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​​Big I New York members often call our office with questions about non-compete agreements - Can I use one? How long can I make it effective? How broad can it be?  Attorney Bradley A. Hoppe​ has  a new blog post about a recent New York appellate court decision that illustrates that the answers depend on where in the state your agency is located.Specifically, in (King v. Marsh & McLennan Agency, LLC), the First Department again recognized the governing rule for courts (and companies and employees) located within the First and Second Departments (i.e., New York City and downstate counties) that a non-competition or non-solicitation covenant is unenforceable…

​Lumber prices are, if you'll pardon the pun, going through the roof.Last Thursday, February 18, the price per 1,000 board feet of lumber on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange hit a record $1,004.90. By the close of trading Friday, it had retreated​ to $997.90, but this was up from $478.30 on October 29. One market watcher speaking to CNBC last week predicted another 30 to 35% increase from current prices. A boom in home renovation activity in the wake of state stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic has boosted demand for lumber and steel, experts report. At the same time, lumber mills expected mass job losses last spring…

​The excellent American History Tellers podcast has just done a three-part series on the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. If you haven't listened to the show before, this is not a dry recitation of history. The host places the listener in the scene being described and relays the story of what happened from the viewpoints of people who were there.The Chicago fire series barely mentions insurance, but it's a good reminder of why we have building and fire safety codes. In the fall of 1871, Chicago had all the key ingredients for a fire disaster:Thousands of wood frame buildingsA droughtHigh windsThe 30-hour fire that resulted devastated…