Focus Team: Manufacturing & Distribution
Not only is manufacturing and distribution the backbone of Wisconsin’s economy, it plays a prominent role in our 100-year history. We represent many of the area’s largest manufacturers and have grown with them over the courses of our histories.
As a full-service business law firm, our attorneys provide a diverse spectrum of services for manufacturers and distributors of locally based operations to internationally based facilities. We have extensive experience advising clients on a wide-variety of issues, including day-to-day operational issues as well as sophisticated transactions that are key to a business’s success.
The challenges faced by manufacturers are real. We understand the competitive and increasingly global marketplace and the pressure to be lean, cost-effective, and proactive. Working as trusted advisors to manufacturers and distributors, our attorneys combine legal knowledge with business acumen to provide clients with decisive, sound counsel.
We work collaboratively as a firm to provide our clients with timely, practical, and cost-effective legal guidance. Clients benefit from an attorney team with experience in all of our comprehensive practice areas. Services include:
- Business succession planning
- Commercial litigation
- Deferred compensation
- Distribution agreements
- Employee manuals
- Employment and personnel issues
- Employment contracts
- Entity formations
- Finance and lease arrangements
- Licensing issues
- Loan and equipment lease documents
- Non-compete and non-solicitation agreements
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Operating agreements
- Purchase and sale of manufacturing and distribution operations
- Purchase and sale of real estate including manufacturing facilities
- Regulatory compliance
- Reorganization strategies
- Risk management strategies
- Shareholder agreements
- Shareholder disputes
- Stock options
- Supply agreements
- Tax advice
- Terms and conditions of sale
- Trademark protection and intellectual property matters
- Warranty and product liability issues
- Work force issues
In addition, Ruder Ware is a member of Meritas, a premier global alliance of independent law firms working collaboratively to provide businesses with qualified legal expertise. Our membership allows us to connect clients to rigorously vetted law firms anywhere in the world.
Posted on February 14, 2025 by Samuel J. S. Moheban
For employers seeking to sponsor foreign national professionals, awareness of the H-1B cap registration deadline is critical. Registration for the FY 2026 H-1B Cap lottery will start at 12 p.m. Eastern Time on March 7 and end at 12 p.m. Eastern Time on March 24. This year, the registration fee has been increased to $215. […]
Posted on February 7, 2025 by Nicole L. Stangl and Morgan H. Sweeney
For many years, employers have been operating within the confines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), and the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act (“WFEA”) when a pregnant employee needs time off or an accommodation. Now employers have a new law to consider, and one that is arguably more favorable […]
Posted on January 23, 2025 by Samuel J. S. Moheban
All employers, regardless of whether they sponsor employees for work visas, should closely monitor the Trump Administration’s evolving immigration policies. This is critical due to an anticipated surge in the enforcement of immigration laws and the potential labor supply disruptions stemming from significant changes to immigration policy. Employers who are unsure about their I-9 compliance, […]
Posted on January 14, 2025 by Nicole L. Stangl and Morgan H. Sweeney
On November 15, 2024, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas struck down the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) 2024 overtime rule (“Overtime Rule”). This decision came months after the Overtime Rule went into effect and the first increase to the salary requirement was implemented. Due to the delay […]
Posted on December 19, 2024 by Mary Ellen Schill
The Internal Revenue Service issued the 2025 optional standard mileage rates today for computing the deductible cost of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, or moving purposes. The most notable change is the per mile increase for business use mileage. Effective January 1, 2025, the optional standard mileage rates for the use of a […]
Posted on November 15, 2024 by Nicole L. Stangl and Morgan H. Sweeney
Friday afternoon, a federal judge in Texas struck down the Department of Labor’s (“Department’s”) overtime rule (“Overtime Rule”) finding that the Overtime Rule exceeded the Department’s authority and was unlawful. In the Opinion, the court issued a vacatur which sets aside the rule and makes it no longer binding. This vacatur of the Overtime Rule […]
Posted on November 14, 2024 by Nicole L. Stangl
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets standards and monitors the working environment for employees in most industries, including agriculture. In order to regulate and protect agri-business workers from specific industry hazards, OSHA has implemented requirements for agri-business employers through agricultural specific standards (29 CFR 1928) and general industry standards (29 CFR 1910). There […]
Posted on November 1, 2024 by Mary Ellen Schill
On November 1, 2024 the Internal Revenue Service announced the cost-of-living adjustments for the various qualified retirement plan limits. Almost all of the limits shown below have increased from last year. Qualified Plan Limit Cost-of-Living Adjustments 401(k) and 403(b) elective deferral limit 2024 – $23,000 2025 – $23,500 $200,000 compensation limit 2024 – $345,000 […]
Posted on October 18, 2024 by Sara J. Ackermann, Mary Ellen Schill, Nicole L. Stangl and Morgan H. Sweeney
As you know, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) previously issued a rule that would ban most employee noncompetes throughout the United States. See our previous updates NLRB Seeks Aggressive Enforcement Against Employers for Unlawful Non-Compete and “Stay-or-Pay” Provisions, Breaking News: Federal Court Halts FTC Noncompete Ban, The FTC’s Ban on Noncompetes Remains Imminent for Most […]
Posted on October 9, 2024 by Morgan H. Sweeney
Even after a Federal District Court judge in Texas struck down the looming FTC Ban on non-competes this past August, non-competes are still a hot topic in labor news. On Monday, Jennifer Abruzzo, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) General Counsel, issued a memo expanding on her May 2023 memo. The latest memo not only […]
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