One of the easiest ways to improve the readability of your contracts is to use shorter sentences. I don’t even mean that you have to trim each sentence. If all you do is turn compound sentences into two sentences, you will help the reader. In addition, by eliminating coordinating conjunctions, you clarify the meaning of…
Some time ago, I wrote a Five-minute General Counsel post on how to approach the question of whether a social enterprise fits a founder’s needs. In that post, I focused on the issue of whether the concept of fiduciary duties and the prudent investor standard were as anathema to “social” goals as some people think.…
One side effect of the growing use of LLCs in startup companies is the general unfamiliarity of most first-time founders with the quirky side-effects of partnership taxation of LLCs. The most annoying of these for companies is usually that members, no matter how small their equity stake, can not be employees of the LLC. This…
You’ve read my post on the benefits of having a board in your closely held company, and you’re convinced. You’re ready to move forward but stuck at step 2. How do you go about putting a board together? For most companies, major investors push for governance rights and the structure of the board becomes an…