Globally Recognized for Our Experience
in Business Law

Once you have decided to create a new business, there are a number of legal considerations for your startup, including: (1) selecting the appropriate legal structure; (2) determining and documenting the relationship between the founders; (3) (i) the structure of your capital raising (debt, equity or both); (ii) the stages and sources of capital (friends and family, angels, venture capital); and (iii) compliance with securities laws; (4) protecting your intellectual property; (5) handling employees and the options for incentive compensation; (6) creating a stable of effective and protective contracts for business operation needs; and (7) operating in a way that allows you maximize profit. Check out our Top Ten Startup Considerations blog post for a more thorough explanation.

The two most common entity structures we recommend for our clients are (1) Corporations (“Corps”) and (2) Limited Liability Companies (“LLCs”). In certain limited situations, it can be beneficial for your business to operate as a Limited Partnership (i.e. if you are an investment fund) or a sole proprietorship (a single business owner who is not looking to bring on employees or other partners and is not worried about limited liability). The answer ultimately depends on your goals, risk tolerance, and tax implications. For an overview of each option see our Choice of Business Entity blog post and check out our posts about each entity type on our Business Law Blog.

You need corporate counsel to protect your interests and advise you as your company grows. You need someone on your team. You may be considering using a “docs in a box” service. Those services will provide you fill-in-the blank documents without any specificity to fit your particular situation. Corporate counsel will be one of your chief advisors and tailor your documents to fit your unique needs and circumstances. They will be able to identify key risks and negotiate business transactions. Experienced and competent corporate counsel is one of the greatest investments you will make in your company and we look forward to helping your idea become a reality. We regularly represent founders, start-ups and emerging companies, particularly technology companies, as corporate counsel.

If you need more timely, cost-effective, knowledgeable and strategic representation and are not quite ready for full-time, in-house counsel, outsourced general or technology counsel may be for you. We regularly serve as on-demand technology attorneys and general corporate counsel. This allows us to work at your direction in place of or to supplement your Legal Department, which means you only pay us when there is work to be completed. Best of all, you do not need to train us on the law or technology. Start with a project and give us a try.