Richard A. Saliterman

Image of Richard Saliterman, Attorney

Richard A. Saliterman

Email: rsaliterman@saliterman-law.com
Phone: 612-570-4444

Education
J.D., Columbia Law School; LL.M, (advanced law degree) New York University School of Law, 1974; B.A. (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), University of Minnesota; Certificate, U.S. Naval Justice School, U.S. Navy JAG Corps.

Bar
Admitted to Minnesota State and District of Columbia bars, United States District Court, District of Minnesota, United States Court of Military Appeals.

Some Practice Areas

Business litigation/corporations/business organizations; Wills, trust, estate/probate litigation and planning; Real estate, from single family homes to shopping centers and office building development; Franchise and Distributorship Law and Planning; Sales and Purchases of Businesses, Set-Ups andAcquisitions, Business and Shareholder/Owner Litigation and Dissension; Business regulation by government and law enforcement actions by government; Franchisor/Franchisee and Franchise Litigation; Trademark Law and registration on both a federal and state level, and trademark related Litigation; Personal and Business Complex Legal Problem Resolution for individuals, small (and very small) and medium-sized businesses.

Background:

Dick, the founder of the law firm, graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Minnesota in 1968.  He studied History of U.S. Diplomacy and Development of Constitutional Concepts at Harvard University in the summer of 1965.  After graduation from the University of Minnesota, he went on to Columbia Law School, where he was one of the early or original editors of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, now in its 44th volume; and was a Teaching Fellow in Anti-Trust Law under Professor Harlan Morris Blake during his senior year.  He holds an LL.M Degree (advanced law degree) from New York University School of Law.

Navy; Government Service:

After graduating from Columbia, he served a stint working with the U.S. Senate Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee, investigating mortgage fraud and the abuse of the financial system on a large scale, which are at issue in the present economic collapse.  He then went on to fulfill a long-deferred 3-1/2 year active duty commitment as a Navy Lieutenant with the original U.S. Navy JAG Corps during the Vietnam War from 1972 to 1975.  He served on the Staff of the Commandant, Third Naval District, Admiral William S. Pugh, III, who was also the Chief Military Advisor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during the Vietnam War.  Mr. Saliterman is a graduate of the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation Citizens Academy, Minneapolis, Quantico and Washington, D.C., June 2006.

While with the Navy, Mr. Saliterman also in 1974 served a stint of detached duty from the Navy as the Acting Director and Acting Deputy Director of the Compliance and Enforcement Operations of the then newly-formed Federal Energy Office (Region II, New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) during the original Arab oil embargo and national energy shortage.  He was offered a position to teach military law at Annapolis during the latter part of his Navy career.  The Board was formed by President Ford at the conclusion of the Vietnam War to “bind the Nation’s wounds.”

Experience:

Soon after his discharge from the Navy, Mr. Saliterman went on to private law practice, representing largely businesses, investors, and very often individual persons of all backgrounds and walks of life. He served six years on the Board of Directors of the Minneapolis Urban League. He also is a past Chair of The Hennepin Lawyer Committee which publishes The Hennepin Lawyer, the main bar journal or publication of the Hennepin County Bar Association; and he has served on the Board of Directors of the Hennepin County Bar Association.  He was past Secretary and Trustee for several years to the W. Harry Davis Foundation and past Secretary and Trustee to the Hopkins Schools Education Foundation on which he served over 11 years.  He served for 12 years as Secretary and member of the Board of Directors of the Pavek Museum.

He was the National Judge Advocate and former National Board Member of the Navy League of the United States, Washington, D.C., the principal alumni association of the maritime services (Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine); and also which is a major participant in national defense and strategic policy formulation in Washington.  Mr. Saliterman also recently served as Commentator and Responder for the Ford Foundation Study on Government Regulation of Business and for six years was an Adjunct Professor of Law at Hamline University School of Law, and was a Guest Lecturer at the University of Minnesota School of Business.

Dick’s practice includes transaction law and commercial litigation of almost all natures, estate planning, trusts and estates, wills, probate litigation/planning, franchise law, trademarks and real estate. He also represents individual persons of all backgrounds on a wide array of individual and personal legal matters. Throughout his 45 years of practice, he has represented small proprietors, very small, small and mid-range businesses and individual persons of all backgrounds in a variety of legal matters including business disputes, creditor litigation (plaintiff and defendant), setting up and establishing a business and enlisting capital and investment, purchasing and selling businesses, collection and defending debt, negotiations, real estate matters of all natures, including shopping center formation, transfers and leasing, office buildings, warehouse acquisition and leasing, franchise administration litigation, including set-up and operating as general counsel, regulatory compliance and litigation, general business and estate planning (including wills, trusts, revocable trusts, Crummy trusts, family limited partnerships, family foundations, probate, probate litigation and intra-family disputes as well as disputes with creditors, governmental authorities incident to estate plans); overall complex business and individual rights, resolution; and other matters.

Admissions:

Minnesota

District of Columbia

U.S. District Court

U.S. Court of Military Appeals

Education; Some Honors:

Columbia Law School (J.D.); New York University Law School (LLM); University of Minnesota (B.A., summa cum laude); U.S. Naval Justice School (Certificate).

Honors:  Phi Beta Kappa, University of Minnesota; Editor of Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Teaching Fellow in Anti-Trust Law under Professor Harlan Morris Blake at Columbia Law School; recipient of commendation letter for “outstanding academic record” from Norman Redlich, Dean of New York University School of Law; received letter commending and congratulating on a “job well done” for detached U.S. Naval active duty assignment during the Arab oil embargo and the first major U.S. energy shortage at newly formed Federal Energy Office as Acting Director and Acting Deputy Director of Compliance and Enforcement Operations, Region 2 (which district included New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands) in 1973, from Admiral William S. Pugh, III, Commandant of the Third Naval District and the military advisor to U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Other Honors after Education Honors:

AV Rated Lawyer by Martindale Hubble Legal Directory since near the onset of PRIVATE legal practice, Superstar Lawyer, Registry of Preeminent Lawyers published by Martindale Hubble; Award 5 Star Professional in Estate Planning Magazine, Special Edition on Financial and Estate Planning with 43 other estate planning and probate litigation lawyers, January, 2016 issue. Awarded Sheriff’s Distinguished Service Award at Annual Award Ceremony by Hennepin County Sheriff, May 2016 for “support of Sheriff’s Community Advisory Board”;

Co-chairperson with Malcolm McDonald and Burt Cohen of the Honorary Commissioning Committee of the U.S.S. Minnesota, Submarine, Newport News Virginia, 2014.

Distinguished service to the community award: Hennepin Country Sheriff

Teaching:

Adjunct Professor of Law, Hamline University School of Law; taught courses in Business Planning, Basic Income Tax, and Agency Law for six years;

Guest Lecturer on Franchise Law at University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

Teaching Fellow in Anti-Trust Law during senior year at Columbia Law School, New York.

Continuing Legal Education Panelist and Presenter, Other Presentations and Addresses:

Presenter or lecturer to continuing legal education seminars for instruction of attorneys and others, and other presentations, as follows:

Seminar Lecturer/Presenter, “Incorporating Under the New Business Incorporation Act,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education.  This was the first Minnesota State Bar Association continuing legal education seminar to help the transition of members of the Minnesota State Bar to the newly enacted Minnesota Corporation Act (which incorporated many of the provisions of the Model Business Corporation Act), 1985.

Presenter, “Buying and Selling a Business in the 1990s,” presented to lawyers and business people for then Minnesota’s main business magazine known as Minnesota Business (for whom the Firm has served as general counsel and provided initial set up for), 1989.

Seminar Lecturer/Presenter, “Real Estate Lending Requirements and Loan Documentation in Minnesota,” 2003, continuing legal education for lawyers and lenders (including banks, property managers, and others associated with the real estate and lending professions), also sponsored for Minnesota Continuing Legal Education credit, Lorman Education Services.  (Two separate presentations.)

Seminar Presenter/Lecturer, “Commercial and Residential Evictions,” 2004, continuing legal education for lawyers and lenders (and also including banks, property managers, and others associated with the real estate and lending professions), also sponsored by Sterling Educational Services.  (Two separate presentations on separate dates.)

Guest Address to University of Minnesota Naval NROTC midshipmen/midshippersons; including commentary of those traits of experiences as a Navy Judge Advocate General Corps lawyer during the Vietnam War and those particular things learned as a Naval Officer, which, as presenter, Mr. Saliterman found applicable to civilian life.  (Dick served in the Navy from 1968 to 1984 and on active duty from 1972 to 1975.)

Speaker, co-presenter with Roger J. Magnuson, Esq., Dorsey & Whitney law firm, and also Brett Larson, Esq., on the Dodd-Frank Act and its Impact upon Corporate Rulemaking entitled “Schooled for Scandal:  How Public Scandals and Political Responses Are Changing The Corporate Landscape.”  This lecture was provided to the alumni of Harvard, Columbia, New York University, MIT, Princeton, and Northwestern, at a joint alumni meeting to relate and put into perspective present corporate scandals in Minnesota; and also to facilitate the recognition of the work, Second Edition, Advising Minnesota Corporations and Other Business Organizations. The seminar was widely attended.

Guest Lecturer at Minneapolis Club. Mr. Saliterman and Roger J. Magnuson of the Dorsey & Whitney law firm. Mr. Saliterman and Mr. Magnuson were invited by the Minneapolis Club, Minnesota’s main business group and social club organization, to present a lecture on Advising Minnesota Corporations and Other Business Organizations, November 15, 2012. The lecture was widely attended.

Some Publications; Books and Articles:

Corporations Law and Business Law
Author, First Edition, Advising Minnesota Business Corporations and Other Business Organizations (four hard-bound volumes, one soft-bound volume or update / supplement).  This set of books has been the principal Minnesota business law practice treatise or set of books used by business professionals, lawyers, judges, and academicians.  This First Edition is the first or one of the first such comprehensive business law work ever published in the State of Minnesota involving almost all facets of commencing, operating, and accounting in a state of turbulence, and the demise and termination of businesses of all natures, including both profit and non-profit organizations.  It is believed to be the first of its kind published anywhere outside of New York.   The set was initially written at the request of Michie Butterworth and later published by LexisNexis, one of the nation’s leading law book publishers.

Corporations and Business Law
Co-author, Second Edition, Advising Minnesota Business Corporations and Other Business Organizations.  This multi-volume, hard bound Second Edition of the work, which came out in November 2011, was co-authored with Roger J. Magnuson, Senior Partner, Dorsey & Whitney law firm, Minneapolis.  Juris Publishing, one of the largest publisher of national level and international level law books.  Brett Larson, Esq., of Messerli and Kramer Law Firm, served as Chief Managing Editor and as a Contributing Author.  It should be noted that a number of highly professional, skilled contributing authors and other persons assisted in this State of Minnesota bar-wide, community effort; as was the case in the First Edition.  Some of these persons have continued on to high positions of public service and have become distinguished jurists in their own right.

Banking Law, Real Estate Law, and Antitrust Law
Author, Some Antitrust Problems in Government Insured / Guaranteed Mortgage Lending, Buffalo Law Review Vol. 23, No. 1 (1973-1974).  This article deals with how U.S. Government policy facilitated loan foreclosures and abuses by some lenders and real estate professionals and other participants in the financial system.  This conduct regarding mortgage financing and financial institution erosion is now the core of the present economic collapse.

Real Estate Law
Author, Book Review, 1 Journal of Real Estate Law 120, 1973, published by Warren Gorham and Lamont, leading law and business publisher, Boston, Massachusetts.

Tax Law and Real Estate Law
Author, Book Review, 2 Journal of Real Estate Taxation 221, 1974, published by Warren Gorham and Lamont, leading law and business publisher, Boston, Massachusetts.

Corporation and Business Law
Author, Dissolution and Buy-Out Provisions as Potential Solutions to Close Corporation Dissension, 1974 Utah Law Review 38.  This article was republished in 24 Law Review Digest 15, 1974.  This work is believed to be the first or among the very the first articles ever published in a university law review, or in a university law school associated law review, dealing with what still remains a very serious subject of all American business, discord, dissention, and litigation within small and medium sized business corporations.  The dysfunctionality and much inapplicability of the then business and corporate law helped worsen this circumstance; and to a significant extent it may still do today.  The article was written to help fill this legal rule protection vacuum and provide commentary for an advent of more responsive statutes to address it, and written on a nation-wide basis.  It is considered a landmark article on the subject of introducing and recognizing the legal problems of small capitalized and medium capitalized businesses and their owners.  Small and medium capitalized businesses are in many respects very substantially different than large and publicly-held corporations.  It was reprinted in 24 Law Review Digest 15 (1974).

Corporation and Business Law
Co-author with Jeffrey B. Robins, Esq., Incorporating Under the New Minnesota Incorporation Act, 52 Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association) 10, Nov.-Dec. 1982.  This article much derived from the seminar for continuing education, which was approximately at the same time presented by author and others; was intended to help members of the bar adjust to and understand the new Minnesota Corporation Act.  The new corporation act was perhaps the most important business legislation in the history of Minnesota since the initial incorporation act several decades earlier.

Constitutional Law
Reflections on the Presidential Clemency Power, 38 Oklahoma Law Review 257, 1985.  This article deals with issues involved and considerations involved in granting by President Gerald R. Ford of clemency or pardons for civilian criminal law and military law offenses during or after times of war or insurrection.  This article is written based on the author’s very brief experiences in this area at the conclusion of the Vietnam War while serving as a Lieutenant with the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General Corps.

Marital Dissolution Law, Estate Planning, Business Incorporation Law
Co-author, Survey of the Law of Spousal Rights to Business Property, The Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association), Vol. 66, No. 10 (1997).  This article is believed to be the first article published in Minnesota dealing with the very important but often ignored area of business property and dissolutions of marriage, and the rights of spouses to business assets; and other similar or personal relationships and business ownership problems.

Corporation and Business Law, Judicial and Legislative Rulemaking
Author, Perceptions Bearing Upon the Public Policy Dynamics of Corporation Law, 20 Hamline Law Review 257, 1997.  This article is accompanied by an Introduction written by Professor Harvey J. Goldschmid of Columbia Law School, one of the principal scholars and commentators on a national level and international level on business and corporate law.  The article is based upon basic patterns and trends in the past and issues confronting business and corporate law in the 21st Century.

Corporation Law, Judicial and Legislative Rulemaking, Trial Law, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Social Science
Co-author, The Trusteeship of Legal Rulemaking, 30 Hofstra Law Review, 483, 2001.  This article is co-authored with Professor Edward Adams, Busche Professor of Finance Law at the University of Minnesota School of Law.  The article deals with the phenomenal problems confronting law given what many perceive is the diminishment and lessened “social capital” or cultural strength of the United States of America, which social capital in many respects provides a foundation for American capitalism and business enterprises.  It is presented as a commentary on or review of and amplification of very important societal trends by eminent sociologist and futurist, Professor Robert Putnam of Harvard University in his work “Bowling Alone.”  It has been the law firm’s honor to be called upon by Harvard University when Professor Putnam was in Minneapolis to assemble a small grouping of community leaders for Professor Putnam to present his work and outlook in an atmosphere of substantial candor.

Business Law, Government Regulation of Business, Social Science
Commentator/Reviewer/Author, Report for the Ford Foundation Study on the Public Management of Market Forces, by Professor Lawrence R. Jacobs and Professor Lawrence Brown, of the University of Minnesota, 2003.  Mr. Saliterman was requested by Professor Jacobs to be an official commentator or reviewer of his study prepared for the Ford Foundation regarding government regulation of business, much based upon Mr. Saliterman’s own background in these areas.

Business and Corporation Law, Real Estate Law, Bank Law, Small Business
Author, Buying and Selling a Business in Minnesota.  This publication, softbound book, was prepared for a seminar or lecture entitled Buying and Selling to Business in the 1990s by Minnesota Business Magazine (BBN Network).

Banking Law, Real Estate Law, Small Business
Author, Commercial and Residential Evictions, Sterling Education Services (2004).  Understanding mortgage loans and commercial loans.  This softbound seminar book deals with remedies available to lenders and landlords in landlord/tenant circumstances.

Banking Law, Real Estate Law, Small Business
Real Estate Lending Requirements and Loan Documentation in Minnesota, Lorman Education Services (2005).  This softbound seminar book deals with the subject of documentation involved in loans, and recourse upon default of loans.

Trial and Appellate Law
Author, James B. Logan Appointed to Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, The Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association), January-February, 1991.  This article deals with the appointment of and to an extent is based on the personal philosophical underpinnings of the Honorable James B. Logan, Judge, United States Federal Court of Appeals.

Legal Ethics
Commentaries and Pronouncements On Legal Ethics, The Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association).  This enlarged special edition of the Hennepin Lawyer was devoted to commentaries on legal ethics rules by the main leaders of the Hennepin County Bar and materials written by them.  This issue or effort was coordinated by Dick.

Corporation Law
Author, Incorporating Under the New Business Incorporation Act, Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 1985.  This softbound seminar book was assembled for the first Minnesota State Bar Association continuing legal education seminar to help the transition of members of the Minnesota State Bar to the newly re-enacted Minnesota Corporation Act; which new Act incorporated many of the provisions of the Model Business Corporation Act.

Trial and Appellate Law
Co-Author, Court Unification in Hennepin County, September-October, The Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association), 1980, co-authored with Terry J. McCosky, Esq.  This article deals with introducing the Hennepin County Bar Association members to the restructured court system via Minnesota statutes, which then eliminated the Minnesota Municipal Court or merged it into the judicial court system or into one unitary District Court.

General Bar Association
Author, Cheryl S. Marciarz, our new executive director, The Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association), Vol. 54, July-August (1985).  This article introduced our new executive director of our Hennepin County Bar Association to members of the bar association.

Constitutional Law; Legal History
Author, Reflections on the Presidential Clemency Pardon, November-December 1984, The Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association).  This was written to generally familiarize members of the Hennepin County Bar Association with the work of the Presidential Clemency Board and Clemency Power that the author had been associated with for a very brief period of time, earlier.  It was felt that this very critical decision of President Ford was not well-covered or understood by all media and understood by all lawyers, and much a product of or arising out of and during the very turbulent Vietnam War years.

Legal History
Author, Inside View at the Top of the Decade, May-June 1990, The Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association).  This article was a special symposium issue.  This issue of the bar journal was intended to present views in separate articles of key members of the Hennepin County Bar Association of what had happened in their respective areas of law in 1980; and to provide some insight as to changes in the areas of law to expect and address during the following decade which was the last decade of the 20th century.  It was very much intended as a chronicle or briefing for preparing the Bar for the end of the millennium.

Legal History
Author, Passing Comments of Outgoing Chair, August 1987, The Hennepin Lawyer (the official bar journal of the Hennepin County Bar Association).  This article was intended to invite some insight into the meaning of a bar journal and a bar association for lawyers.  At the time, Chairpersonship of The Hennepin Lawyer Committee, more than other bar journals in the state, perhaps, was considered a significant trusteeship.  The journal contains articles which were written by leading authors and by others, often cited by lawyers, not only in Hennepin County District Court, but throughout the state; with the journal cited in opinions on all court levels.

Constitutional Law; Legal History
Author, An Examination of Some of the Factors which Influence the Outcome of Judicial Elections in Minnesota, 1968.  This was the summa cum laude thesis of Richard A. Saliterman written while a student at the University of Minnesota.  It is believed to be the first quantitative analysis of the variables affecting non-partisan judicial elections in Minnesota, and perhaps elsewhere throughout the country.  The same variables or forces found to be in operation were essentially that which were present in partisan or party label type judicial and other elections (when certain controls were placed on the examination, such as for incumbency).  Mr. Saliterman was assisted by then Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Frank T. Gallagher, who, in retired status, was actively writing several opinions for the Court; and by former Dean of the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, and student advisor, Frank J. Sorauf, in the thesis.  His thesis examination committee included University of Minnesota Professor, Constitutional Law Scholar, Author, and U.S. Marine Corps General Herald Chase and Professor Clifford Emory of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism (then one of the very top schools of journalism in the country).