San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog

Our Oakland business attorney works with Northern California companies facing a myriad of legal disputes. Business fraud and employee malfeasance are old problems but wrongdoers are constantly finding new twists. Now more than ever, businesses need a trusted and experienced Oakland small business law firm on their side.

The Oakland Tribune reported this week on a lawsuit involving SunPower, the leading solar panel maker in the Silicon Valley. In the suit, SunPower accuses five former employees of stealing highly sensitive business information, such as computer files and sales documents, and taking those files to business rival SolarCity. The suit is pending in federal court and alleges criminal charges pursuant to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

According to reports, the central defendant is Tom Leyden, the former managing director of SunPower’s East Coast operations. Leyden left his former employer in August and joined the growing start-up, SolarCity, as vice president of commercial sales in September. SunPower alleges that Leyden used flash drives to download thousands of business files and also accessed customer data reflecting more than $100 million in sales. Leyden also recruited Matt Giamini, Dan Leary, Felix Aguayo and Alice Cathcart to join him in leaving SunPower for SolarCity and the allegations further suggest that those ex-employees also copied company documents to personal devices prior to their departure. The lawsuit alleges that SolarCity knowingly accepted these fraudulently obtained files.

SunPower has a long history in our state. The company was founded in 1985, was acquired by Cypress Semiconductor in 2002, and as spun off as its own public company in 2005. It is largely owner by a French oil company and had more than 5,000 worldwide employees. Notable facilities include solar panel systems in San Jose and Santa Clara as well as a solar ranch being developed in San Luis Obispo County. SolarCity is based in San Mateo and is focused on installing solar systems rather than owning its own facilities. The company has complete over 17,000 installations across the nation including both commercial and military installations.

By necessity, employers place a great deal of trust in employees. When this trust is violated, an employer can suffer significant business losses. There are a number of legal claims that might be appropriate including claims under trade secret, intellectual property and misappropriation principles. In some cases, employer may also have contractual claims against a former employee who steal business property.

Small businesses need to have legal counsel who can help them recover after an Oakland business fraud incident. At The Brod Law Firm, our experienced Oakland small business attorney can help. We represent Northern California small businesses in complex litigation matters including business fraud, intellectual property, employment law, insurance disputes and contracting and partnership matters. We can also help companies protect themselves from future harm by drafting contract including those aimed at protecting intellectual property. We do not require a minimum level of billings for our business clients and we will work with each client to ensure matters are handled in a cost-effective manner
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If you are the owner or manager of a small business in Northern California, please contact our office today to discuss how we can work together to protect your company and help you achieve business success.

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2012 opened with great results in the stock market, with the Dow gaining 180 points on the first trading day of the new year. Reporting on the strong opening on Wall Street, The San Francisco Chronicle noted that January results can be a strong indicator for the year to come. Although the exchange numbers focus on some of our nation’s largest corporations, the gains were spread across a range of business areas. Our San Francisco small business attorney at The Brod Law Firm is hopeful that this is a sign that 2012 will be a strong year for companies of all sizes. We welcome the chance to be the law firm for local business in San Francisco and throughout Northern California in 2012.

Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our country. There are approximately 3.4 million small businesses in California and statistics suggest they account for fifty-two percent of our state’s private sector employment. In the period between 1993 and 2008, small businesses accounted for sixty-four percent of the net new jobs nationwide.

As a San Francisco small business law firm, we believe in representing the interests of our local business owners and managers. We can provide the legal support your business needs when you are drafting contracts or negotiating other key business documents. Our experience with business disputes provides us with a specialized perspective. We can apply our experience to help our clients prevent future legal disputes with carefully drafted contracts that anticipate and avoid the pitfalls that can befall well-meaning business owners.

If, despite all precautions, your small business becomes involved in a legal dispute, we are prepared to help. We know that the bottom-line is crucial to all companies and even more vital for smaller businesses with narrower profit margins. Our legal team will always work to resolve your dispute in a timely and cost-effective manner. In many cases, engaging a small business lawyer will allow you to successfully negotiate a resolution without the need for a lawsuit. Negotiation, mediation, and arbitration are all effective tools that we can use to help limit the costs associated with resolving a business dispute. These tools can be used regardless of whether your dispute is with an employee, another small organization, or even a large corporation.

Small business owners may be tempted to attempt to draft documents and resolve disputes without legal counsel in an effort to control costs. Unfortunately, this well-intentioned approach often increases expenses in the end by resulting in further disputes or settlements that do not fully reflect the business owner’s legal rights. We are always mindful of costs. Unlike some law firms, the Brod Law Firm does not require a minimum number of billable hours for each business client. We will work with your business to craft the legal strategy that best reflects your legal needs and keeps your legal costs reasonable. We believe in being a partner in your business endeavors and in using our legal expertise to help our business clients save money and prosper.

Please call us to arrange a free consultation to discuss how we can partner together to make 2012 a success for your Northern California small business.

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As lawyers for small businesses in San Francisco and the surrounding region, the Brod Law Firm knows that the vast majority of local business operators follow the law. We also know that most business owners want their organization to be open and accessible to all customers, including those with disabilities. A recent series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle highlights the fact that even these businesses can become the target of “opportunistic” suits under the Americans with Disability Act (“the ADA”) and related state and local policies.

We can help your San Francisco business with ADA claims. Having spent countless hours in courtrooms, we know that preventing lawsuits is always preferable to trial. As is highlighted in the recent Chronicle series, there are many resources available to California businesses to help them comply with all legal obligations. The City of San Francisco has a specialized Office of Small Business that provides a lot of information to help business owners and management personnel comply with the law. With respect to the ADA, businesses must ensure their facility is accessible to all customers by removing any existing architectural barriers and by following accessibility codes for any construction. If your business is undertaking construction efforts, consulting a Certified Access Specialist is recommended. These experts can provide feedback during the process. Furthermore, an inspection report is very useful if a lawsuit arises, creating a 90-day stay on a lawsuit and providing for an Early Evaluation Conference that can help eliminate meritless claims without the need for a full trial. Tax incentives exist to help businesses with the cost of ADA compliance.

Unfortunately, even businesses that have been proactive in complying with the ADA will sometimes face legal complaints. If you receive a verbal or written complaint alleging that your business has violated the ADA, it is vital that you seek the assistance of a Northern California small business attorney immediately. Early representation can help you avoid missing any deadlines and can help you achieve a timely, positive resolution. As counsel to area businesses, our team can evaluate the merits of an ADA claim and determine if changes to your place of business are warranted under the law. We can evaluate the merits of the claim, retain useful experts, and provide effective pre-trial guidance. Our team will also examine the history of both the claimant and their representatives to determine if they have a history of making unsupported claims since, sadly, there are repeat players who have a record of abusing the ADA for profit. At the Brod Law Firm, we will make every effort to resolve the claims early and cost-effectively. We are also always prepared to represent our business clients at trial should the need arise.

The ADA is one of the many laws intended to protect our citizens. It is truly unfortunate when people bring meritless suits that violate the spirit of the law. Legitimate claims do exist and meritless suits do a disservice to those individuals whose rights are truly being violated. The suits also take a financial toll on good businesses, a toll that can also be emotional and damage the reputation of a law-abiding company. If you own or manage a business facing a San Francisco ADA claim or other legal dispute, please contact the team at the Brod Law Firm for a free consultation. We will work with you to help achieve a positive result and we are committed to helping keep the costs of defending your company against a meritless claim reasonable and affordable.

Note: While this post focuses the customer access portions of the ADA, businesses do have specific legal duties to employees with disabilities. Our team is also skilled at helping businesses facing these and other employment law disputes. Please contact us if we can assist your business in such matters.

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As San Francisco small business attorneys, the Brod Law Firm is committed to helping our clients achieve the results they expect in all business interactions. The recently reported resolution to a dispute between a large corporation and a smaller, local organization is a reminder that often the best result is one that avoids litigation. We will always be zealous advocates for our clients in court, but we are also committed to helping avoid trial whenever possible while still providing a positive result.

The Oakland Tribune recently reported on the successful resolution of a dispute between Kellogg Company and Maya Archaeology Initiative (“MAI”), a small organization based in Walnut Creek that seeks to protect the history and culture found in Northern Guatemala. Both the MAI and the Froot Loops line, owned by Kellogg, use a toucan in their logo. This overlap led to a dispute with Kellogg’s legal team demanding that MAI stop using the toucan symbol, suggesting the logo was too similar to the Froot Loops toucan and violated the company’s trademark. This week, the organizations announced that the dispute had been resolved without litigation and that Kellogg would be contributing $100,000 to MAI’s initiatives. Further, Kellog agreed to promote knowledge of the Mayan culture on future cereal boxes and to include the web address for MAI.

As Oakland small business attorneys, we understand that the threat of a lawsuit is frightening to business owners. This is particularly true when the dispute pits a small, local organization against a very large corporation with access to greater financial resources. It is important for local business owners to seek counsel as soon as a potential dispute arises so that all options can be discussed. Our team is dedicated to pursuing all forms of dispute resolution on behalf of our small and medium sized business clients.

The first step in resolving a dispute is often negotiation. Our attorneys can help resolve legal disputes for small businesses by representing the business owner in conversations and correspondence before the dispute escalates to trial. Legal counsel is vital in these discussions. As business attorneys, we can ensure that our clients are not taken advantage of and that their interests are protected fully and fairly. Knowing your legal rights is essential to reaching a resolution that is fair and protects the rights and interests of area business owners.

If negotiation fails to resolve the matter, the Brod Law Firm can also represent Oakland businesses in alternative dispute resolution. In mediation, we represent our client as the opposing sides try to reach a voluntary settlement with the help of a trained neutral mediator. These facilitated discussions can often reach resolutions that the companies were unable to arrive at without the help of a neutral party and can be particularly helpful when the companies wish to maintain a future working relationship. Another type of alternative dispute resolution is arbitration. This is more akin to traditional litigation, with an arbitrator handing down a ruling on the case rather than the parties finding agreement on their own, but can help keep costs in check and provide a faster resolution than our busy court system. It should also be noted that many business contracts contain clauses mandating arbitration instead of litigation should a dispute arise.

The solution reached by Kellogg and MAI allowed the companies to resolve their dispute without trial. We serve as legal counsel for Oakland business disputes. We are always prepared to pursue trial if necessary, but we understand that avoiding trial can often produce the best results. Even when disputes are resolved outside of a courtroom, legal counsel is vital to protecting the interests of a small business, particularly when faced with a dispute involving a large company that certainly has the benefit of its own attorneys. Engaging an attorney ensures that small businesses are protected and can remain a vital part of our economy and our community.

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