By Janelle M. Lewis, Principal Attorney, The Law Office of Janelle M. Lewis Legal Marketplaces are the most recent innovation in legal technology. Unlike other legal tech products, such as document review services, e-discovery services and contract review services, client-to-attorney legal marketplaces are bringing attorneys and clients together. While the innovation is in the way that clients can get connected with attorneys, and the benefit is the increased accessibility to legal services, there are drawbacks. These…

Published by Janelle Lewis, Principal Attorney, Law Office of Janelle M. Lewis Janelle M. Lewis is an experienced New York attorney whose career dealing with complex legal matters has brought her to global entrepreneurship. With the objective of changing the legal landscape by changing the deliver of legal services, Janelle through her law practice, the Law Office of Janelle M. Lewis seeks to merge the law, entrepreneurship and innovation to address the current needs of…

By Janelle M. Lewis, Principal Attorney, The Law Office of Janelle M. Lewis Developing a hiring strategy for your startup or SME When developing a hiring strategy, founders and owners often consider the following when they are assessing potential candidates: skills, experience, education, ability to do the job, willingness to do the job and whether the person will fit in the company’s culture. In addition to assessing the quality of job candidates, founders and owners…

NEW LOOK, SAME FUNCTION Beginning May 2019, Arrival/Departure Forms: I-94 and I-94W for non U.S. citizens or residents will have a different look. The most notable change is that the digit numerical format will be replaced by alphanumeric characters. According to Customs & Border Patrol, “unexpired I-94s issued in the current numeric-only format will continue to be valid until the Admit Until Date printed on the paper I-94 and/or the date displayed on the public…

STARTUPS AND SMEs ARE NOT THE SAME. I make this point because the two are often used interchangeably when talking about entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur, defined by Merriam-Webster is “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” While startup founders and SME business owners are entrepreneurs, their business models and end goals are very different. The differences between Startups and SMEs are so significant that to not understand the difference would…

In a recently released Advice Memo, ADT, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board Office of General Counsel (NLRB) has concluded that prohibiting the use of personal cell-phone at all times during the workday violates an employee’s right to private communications during non-employer monitored channels, such as lunch or breaks. It is therefore unlawful to include blanket cell phone bans in Employer’s handbook rules as it is seen to unlawfully infringe on employees’ Section 7…

There are many types of investment sources in the U.S. and this article does not purport to provide information that is applicable to all sources of funding or be exhaustive. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the strategic factors that Non-U.S. startups need to consider when they are developing their business & legal strategies to embark on the process of secure financing from U.S. Investors to do business in the U.S. …