We sat down with Luke Pfeiffer, current Legal Assistant Intern, to get his take on what it's like to work at Gutwein Law. Spoiler: you'll learn a ton (and we think it's pretty fun here, too). If you're interested in becoming a Legal Assistant Intern with Gutwein Law in the future, please send a cover letter and your resume to careers@gutweinlaw.com. 

Who are you? What are you studying?

My name is Luke Pfeiffer and I’m from West Lafayette, Indiana. I’m a freshman student at Purdue University studying accounting with a pre-law concentration.

What were you looking for in an internship?

Above all else, I was looking to gain exposure to the legal field, and Gutwein Law couldn’t have been a better place.

Firing or terminating an employee is a natural part of business. It can be uncomfortable, awkward, and certainly not fun. But it can also get a whole lot worse, especially if a former employee brings a lawsuit against you. It can not only be costly, but it can cause unrest among your other employees and customers.

So how do you best protect yourself from lawsuits from terminated employees? Employment separation and release of claims agreements.  We’ll call them separation agreements.

We had a client contact us recently who was reasonably upset after discovering a party they'd been working with “breached” their Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). The said party was a prospective buyer who told one of our client’s customers they were buying our client’s business (I think you can see the problem here). Unfortunately, our team at Gutwein Law wasn't given a chance to review the document prior to our client signing the NDA, and that "breach" of contract wasn't really a breach after all.

At Gutwein Law, we understand navigating tax credits can be difficult. So, we've put together a list of tax credits for Midwestern states to help you get started. Ready for today's blog post? Good! Make some noise for Illinois!

We see it all the time: startup founders ignore the importance of intellectual property (IP) and begin going about their business. Then, they run into trouble down the road. Infringements, misappropriation, ownership disputes, and ultimately lawsuits are enough to stop any startup in its tracks.

That's why registering IP with the appropriate governmental organizations is totally worth it. We'd even go as far as saying it's one of the first things you should do when starting a company (after forming the entity and determining ownership, of course). But, we don't want to make it sound too straightforward because there's a lot to consider when protecting your IP. We could go on and on, but that wouldn't be any fun. So, we'll just hit you with the basics. The stuff you really need to be thinking about as a startup founder.

Let's get down to it then.