Value-sharing: knowledge leads to questions

27 October 2009

Today I was asked about my recent Five-minute lawyer series of posts. To me, these sorts of posts add lots of value for readers who have these questions at little real detriment to me; after all, I already know the answers to these general questions.
Is sharing knowledge a good strategy? I obviously think so, particularly [...]

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Governance failures in compensation

26 October 2009

Some time ago, I’d come across a Forbes article (now lost to three or four intervening moves and office clean-outs that discussed the effects on pension plans on executive compensation. One really interesting fact was that (as of June 9, 2003) only a “handful” of companies (including GE and Verizon) had excluded pension “earnings” from [...]

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Five-minute lawyer: how to plan a nonprofit

25 October 2009

You’ve probably already seen our Five-minute Lawyer post on How to Form a Nonprofit, but sometimes people are at an earlier stage of the process, where they haven’t figured out what they exactly want to do. This process looks a lot like planning a for-profit business in the early stages, but here are a few [...]

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Cause of action website worth copying

14 October 2009

This site, COA.TX, has an incredibly straightforward tagline:
Quick Reference for Causes of Action and Affirmative Defenses in Texas. — Caselaw Snippets from Recent Texas Appellate Opinions.
Lawyers with a national practice (often driven by national clients) can spend a surprising amount of time pulling specific quotes from the relevant jurisdiction to either get complaints or answers [...]

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How-to: Forward a Facebook event to your friends

13 October 2009

My son’s school, REED Academy has a Facebook fan page as well. I created that page since I’ve been using social media, including blogs, twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to expand awareness of causes important to me as well as teach people about my legal expertise in corporate governance and my practice in special education / [...]

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Five-minute general counsel: where should I incorporate?

12 October 2009

I regularly answer corporate governance questions on LinkedIn.
Where should I incorporate or form my entity?
After you’ve decided that it’s in your interest to form an entity of some kind, the next question is where to form that company. Most people know that Delaware is the 800-pound gorilla in this field. Many have also heard about [...]

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Five-minute general counsel: compare ownership structures

12 October 2009

I often get questions asking about entity selection when someone is considering incorporating. Here is a summary of some general ownership structure issues.
What do all these entities do?
This introduction will make it easier for you to come up with questions that will help you select the best alternative for your specific situation. There are almost [...]

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Five-minute general counsel: incorporate a tech startup

12 October 2009

Another LinkedIn user asked about how to structure a startup that would be a typical VC-funded software company.
Here’s my edited answer:
As someone who’s represented dozens of startups, closed probably 100 venture deals, and cleaned up too many small companies to count, there is in fact a right way and wrong way to do this.
The best [...]

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Five-minute general counsel: should I incorporate?

9 October 2009

People often ask about what entity they should choose for their new business, not knowing that the real first question is the one they skipped over without even realizing it. Should you incorporate?
Short answer: you should probably just buy insurance instead.
Entity types to consider include the corporation (with S- or C- taxation), limited liability companies [...]

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Five-minute general counsel: Can you incorporate me?

9 October 2009

Here’s another common question I get:
I’m onto a new startup idea.  How much would you charge to incorporate?  Do you have any advice as to where to incorporate?
Here’s my usual answer:
I’ve done this sort of work for companies under firm quotes of $2000 + state filing fees for a full incorporation package, including a lot [...]

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