AI Didn’t Replace Lawyers. It Gave Us the 48-Page Contract.
In 1972, two lawyers a few years out of school opened a storefront office in Van Nuys and called it the Legal Clinic of Jacoby and Meyers. Leonard Jacoby and Stephen Meyers were going after the large group of people who earned too much to…

Protecting Your Artwork Internationally: What Artists Need to Do Before the Work Travels
An artist sends drawings and 3D files to an overseas foundry. The foundry casts the commissioned sculptures, keeps the molds, photographs the unfinished work, and pulls a few extra casts. Images appear online before the artist’s exhibition opens. Soon, sellers are offering…

Your China Contract May Bind the Wrong Company
Xiaohongshu, known outside China as RedNote, has denied reports that a former employee’s complaint delayed a possible Hong Kong IPO. The underlying dispute is real, and it turns on a problem we see constantly in China matters: The company that signs an agreement is not always the…

China Manufacturing Contracts: Why U.S. Drafts Do Not Work
Clients often send us a U.S. manufacturing agreement and ask whether it can save time or money on a China manufacturing contract. It cannot.
Sometimes the ask is smaller: can we just spend a couple of hours reviewing it? We decline because we will not bill…

How to Negotiate with Your Chinese Manufacturers
Most American companies hear the line “That’s not how we do it in China” and immediately start retreating.
They soften their tone, over-explain, and offer compromises before they have identified what matters. They treat the phrase like a cultural law that cannot be questioned, instead of what it…

Cambodia vs. Guatemala for Manufacturing
For U.S. companies making labor-intensive products and looking to exit China, Cambodia and Guatemala come up repeatedly as lower-cost alternatives. I am bullish on Guatemala, but cautious on Cambodia.
This is not because Cambodia cannot manufacture. It can. The issue is control. Cambodia’s risk profile is harder to manage and…

Tariffs Are Now a Fraud Risk: How Importers Can Avoid CBP and DOJ Trouble
One internal message can turn a tariff problem into a fraud problem.
Not because a single email triggers an investigation by itself, but because once the government starts asking questions, the record your team created under pressure becomes the story the…