You're 14 months into a three-year, $6 million supply agreement with a Manhattan retailer. Their new CFO tells you the company is "reevaluating vendor relationships," and then you learn from a shared logistics broker that they've already signed with your direct competitor. The retailer hasn't formally terminated. They haven't missed a payment yet. But you're staring at unshipped inventory, a lease in Maspeth, and payroll for a warehouse crew who packed for tomorrow's truck. T

Your CFO resigned last month. In cleaning out her office, you found bank statements showing she'd been routing kickbacks from a vendor into a personal LLC for the last three years. She was making $350,000 a year while she did it. You want the kickbacks back — obviously — but here's the question your lawyer should be asking: can you also claw back every dollar of salary and bonus you paid her while she was cheating you? In New York, the answer is often yes, thanks to a common-

You sign a $4 million supply agreement with a logistics company headquartered in Houston. Eighteen months later, they breach. You pull out the contract to file suit in Manhattan, only to find a clause buried on page 27 that says any dispute must be litigated in Harris County, Texas, under Texas law. Suddenly your case isn't a New York case at all — and your local lawyer can't even file it. That single paragraph, often added during the final markup, can decide whether you win,