Author: Alterman Law Group

The background story behind my photograph

I chose this photograph for our firm’s website not just because it’s an accurate if all-too-gray likeness of me, but because of the photograph in the background.  It’s of a 1964 political gathering.  I included it in my website photograph to acknowledge the two men who most directly influenced the career I chose.  They’re both in the background photograph.
Seated at center is my father, an unusually talented and able lawyer, and my first mentor in the profession. (He started teaching me about the business of law and introducing me to his clients before I entered first grade.) I might imagine him looking at me from the photograph with pride, even in black and white.
Left of my father is seated Paul Gold, who besides being my father’s longtime client was also a witness at my parents’ wedding. Mr. Gold was a prominent investor in downtown Portland, and it is he who sparked my interest in the law of real estate.
The man standing at the right was the reason for the gathering: Senator Hubert Humphrey, then running for vice president and famous for being loquacious. The photographer caught him in mid-speech, and he provides another reason I cherish the photograph: it’s one of the few occasions when Dad couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

On what day does your lease start? It’s a multiple-choice question

The Chinese New Year, which in 2018 is on February 16, is one of several days that people around the world mark as New Year’s Day. We think of January 1 as New Year’s, but in colonial America until 1752, New Year’s Day was March 25. The Hebrew new year, lunar like the Chinese calendar, is on September 9 this year, and the Cambodian new year will start in mid-April.
Leases should be simpler than the calendar, but they aren’t. On what day does a commercial lease start? The landlord and tenant take on some obligations the day they sign the lease. The tenant’s right to possession may start on a second day, the tenant’s obligation to pay property taxes and insurance may start on a third day, and the tenant’s obligation to pay rent may start on a fourth day. Before you sign your next lease, be sure you understand what starts when. If you don’t understand the various start dates when you write and sign the lease, the jury won’t understand them when its members read it.