Tanya M. Marcum

Heed Our Advice: Exploring How Professionals Guide Small Business Owners in Start-Up Entity Choice

There is little work on how attorneys and accountants evaluate new small businesses when giving advice. The focus of this paper is to gain a better understanding of those factors that are important in the practice of advising small business owners on entity choice. We utilize a policy‐capturing methodology to study how attorneys and accountants evaluate the likelihood they would advise a particular entity. Our results suggest that these two categories of advisers appear to prefer different factors when determining the form—a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability companies, or corporation—small business should take.

Class Explores Legal Aspects of Business Entities

In 2011, I created a Law and the Entrepreneur course at Bradley University. It was the first course on its campus created for its new Turner School of Entrepreneurship. This course is exclusively for undergraduates, particularly juniors and seniors. It is designed for students across the campus interested in entrepreneurship, although it is housed in the Foster College of Business. The class focuses on the stages of a business -from leaving your employer with your business idea to selling the business. Many guest speakers (both lawyers and entrepreneurs) inform the students of these stages and legal issues that entrepreneurs may encounter along the way.

Overfunded Crowdfunded Projects: An Even Bigger Headache?

Erik Chevalier’s The Forking Path Co. sought

'L3C' Designation Doesn't Matter to Consumers

35,000 from backers to create a board game and actually raised

Flips and Flops: A New Approach to a Traditonal Law Course

122,000. Instead of providing the backers with copies of the game or pewter game figurines as promised, Chevalier used the funds for personal expenses. This case was eventually settled with the Federal Trade Commission. Chevalier agreed to refrain from misrepresentations in the future and was ordered to pay

Stumbling Down the Courthouse Steps: Mediators' Perceptions of the Stumbling Blocks to Successful Mandated Mediation in Child Custody and Visitation

111,793.71. In 2012, creator Andy Muldowney’s portable thermal printer, the mPrinter, hoped to raise only

Entrepreneurial decisions and legal issues in early venture stages: Advice that shouldn’t be ignored

10,000 but received

The Disproportionate Costs of Forming LLCs VS. Corporations: The Impact on Small Firm Liability Protection

88,018 from 706 backers. However, Muldowney did not deliver the rewarded printers and canceled the project in 2015. He did not offer a refund. Many of his backers have filed claims with the FTC. Jennifer Hintz’ FibroFibers Kickstarter campaign received

The Arbitration Seesaw: Federal Act Preempts General Law Thereby Restricting Judicial Review

26,068 after originally requesting

Dressed for Success: Can a Claim of Religious Discrimination Be Successful?

15,000. She could not deliver the hand-dyed skeins of yarn she had promised to investors. Her business has since closed. The Coolest Cooler, which raised over