Crowdfunding – the aggregation of small payments from a broad base of funders – has been enabled by the technologies of the Internet, particularly social media and easy electronic payments. Filmmakers have been bootstrapping movies with crowdfunding for some time. It has been widely used in the non-profit arena. Kickstarter operates a popular crowdfunding platform […]
Take a look at this recent NYTimes piece, reporting that many attorneys are leaving big law firms and opening up practices of their own. Not sure this really qualifies as news at this point, but okay… To me, the more interesting issue is how many of these newly self-employed attorneys will perpetuate the standard hourly-billing […]
The idea occurred to me recently that if you are the founder of a startup or the president of a small company, you should find a lawyer who rides his bike to work. I’m not sure what triggered this random thought, but as I have considered it, I have come to feel that it has […]
I’m not happy if my clients don’t think they’ve received fair value for what they’ve paid. Because my overhead is minimal, I can offer high quality work at a very reasonable cost. So far — happily — no one has complained about my fees. In part, this may be because I set up most of my engagements […]
Companies that have private investment documents drafted prior to passage of Dodd-Frank in 2010 should be very careful before reusing these documents. Section 513 of Dodd-Frank brought about an important change to the definition of “accredited investor” set out in the Regulation D exemptions to registration under the Securities Act of 1933. The $1,000,000 net worth standard […]
In order to take their companies to the next level, many company founders will seek money from individual investors. Before doing this, it’s important to know the basics of the regulatory framework enforced by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Running afoul of the law here can have serious negative consequences. Conversely, knowing what you are […]
There seems to be a lot of discussion among VC’s and lawyers on the coasts about the proper legal vehicle for seed-stage deals (e.g., here, here and here) and ways to streamline the legal documents (and thereby to minimize the legal fees) . As the founder of a legal practice devoted to serving startups at […]
Lawyers, by nature, are a conservative lot. That’s a good thing up to a point. You don’t want your attorney to be one of those people who goes off half-cocked. But when lawyers reflexively follow bad habits handed down from one generation to the next, it can be a problem. Look no further than a […]