News
Where Are They Now? Davenport Evans Scholars Past and Present
For over 30 years, Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz & Smith has awarded eight annual scholarships through the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation to seniors in surrounding counties. The scholarships acknowledge some of the area's most accomplished students, and are...
New Laws Protect Pregnant Workers & Nursing Mothers
When President Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 in December 2022, pregnant workers and nursing mothers gained expanded protections, explains Davenport Evans Employment Lawyer, Brooke Schmidt. Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) Employers...
Chamber News Features Employment Lawyer Brooke Schmidt
Davenport Evans Employment Lawyer Brooke N. Schmidt was recently featured in the Chamber News Magazine, published by the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce. The article is part of the "Five Questions" series, but online, it's expanded to a full 10 questions! The...
Davenport Evans Welcomes 2023 Summer Associates
Davenport Evans is pleased to welcome its 2023 summer associate class, (as shown, left to right:) Preston J. Tetzlaff, Tony O. Metzgar, Trevor D. Case, and Nicholas R. Walter. Davenport Evans has a long history of hiring law students who participate in the firm’s...
Supreme Court Clarifies Fraud Exception to Debt Discharge
Federal appellate courts have long been split on the scope of the fraud exception to the dischargeability of debts in bankruptcy proceedings. The U.S. Supreme Court recently provided clarity on that issue, holding that debt based on fraud committed by a debtor’s...
Brooke Schmidt Graduates from Leadership Sioux Falls
Members of the 37th class of the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce’s Evan C. Nolte Leadership Sioux Falls (LSF) program, including Davenport Evans lawyer Brooke N. Schmidt (shown second row center), graduated on Wednesday, May 3. Michael L. Wyland addressed the...
Confidentiality/Non-Disparagement Provisions May Violate NLRA
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently held in its McLaren Macomb decision that an employer may violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) through the “mere proffer” of a severance agreement if it contains broad non-disparagement and confidentiality...
Announcing 2023 Davenport Evans Scholarship Recipients
Davenport Evans has announced its 2023 scholarship recipients. For over 35 years, the firm has awarded eight annual scholarships totaling $20,000 to be used at institutions of higher learning in the state of South Dakota. Scholarships are awarded through the Sioux...
2023 Davenport Evans Banking Seminar Features Dr. Ashley Podhradsky
Thank you to all who joined us for the 16th Annual Davenport Evans Banking Seminar, Friday, April 21, at The Country Club of Sioux Falls. Click on the images below, or click through the image viewer, for photos from the day. The seminar began with a hot breakfast and...
Chamber of Commerce Volunteer Spotlight: Tiffany Miller
Article by Jill Callison, shared courtesy of the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce. Click here to view the April 2023 Chamber News, Vol. 58, No. 6 In 2013, Tiffany Miller joined the Community Appeals Committee, which researches applicants for capital fund...
FTC v. Employers: Do Banks Have a Dog in the Fight?
On January 5, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (the “Proposed Rule”) that would effectively prohibit noncompete clauses in contracts between employers and workers. The FTC’s authority to issue regulations prohibiting...
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Technical Interpretation of Salary Basis
As the United State Supreme Court recently made clear, it is important for employers to follow the regulatory guidelines and not assume that high pay automatically means no overtime. In an opinion issued on February 22, the Court held that an employee making over...
Uniform Commercial Code Amendments: Correcting Misconceptions
What is the UCC? The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is a comprehensive set of laws governing all commercial transactions in the United States. It is not a matter of federal law, but rather a set of universally adopted state statutes. The uniformity of state adoption of...
Credit Card Penalty Fee Proposed Rule – Additional Considerations
Under current Regulation Z, card issuers are prohibited from charging a penalty fee on credit cards unless they have either (1) determined that the dollar amount of the fee represents a reasonable proportion of the total costs incurred as a result of the consumer’s...
Fair Hiring in Banking Act Expands Applicant Pool for FDIC-Insured Banks & Credit Unions
In December 2022, President Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act, which included the Fair Hiring in Banking Act (the Act). Before the Act, FDIC-insured banks and credit unions were prohibited from hiring persons convicted of certain criminal...
Counterfeit vs. Altered Checks
According to most history texts, checks were first used sometime in the early 1500s in the Netherlands, and likely, check fraud was not far behind. In 1762, the Court of the King’s Bench in England decided Price v. Neal, establishing the fundamental principles and...
Potential New Rule Regarding Non-Compete Clauses in Employment Contracts
The world on non-compete clauses may look very different in the future based upon a proposed rule from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). On January 5, the FTC published a new proposed rule that effectively prohibits non-compete clauses in contracts between employers...
Suspicious Activity – Will You Know It When You See It?
The Federal Bank Secrecy Act is aimed at preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism or other criminal activity, and suspicious activity reporting is a key component of the BSA framework. A bank’s failure to file suspicious activity reports or its...
Ashley Brost Awarded SDDLA Associate Lawyer Award (Rising Star)
The 2022 South Dakota Defense Lawyers Association (SDDLA) Awards were held November 3. The SDDLA Associate Lawyer Award (Rising Star) was awarded to Ashley Brost, of Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz & Smith, LLP in Sioux Falls. The SDDLA Associate Lawyer Award (Rising...
A Primer on Permissible Bank Investments
Banks are creatures of limited powers under both state and federal law and are tightly constrained when it comes to the types of investments they may hold. Those constraints apply to both debt securities a bank may hold for investment, and also equity securities,...
2023 Estate Gift Tax Exclusions
The lifetime estate exclusion amount (also sometimes called the estate tax exemption amount, the applicable exclusion amount, or the unified credit amount) has been increased for inflation beginning January 1, 2023. Applicable Exclusion Amount Under the 2010 Tax...
Davenport Evans Alumna Ashley Blake Named Young Lawyer of the Year by State Bar of SD
On November 10, Davenport Evans alumna Ashley G. Blake will be presented the 2021 South Dakota Young Lawyer of the Year Award on behalf of the South Dakota State Bar Association. The award will be presented at the 2nd Circuit Young Lawyer Section Fall Mixer and...
Which Local Employment Laws Apply to Remote Work?
We are frequently asked, “Which local laws apply when workers temporarily relocate? Does the answer depend on whether the employer assigned the employee to work in that location or whether the employee is some sort of digital nomad who works remotely from locations...
Davenport Evans Alumna Kristina Schaefer Awarded ABA Emerging Leader Award
The following is shared courtesy of the South Dakota Bankers Association. Kristina Schaefer is an Alumna of Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz & Smith, LLP. Schaefer Honored by American Bankers Association with Inaugural Emerging Leader Award PIERRE, SD –...