Legal Issues for Nevada Businesses

Boyd School of Law, Association of Corporate Counsel Nevada Host Free Workshop

Nevada business owners participate in a free workshop co-sponsored by the Boyd School of Law and Association of Corporate Counsel Nevada at The Innevation Center

Learning from mistakes can be a great experience for entrepreneurs. But when those missteps involve the law, the lessons can be expensive or even disastrous for business owners.

This is why first-time entrepreneur Carolina Chacon prefers learning from other people’s nightmares.

She got an earful of them at an Oct. 2 workshop co-sponsored by the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law, Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Nevada, and Nevada Small Business Development Center.

There, local business attorney and Boyd alumna Gina Bongiovi ‘07 cataloged for Chacon and other listeners a litany of common legal blunders — from minor oversights to gross miscalculations — that cost business owners dearly.

“A lot of the stories that Gina shared with us were of existing business owners making really bad mistakes,” said Chacon, who recently launched a marketing business. “One of the most useful things is to know where others went wrong with a lease or multi-member LLCs. Hearing the horror stories is actually the most informative part.”

Chacon was among 60 people who attended the "Legal Issues for Nevada Businesses” workshop, a free, half-day event at The Innevation Center aimed at potential entrepreneurs and new business owners.

In addition to Bongiovi’s keynote address on new business licensing and tax laws, roundtable discussions led by local attorneys focused on hiring and firing, trademark and copyright law, and classifying workers as independent contractors or employees.

Speakers will revisit many of these issues at a similar workshop tentatively scheduled for April.

Boyd alumna Gina Bongiovi '07 speaks to the audience at the Oct. 2 Legal Issues for Nevada Businesses workshop

Among the most significant issues for potential entrepreneurs in the Silver State are the recent revisions that boosted the cost of incorporating a business from $200 to $500, as well as the complexities of the new commerce tax.

“Attendees get a good understanding of how the business licensing rules have changed,” said attorney Tara Young, vice president of event co-sponsor ACC Nevada and the leader of a workshop roundtable on legal entity formation. “In addition, they get time in a small group with a lawyer to go over common legal issues that business owners face.”

The workshop also serves as a forum for business owners on a budget to get a referral for “low bono” services at a local law firm, or apply to be no-fee clients of the Boyd School of Law’s Small Business & Nonprofit Legal Clinic.

This, in turn, helps Boyd in fulfilling its core mission of training lawyers.

“We take on clients, and the students are their business attorneys in a highly supervised environment,” said clinic director Eric H. Franklin, a Boyd associate professor of law and an organizer of the workshop. “Students can represent small business owners in transactional matters and have an experiential component to their law school careers.”

To see more photos from the event, click