Hanshaw Kennedy Hafen Law

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Hanshaw Kennedy Hafen Law Hanshaw Kennedy Hafen is a multi-practice law firm based in Frisco, Texas.

Our attorneys handle a broad range of practice areas including commercial litigation, business law, healthcare law, estate planning, catastrophic injury, divorce and family law.

An overbroad non-compete is not a dead non-compete in Texas. It is a non-compete a judge rewrites and then enforces.Sect...
10/09/2026

An overbroad non-compete is not a dead non-compete in Texas. It is a non-compete a judge rewrites and then enforces.

Section 15.51(c) of the Business and Commerce Code says a court shall reform unreasonable limits on time, geography or scope and shall enforce the covenant as reformed. Shall, not may.

So an employee who assumes a five year nationwide covenant is a nullity is assuming wrong. A court can cut it down and hold them to the smaller version.

The part employers skip: where a court has to reform, it may not award damages for a breach occurring before reformation. You get the injunction going forward. The lost profits claim is gone.

Pull your three most used covenants before the next offer letter goes out, and check one thing on each: does the territory match where that person actually worked.

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

A sales manager gives notice on a Friday. On Monday you learn the pricing spreadsheet went to a personal account last Tu...
10/08/2026

A sales manager gives notice on a Friday. On Monday you learn the pricing spreadsheet went to a personal account last Tuesday.

Whether that spreadsheet is a trade secret depends less on what it is than on how you treated it before it left.

Chapter 134A of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code sets a two part test. You took reasonable measures to keep it secret, and it has independent economic value because it is not generally known or readily ascertainable. Section 134A.002(6).

Both halves matter. Information you shared freely is not protected. Guarded information anyone could look up is not protected either.

And Section 134A.003 is clear that an injunction cannot stop someone from using the general knowledge, skill and experience they acquired on the job. They keep what they learned. They do not keep your file.

Pull three things this week and put them on one desk: your NDAs, your access logs, and your offboarding checklist. Send us the set and we will tell you where the gaps are.

https://hanshawkennedy.com/articles/what-counts-as-a-trade-secret-under-texas-law/

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

You are three weeks from close and the seller cannot produce a signed company agreement.For the CPAs, bankers, brokers a...
10/07/2026

You are three weeks from close and the seller cannot produce a signed company agreement.

For the CPAs, bankers, brokers and advisors who see the trigger before we do.

You are reading a K-1 and the ownership split does not match what your client told you last year.

A client mentions that his partner stopped returning calls and changed the password on the accounting file.

Each of those has a clock on it. A Texas Business Court removal right expires 30 days after the facts establishing jurisdiction become reasonably discoverable, under Section 25A.006 of the Government Code.

We are not asking you to diagnose it. You already did the hard part, which is noticing.

If you are seeing this with a client, we will take the call and tell you honestly whether it needs a lawyer yet.

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

You were told something in the room. The paper said you were not relying on anything said in the room. In Texas, the pap...
10/06/2026

You were told something in the room. The paper said you were not relying on anything said in the room. In Texas, the paper wins.

On September 22, 2026 the Business Court of Texas dismissed a former executive's fraud case on the pleadings, with prejudice. Beard v. Perot. He said he was promised compensation tied to a portfolio company. The court never decided whether the promise was made.

He had signed a release specifically disclaiming reliance on any communications, promises or statements that may have been made.

A merger clause alone usually is not enough. Italian Cowboy Partners v. Prudential, 341 S.W.3d 323 (Tex. 2011), says so. A clear disclaimer of reliance is a different animal.

Search the next draft that crosses your desk for three words: relying, reliance, representations.

When did you last check whether something you signed gave up your right to say you were misled?

https://hanshawkennedy.com/articles/can-you-sue-for-fraud-after-signing-a-texas-release-agreement/

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

Your will can leave your LLC interest to your spouse. It cannot make her a member of the company.Under Section 101.1115(...
10/05/2026

Your will can leave your LLC interest to your spouse. It cannot make her a member of the company.

Under Section 101.1115(a) of the Business Organizations Code, a surviving spouse, heir, devisee or personal representative becomes an assignee of the interest. Section 101.108(b) says an assignment does not entitle the assignee to participate in management, to become a member, or to exercise any rights of a member.

The economics pass. The vote does not.

The fix is in the company agreement, not the will. Section 101.1115(b) preserves buy-sell arrangements triggered by death.

Pull both documents and read them side by side this month.

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

An OSHA citation nobody contests does not go away. In fifteen working days it becomes a final order that no court can re...
10/04/2026

An OSHA citation nobody contests does not go away. In fifteen working days it becomes a final order that no court can review.

That is Section 10(a) of the OSH Act, 29 U.S.C. 659(a). Not appealable, not reopened because the compliance officer got it wrong.

Two things go wrong. The citation sits at a jobsite or a receiving dock for a week. Or someone opens an informal conference with the area office and lets the deadline pass while the conversation is friendly. An informal conference does not stop the clock.

Worth a review this quarter: who opens mail from OSHA, how fast it reaches a decision maker, and who owns the fifteen day date.

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

Senate Bill 1318 changed healthcare non-competes in Texas on September 1, 2025, and it applies to agreements entered or ...
10/02/2026

Senate Bill 1318 changed healthcare non-competes in Texas on September 1, 2025, and it applies to agreements entered or renewed on or after that date.

Four limits. A five mile radius from the physician's primary practice location at termination. One year maximum. A buyout capped at the physician's total annual salary and wages. Terms stated clearly and conspicuously in writing.

A fifth matters just as much. If the physician is terminated without good cause, the non-compete is void.

New Section 15.501 extends the same structure to dentists, nurses and physician assistants. Many practices updated the physician template and stopped there.

If you have not looked at yours since last summer, reply and we will tell you which clauses the new rules broke.

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

Thirty days. That is the whole window to move a lawsuit into the Texas Business Court.Two 2025 changes matter for North ...
10/01/2026

Thirty days. That is the whole window to move a lawsuit into the Texas Business Court.

Two 2025 changes matter for North Texas companies. House Bill 40 dropped the commercial threshold from $10 million to $5 million and added trade secrets and intellectual property as qualifying subject matter.

And geography cuts Frisco in half. A suit filed in Collin County goes to the First Division in Dallas. The same suit filed in Denton County goes to the Eighth Division in Fort Worth.

Three lines belong in your intake routine when a petition arrives: the amount in controversy on the face of the pleading, whether the subject matter falls inside Section 25A.004, and the date you learned it.

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

https://hanshawkennedy.com/articles/does-your-texas-business-dispute-belong-in-the-business-court/

For the CPAs, bankers, advisors and brokers in North Texas who see an ownership problem before the owners admit they hav...
09/30/2026

For the CPAs, bankers, advisors and brokers in North Texas who see an ownership problem before the owners admit they have one.

Four moments worth a phone call.

A K-1 split that moved with no amendment behind it.
A seller three weeks from close who cannot produce a signed company agreement.
A bank signature card that changed without a conversation.
A company agreement signed before May 14, 2025, the date Section 101.401 began allowing an agreement to eliminate fiduciary duties rather than just restrict them.

None of these is a lawsuit yet. That is exactly why the call is cheap now.

If you are seeing this with a client, we will take the call and tell you honestly whether it needs a lawyer yet.

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

He was voted out of his own company by written consent. No notice, no hearing. On September 14 the Texas Business Court ...
09/29/2026

He was voted out of his own company by written consent. No notice, no hearing. On September 14 the Texas Business Court said none of that was required.

The agreement he signed allowed action by written consent, let a majority decide what counted as cause, and eliminated manager duties except the ones it expressly kept. Section 101.401 of the Business Organizations Code has allowed that last one since May 14, 2025.

A court will not add protections the owners did not bargain for. Notice, a hearing, a cure period, a supermajority: if you want them, they have to be in the document.

When did you last read the removal section of your own company agreement?

For informational purposes only. This is not legal advice.

https://hanshawkennedy.com/articles/texas-llc-remove-member-without-notice-business-court-ruling/

Address

1415 Legacy Drive , Suite 350
Frisco, TX
75034

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
Saturday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+19727316500

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