Jason M. Shinn
Jason Shinn is a Michigan lawyer with over ten years of experience as a legal counselor and trial attorney. Mr. Shinn's experience includes representing privately held companies, publicly traded companies, as well as start-up companies in numerous industries, including manufacturing, Internet and e-commerce, finance, health, technology, and telecommunications.
His legal practice and professional interests, however, focuses on the following subjects:
Business Law
Mr. Shinn's practice is concentrated in the areas of general business and mergers and acquisitions. This further includes negotiating finance agreements, entrepreneurial business development and general corporate and limited liability company law.
He provides multi-disciplinary strategic advice and legal services in connection with merger and acquisition transactions, which include:
- Evaluating buy and sell opportunities;
- M&A strategy consulting;
- Deal structuring and financing;
- Buy-side due diligence;
- Post-merger integration issues; and
- Sell-side due diligence.
Mr. Shinn has worked with clients in relation to seeking private equity and venture capital investments, management buyouts, shareholder licensing agreements, and complex projects including the development and financing of new products.
Additionally, Mr. Shinn brings to the table the unique business law insight of having litigated a range of complex business issues, including shareholder disputes, complex financing and loan disputes, minority oppression claims, licensing and other contract disputes, especially in the automotive sector.
Employment Law
Mr. Shinn's goal is to provide HR professionals and employers with practical, business-minded guidance on all aspects of the employment relationship.
Mr. Shinn's employment practice involves representing and advising employers on personnel decision making, planning employee terminations, and counseling employers regarding extraordinary employment actions such as mergers and acquisitions. He has extensive experience with advising employers on compliance strategies involving the full range of Michigan and federal laws covering the workplace, including discrimination; whistleblower issues; equal employment opportunity; and the Americans with Disabilities Act; Federal Fair Labor Standards Act; the Family and Medical Leave Act; veterans’ reemployment rights; drug testing and Medical Marijuana use; evaluating employees; and the use of contingent employees; and other federal.
Mr. Shinn also assists and often takes the lead in investigating employee misconduct, especially misconduct involving computer, Internet, or digital information. He has even worked with employers to investigate employee wrongful conduct that was the subject of a parallel federal investigation.
He also routinely advises on the challenges presented by a workplace perpetually redefined by technology. Such matters include drafting technology use policies, electronic monitoring, telecommuting, social media issues, on-line defamation, and investigating employee misconduct and theft involving computers and digital information, and responding to matters under state and federal computer statutes, such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Mr. Shinn's deep knowledge of employment and technology matters has resulted in him being retained by other attorneys to address various technology/employment law issues in state and federal courts. He has also lectured extensively on such topics, including to insurance claims professionals responsible for handling claims filed under Employment Practice Liability policies.
Jason shares his employment law experience and insight through the Michigan Employment Law Advisor. This online publication also provides analysis of national and Michigan employment related news and trends.
E-commerce & Technology
Mr. Shinn is an experienced Internet lawyer who regularly counsels established business organizations, entrepreneurs, and start-up companies on minimizing the legal risks related conducting business over the Internet, e-commerce issues, creating and protecting website content, including rights under trademark and copyright laws, on-line defamation claims, cybersquatting claims, drafting terms of use that minimize Internet risks and comply with Internet specific statutes and regulations, securing and defending domain name rights, blogging, and social networking. He routinely drafts Terms of Use and Privacy Policies for clients in a range of industries, including law firms, retail, community sites, art and media, medical marijuana and tobaco related sites, and auction sites. Mr. Shinn also serves as the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) agent for various clients to assist them in responding to claims of copyright violations. Mr. Shinn also works with business organizations to navigate the often confusing and even conflicting patch-work of state, federal, regulatory, and international requirements for data security and breach notification. He focuses on providing practical solutions to issues arising from the collection, use, retention, sharing, and security of personal data.
Electronic Discovery
Mr. Shinn is an experienced electronic discovery ("e-discovery") lawyer with his e-discovery dating back to 2001. Mr. Shinn has represented corporate clients and assisted in-house counsel to comply with their ethical and legal obligations under state and federal e-discovery law. His electronic discovery experience includes significant reduction in litigation costs to corporate clients, as well as working to obtain insurance coverage for e-discovery litigation expenses. Mr. Shinn has also been retained as an e-discovery expert in state and federal court litigation. He has further consulted with a major insurance carrier in designing an e-discovery endorsement for its Employment Practice Liability (EPL) policy, as well as presenting to major EPL and CGL insurance providers on how to effectively manage e-discovery costs and risks.