articles of slightly comical relief with an educational twist. It has been my objective to write on controversial subjects from time to time without being particularly controversial. Today I want to share some things ... more >> Is it just me, or am I really that funny? NOVEMBER 8, 2000 Short Stories As I began thinking about writing this column, I realized it would be printed in the Nov. 8 edition of the Guide. Today, we know who will be our new mayor, county commissioners, and our new president and vice president. Almost half of us are not feeling so hot right about now ... more >> No Date Short Stories II Has anybody seen a man wearing a gorilla mask? I had just sat down at my desk to begin composing a serious, sensitive, compelling, thought provoking piece on a legal subject of great importance to us all. I had been thinking about the article for a while and had it carefully mapped out in my mind ... more >> No Date Still More Short Stories Sometimes life just seems so darned depressing. Throughout the day we are bombarded with heart wrenching news stories by way of radio, television and the print media. News stories which are difficult, if not impossible, for we human beings to process. For weeks we have been reading about the crematory in Georgia ... more >> MAY 5, 1999 Revealing the rational behind "lawyer speak" Questions: Is there an interest in reading a column about various law-related topics written from the perspective of a small-town lawyer? Answer: Stay tuned. What is it like to be a small-town lawyer working in Jackson Hole? ... more >> No Date Pit Bull Syndrome: Helpful Insights In The Lawyer Selection Process Our records indicate that of the last 216 prospective clients who have come through the front door, 179 came in search of a pit bull and 37 in search of a junk yard dog. If only I were running a dog pound instead of a law office. What’s with the pit bull stuff? There is a common perception among ... more >> TOP OF PAGE