Articles

Blaiklock and Whybrew: COVID-19 and force majeure in the manufacturing context

The global COVID-19 pandemic ground the world economy to a virtual halt in many sectors, including manufacturing. Many manufacturing lines slowed to a crawl or stopped completely. Travel became practically impossible, if not prohibited by various government orders. Despite that, supply contracts remain in place. What impact COVID-19 has on the legal relationships between customers and manufacturers will depend primarily on the presence — and nature — of force majeure clauses in the governing documents.

Read More

IndyBar Review Prep Course Lives On Amidst Pandemic

During the current health crisis, the Indianapolis Bar Association remains committed to its responsibility to support and equip law students with practical skills and knowledge to thrive as a young lawyer in Indianapolis. It is for that reason we’ve modified and adapted our IndyBar Review prep course, the most comprehensive bar prep course in the region, keeping in mind the same goal to prepare students for the July 2020 Indiana Bar Examination.

Read More

DTCI: COVID-19 and Worker’s Compensation

As more employees are able to leave home and return to their traditional workplace with peers, exposure increases by default. Given the increased interaction, Indiana worker’s compensation defense attorneys may be seeing just the beginning of their indirect battle with COVID-19. This article sheds light on Indiana’s treatment of diseases in the worker’s compensation setting and describes what an employer, its insurer, and its defense attorney should expect if faced with a COVID-19 claim.

Read More

Bravo: ‘Failure to speak up would let down’ the legal community

When I recently saw the video of George Floyd’s extrajudicial killing by law enforcement, a familiar sense of anguish, fury, hopelessness, and malaise swept over me. So did a sense of helplessness. We had seen this video before, over the long and many years. We had read this story. And yet, I had never before witnessed such a starkly calm extinguishment of a human life — a Black human life.

Read More

Quick: Best marketing during pandemic — Lend a hand

During this unprecedented time, I have been asked by a number of clients if they should alter their marketing plans. My answer is “Yes, but don’t stop marketing.” Further, attorneys — like many other businesses — while still doing at least partial in-person interaction, should consider increasing certain aspects of contact with customers.

Read More

Saying goodbye: Baker to retire after more than 40 years as a judge

It wasn’t quite the retirement he expected. With COVID-19 forcing most of the population to work from home, Court of Appeals Judge John Baker quietly visited the Indiana Statehouse in early June to pack up his chambers. Though he won’t officially retire until July 31, he decided to close out his Indianapolis office early, without the usual pomp and circumstance of a sendoff. “I wanted to work from home,” Baker said with a laugh, “but I didn’t mean for everyone else in the world to have to do it.”

Read More

New laws for 2020

The Indiana General Assembly passed laws this year on matters ranging from increasing the smoking and vaping age to laws banning distracted driving, specifically prohibiting the use of a cellphone behind the wheel. The following enrolled acts, followed in parentheses by their corresponding public law numbers, take effect July 1 unless otherwise noted.

Read More

Start Page: Using Microsoft Teams for mediation

Personal and work lives have changed drastically in 2020, and we are only halfway through the year! If nothing else, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how flexible and resilient we need to and can be. It has also reminded us of how “essential” legal services are. What do you do when you are deemed “essential” during a global pandemic? You get creative.

Read More

IndyBar: Construction and Conversion Deadlines in the Time of COVID-19: Check Your Loan Documents

Since the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the United States in March 2020, many developers and borrowers with real estate construction or rehabilitation projects underway are faced with the critical question of whether they can adhere to the construction, conversion and other deadlines set forth in the project’s loan documents. Here are some key items to review if COVID-19 may cause the project to miss a critical deadline.

Read More

Letter to the editor: Attorneys’ oath demands action

In light of excessive police violence, I call on my fellow barristers, who took the same oath as I, to begin living that oath. “I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless, the oppressed or those who cannot afford adequate legal assistance; so help me God.”

Read More