by Anna S. Mills

All business owners sign contracts, and some even read them before filing them away. If you do nothing more than this, you are missing an opportunity to protect your business and advance your green goals.
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by Diana Armatage Johnston
As seen in Exceptional Parent Magazine: The Family and Professional Journal for the Specials Needs Alliance
Vol 38, Issue 07, July 2008 2008

When your clients seem to know more than you do about services for their special-needs children, you listen hard to what they have to say. You hear stories of 3-year waiting lists, unwritten rules that seem to change monthly, and the arbitrary loss of essential benefits for reasons clients do not understand. You hear questions about why one family gets all-day help, while your client’s child gets none. When you ask your client the name of the program that has denied assistance the answer is often, “I don’t know.”
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by Travis Smuckler, Van Winkle Summer Associate

If you’re operating a green business in North Carolina, you may qualify for grants from the State. Over the last several years, North Carolina has been allocating funds for businesses and non-profits that are working to improve environmental conditions within the state. In particular, two programs focused on renewable energy and clean water have begun distributing funds to small businesses.

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by W. James Johnson

As seen in Business North Carolina magazine’s special Law Journal, June 2008.

Construction has grown more sophisticated in recent years, as material science, building practices and technology combine to produce better buildings. For better or worse, construction contracting has kept pace with this trend. While this contributes to a more controlled, scientific approach to building, it also makes it easy to get bogged down in contract details and miss the forest for the trees.

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by Jeffrey D. Zentner

A common sight along the roadsides of Western North Carolina in the spring and summer is the roadside produce stand, where growers sell fresh produce directly from their fields and orchards. If you are a producer or handler of food products, especially produce, you may have wondered whether you may legally label or call your food products “100 percent organic,” “organic,” or “made with organic ingredients.”

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by Diana Armatage Johnston
As seen in Exceptional Parent Magazine: The Family and Professional Journal for the Specials Needs Alliance
Vol 38, Issue 04, April 2008

When parents and their legal counsel have determined that a special needs trust is the best way to preserve means-tested government benefits like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid for their child, they still have some important matters to decide: Who should administer the trust as trustee? Who should monitor the trustee’s performance? Who should advise the trustee about their child’s special needs? There is no single right answer to these questions because the best choices depend on a wide variety of factors and the realities of each family’s situation. This article will attempt to help parents make the best choices for their child. Because a special needs trust must be carefully drafted and administered with great skill, one person or institution rarely has all the skills needed to do the job. Choosing a team to administer a special needs trust may often be the best approach.

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by Anna S. Mills

From grocery stores specializing in organic foods to green builders, Western North Carolina is home to a growing number of businesses that provide “green” products and services intended to provide benefits to the consumer and the environment. Because of the strong market for these products and services, businesses may be tempted to “greenwash” or exaggerate the environmental benefits of their product or service. Even if a business’ motives are pure, it can be difficult to know how to market products and services because the “green” market is evolving so quickly.

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