In This Issue:

- The Importance of Accredited Investors for Small Business Capital Formation

- “All Appropriate Inquiries”: Update on the Environmental Due Diligence Standard

- A Hunt for Justice Erodes the Attorney-Client Privilege

- Data Breach: Every Business Needs an Elite Goalie

- Ohio Brightens its Bright-Line Test

- An Ounce of Agribusiness Prevention is Worth a Pound of Drinking Water Cure

- The New North Carolina LLC Act as Estate Planning Tool

- Estate of Elkins v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue: Cautionary Tale and Gem

- Excerpt from The Importance of Accredited Investors for Small Business Capital Formation:

Small businesses are often regarded as the catalyst for economic growth in the United States. Small businesses account for the creation of two-thirds of all new jobs, and are the incubators of innovation. The majority of new jobs in the U.S. are from companies less than five years old. Raising capital is a never-ending imperative for small businesses at every turn: to explore new ideas, to exploit a new development, to expand the scope of research, to move from concept to prototype to marketable product, for manufacturing, distribution and marketing. At the beginning of their life cycles, this funding is provided by private money–initially from friends and family, then from a wider circle of acquaintances, later, perhaps, from angel investors and, ultimately, venture capitalists and private equity groups. Angel investors, for example, provide approximately 90% of outside equity raised by start-up companies and are virtually the only source of seed funding. In 2013, angels invested $25 billion in 71,000 companies.