Community Enterprise Clinic

Practical guidance that will assist startup companies and their attorneys address the wide range of legal issues facing new business ventures. Issues addressed in the Toolkit include entity formation, intellectual property, and employment law.

This practice note will address the threshold issues that a start-up company must consider when preparing to establish itself as a legal entity.

This Checklist compares the pros and cons of the most commonly used startup seed financing instruments, including convertible notes (also referred to as convertible promissory notes, bridge notes, or convertible debt), simple agreements for future equity (SAFEs), Series Seed convertible preferred stock, and common stock.

This checklist highlights the key legal issues that should be considered when a company first starts up. Such issues include choosing the appropriate legal entity for the company, acquiring and protecting intellectual property (IP), complying with the federal and state securities laws, compliance with federal and state labor and employment laws, utilizing social media to achieve business ends, cybersecurity and privacy issues, and supplier and customer relationships.

This Practice Note provides an overview of the numerous employment laws and human resources issues facing startups, entrepreneurs, and expanding businesses. It addresses employment-related filing and reporting requirements, offer letters and employment contracts, hiring and payroll considerations, including special considerations for founders and management executives, restricted covenants, and recommended workplace policies and posting requirements. This Note applies to private companies and is jurisdiction neutral, but highlights areas where state and local issues commonly arise.

A primer geared for entrepreneurs, it is and essential resource for getting a company off the ground.

This book attempts to convey a working knowledge of the principal business terms, customary contractual provisions, legal background, and how-tos applicable to each stage in the life of a technology, emerging growth, or other start-up company—from formation, through angel and venture financing, intellectual property protection, private placements, initial public offerings/public company regulation, and acquisitions.

This book is for all of the entrepreneurial leaders who are committed to the notion that capital formation is a process, not an event, with best practices, norms, rules and documents that govern and guide that process and who are committed to raising capital the right way and then treating their investors with the integrity and respect they deserve.

This resource covers issues typically confronting start-up companies. Topics include: organization, capitalization, and control structures.

This book brings you the legal and business savvy of leading experts from law, investment banking and venture capital firms. You'll find extensive coverage of: the venture financing process and negotiating strategies; corporate, securities and tax laws; corporate governance; registration and investor rights; the interplay between business and legal considerations; limited liability companies; joint ventures and strategic alliances; employee benefit plans; stock options; contracts; accounting procedures; intellectual property strategies; merger agreements and ancillary documents; exit strategies; and developments in Internet law and e-commerce.

Step-by-step, this book covers how to evaluate the strength of your business idea, how to protect your invention, what legal steps and responsibilities are involved in forming a company, how to position your products in the market, how to create a business plan and raise finance.