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Duty

A farmer had a draft horse to sell and a man from a nearby town was interested. "There's just two things wrong with that horse", the farmer told his prospect. "I'll tell you one now, and one if you buy the horse." The prospect agreed and asked what the first thing...

Behind the Veil

Until modern times the investors in a company were personally liable for its debts and other liabilities. The enactment of laws allowing investors in a company to limit their liability to the amount invested is reckoned by many economists as among the greatest of...

Home Grown Estate Planning

Home Grown Estate Planning Not long after I started my law practice an older lady found her way to my door. She had three grown children and her husband was gone. After she was widowed she worried about what would happen to her Portland home when she passed away. The...

Boilerplate

In the 19th century, advertisers sometimes supplied copy to newspapers in curved steel plates, ready to be placed in the rotary printers of that day. This prepared text became known as "boilerplate", after curved plates used to make boilers, and the term applies today...

A Freezer Warehouse for Portland

Here's a piece I wrote for the Portland Press Herald. It appeared January 18, 2017. The Port of Portland has been offered a generational opportunity: a modern freezer warehouse, accessible by sea, rail, air and highway, available to every food producer in the region,...

Will Contests

Contesting a Will A will contest - a court action to disqualify a will - is a little like a murder trial: the most important witness is dead. Because the author of a will is not around to defend it, the law has a strong bias in favor of giving effect to a will. A...

Liar, Liar

Pop quiz: In 2001 Martha Stewart’s stock broker told her to dump her shares of ImClone Systems, a high flying stock. He said the Food and Drug Administration was about to release bad news about a new ImClone drug, and the company owners were dumping their shares....

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