Category: News & Events

BGS Attorney Scott Lepak Participates at Champlin's Heartsafe Community Training

December 12, 2018  |  Scott M. Lepak

BGS Shareholder and Champlin City Attorney Scott Lepak participated in the City of Champlin’s Heartsafe Community CPR training during the November 13, 2018 City Council Meeting. The City of Champlin began its HEARTSafe Initiative to educate the community about Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) and increase the survivability of a person who has an SCA. HEARTSafe Champlin is a partnership between the Champlin Police Department, Anoka-Champlin Fire and Allina Health Services to provide training in CPR, access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and instruction in how to use them, as well as an outlet for purchasing these lifesaving devices. This is the third time Scott has been through CPR training. “When I had my first CPR class in high school, we learned the method of alternating chest compressions and mouth to mouth”, Scott said, “the mouth to mouth component always generated the most conversation and reluctance during the training. Now that we are taught to focus on chest compressions, this training is much easier and no longer contains the mouth to mouth element that many people hesitated to do.” Scott had his second training as part of our law firm’s commitment to this program. Scott said, “the AED equipment we have now is very user friendly – even for folks that have not done…

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BGS proudly celebrates Women Entrepreneurs

October 19, 2018  |  Barna, Guzy & Steffen, Ltd.

BGS attorney Carole Clark Isakson has been a volunteer attorney with Women Venture for almost a year now, and last week was wonderfully surprised to find that her first WV client, LaTonya Johnson (Minnesota Electrolysis LLC) won this year’s “Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained Emerging Business Award”! Ms. Johnson’s award was presented on October 12, 2018 at the 23rd annual Women Mean Business luncheon and marketplace.  Carole spent several months working with Ms. Johnson (and Women Venture) negotiating the terms of the purchase of assets, setting up Minnesota Electrolysis LLC, drafting documents and handling employee and operational issues. It was a great experience for lawyer and client alike, and Ms. Johnson’s receipt of the well deserved reward was an additional confirmation that her business will continue to prosper. For Ms. Isakson’s part, she found great satisfaction in using her legal skills to assist a new business venture, and continues to work with Ms. Johnson and Women Venture. BGS encourages all of its attorneys to play positive roles in community organizations and to provide pro bono legal services. In fact, Carole has been named a North Star Lawyer five consecutive years by the MSBA as certified that she provided at least 50 hours of pro bono legal services annually. Women Venture has been around for…

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Naked on the Bus

September 5, 2018  |  Carole Clark Isakson

The less catchy title of this blog is “DON’T USE OPEN PUBLIC WIFI!!!” Doing so may expose you, quite literally, to the world. I am the mother of a teenager– a really smart teenager who is proficient at Snapchat®, Instagram®, WhatsApp® and a host of other applications (Facebook® of course has been left for we older folks). I vainly tried to explain the dangers of open wi-fi to this smart person a few days ago, to be met with an eye roll and a “c’mon mom, it’s no big deal. Free wi-fi is everywhere if it weren’t safe I would know”. [maxbutton id=”1″ ] Well, dear reader and dear daughter, it is indeed true that open wi-fi (i.e. wifi that you don’t need a password to access) is EVERYWHERE, and this is likely why the many warnings of danger have been so ignored. We love our free wi-fi, and the free public wi-fi has been a magnet for business for every café and coffee shop around. But the dangers ARE real. And if your phone is set (as many are) to automatically connect to available wi-fi, you are literally walking naked down the aisle of a big bus, in full view of every person you pass. Now that I have your attention, let’s…

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