Despite scandal, off-shore bank accounts exist, offering financial benefits—or that’s the assumption. With new regulations in place, the realm of legitimate off-shore banking is changing to smoke out tax evaders. 

Creating good by giving back is a gift to yourself, local financial advisers say. But before making a major donation to support your favorite cause, heed the following pieces of advice to avoid scams, maximize that gift and leave a lasting legacy of philanthropy. 

The work-life balance: Every professional knows the phrase, and every employee tries to find that harmonious level of give and take to somehow manage it all. For parents, this may be an even bigger challenge. But at the law firm of Carmody MacDonald, the support is there for employees to thrive in the courtroom, as well as at home. 

MISSION: St. Louis County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) works to eliminate racial discrimination and ensure political, educational, social and economic equal rights for everyone. The nonprofit stands for the belief that people of all races, nationalities and faiths are created equal. 

The Champagne toasts and wedding cake may have passed, but there still is time for claiming whose is whose. Postnuptial agreements, the figurative younger sibling of the better-known prenuptial agreements, offer legal documentation of spousal understandings, should marital circumstances change in the future. But if you’re happily married, why bring attorneys into the picture?

At the age of 26, Ellie Hock has done a lot of things—she’s earned a master’s in speech therapy, she’s done the show-dog circuit, and she’s started her own business: Urban Nectar was the result of a journey Hock took after the death of her mother in the fall of 2011 from brain cancer. We talked to her about how it all got started.

There’s something about a courtroom drama that piques our interest—but with shows and movies about lawyers hitting the air waves every week, we wondered what the professionals watch. Here, we’ve asked area attorneys for their all-time favorites. (And we’re adding them to our list!)

Kim Eberlein (Volunteer Leadership)

The physical and digital worlds are becoming one and the same. The social experience has shifted, and common words like ‘virus’, ‘mouse’ and ‘like’ have double-meanings. And much like our day-to-day reality, the online realm functions in accordance with laws that should be known by all, digital participants or not.

SOCIETY

DATE AND LOCATION CHANGED, CATERER ADDED FOR INAUGURAL ST. LOUIS THEATER CIRCLE AWARDS

In today’s high-tech world, there are even more ways for kids to communicate—and harass—their classmates. Not only at school, but via text message or on social media, there's evidence that students are increasingly bullied by their peers. This physical, verbal and electronic harassment has led to troubling consequences—victims can wrestle with depression, fear and anxiety, even to the point of committing suicide. And communities are left asking: Who is liable?

Unreliable and second-hand gossip from around the world*

For the second year, in a tight competition with less than 20 votes separating the top two churches, St. Paul's Catholic Church, Fenton, beat out St. Dominic Savio, Affton, to win Friendship Village Sunset Hills' Fourth Annual Quilting Competition. Several hundred voted in the week's competition and display of quilts from area churches at Fountain View, the freestanding assisted-living community at Friendship Village Sunset Hills. Pictured: Erlinda Madridondo, Ruth Finder, Donna Robinson and Mary Haukap (kneeling) proudly display their winning quilt.

A tough economic climate, an aging baby boomer population and the high prevalence of social-media use are predicted to create the biggest hurdles for local attorneys and their clients this year. 

Through Thursday 14

Dr. SHARI COHEN opened her new practice at 555 N. New Ballas Road, in Creve Coeur. The practice shares office space with medical psychotherapist BRUCE SCHMIDT.

Some of life’s biggest moments—marriage, the birth of a child and retirement—are a time to celebrate. But local legal professionals say families should also remember that life-changing events mean changes in your life insurance coverage.

While those lavish business trips on your tax return are of concern to the Internal Revenue Service, failing to report income or avoiding filing taxes altogether are the biggest offenses that can land you in hot water.

Catherine Hanaway has been throwing her weight around for a long time. After all, she was the first woman ever to serve as Missouri’s Speaker of the House; she won the Republican nomination for Secretary of State; and was named by President George W. Bush as the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Missouri. Today, she’s a top attorney in John Ashcroft’s law firm, the Ashcroft Group.

A divorce can be one of life’s most difficult hurdles. And for men who often don’t share their emotions as openly as women, surviving the process can become overwhelming without a 'road map' for navigating the legal, financial and emotional issues that arise, says E.B. Gunn, New York Times best-selling author of The Gentleman’s Guide to the Nasty Divorce.

Aren’t you Robert Duvall? St. Louis attorney Allen Allred gets asked that question a lot. Put their pictures side-by-side; and yes, they could be brothers! Some people, including comedian Jay Leno, believe the resemblance is uncanny. “The first time Jay Leno came to the Fox, he was standing with me and Bob Costas in the lobby,” Allred recalls. “So here I am, between Leno and Costas, and Leno looks at me and says to Costas, Isn’t this the guy who was Tom in The Godfather?” But their looks are probably where the similarities end.

According to statistics from the U.S. Department of State, 4,728 visas were issued in 2007 to children coming from Guatemala. By 2011, that number had dropped to 29. In essence, Guatemala has closed itself to foreign adoptions, says Rudy Rivera, attorney with Anderson, Schmidt & Rivera. “There are not that many places to adopt internationally now because the rules have become so cumbersome and countries have found it too hard to comply.”

Story: It’s a traumatic time for Gaynelle Verdeen Bodeen. Her husband has run off with his girlfriend and, in retaliation, Gaynelle has “accidentally” run her car into the double-wide trailer home of that man-stealing woman. Gaynelle subsequently faces various legal charges as well as being observed by a court-appointed psychologist checking on her sanity. All of this happens shortly before the annual Verdeen family reunion in Sweetgum, Texas, usually presided over by Gaynelle’s overbearing Aunt La Merle.