

Startup SuperLawyer - emreas
http://startuphoodlum.com/2011/01/05/matt-bartus-startup-superlawyer/

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Jmikulak
I am currently in the market for a startup lawyer in the Austin Texas area! If
anyone has any advice or recommendations it would be helpful. In my last
company the lawyer we used was part of the problem. I'm interviewing several
lawyers this week and next and would any help anyone has about what questions
to ask in the first meeting would be helpful.

~~~
dctoedt
Bill Broussard is a longtime friend in Austin who has a lot of start-up
experience as both outside- and in-house counsel.
<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/william-broussard/0/660/a61>

Some questions I'd ask, having been on both sides of the table:

1\. For approximately how many start-ups have you been _lead counsel_ for (a)
incorporation / LLC formation, (b) angel funding, (c) Series A-[n], (d) IPO?
How many in the last two or three years?

2\. References? Any clients we've heard of? _(The lawyer might not be able to
tell you s/he represents Client X if it isn't a matter of public record.)_

3\. Any litigation experience? _(Other things being equal, give me a lawyer
who has tried cases - it changes your perspective quite a bit.)_

4\. Any in-house experience? _(In-house lawyers often get some valuable
lessons about business life that you just don't get in a law firm.)_

5\. [EDIT:] Your billing rate? Likely total cost of this matter? Do you do any
fixed-fee work for specific types of project?

6\. Whom do you use as backup? _(Even in a law firm there can be de facto sole
practitioners.)_

7\. Who will actually be doing my work, what kind of background does that
person have, and how much work do you do with that person? _(An associate who
gets a lot of work from Partner X might be just fine, because (i) s/he will
have an incentive to keep Partner X happy so the referral work keeps coming,
(ii) Partner X will probably talk to the associate a lot, meaning Partner X
can ask how your matter is going and may well do a lot of day-to-day
mentoring, and (iii) chances are the associate can get ahold of Partner X
whenever needed.)_

8\. How often do you bill? _(Some firms bill quarterly, which might be fine,
but most companies prefer monthly so as not to get unpleasant surprises.)_

9\. Is it feasible for us to establish a fee level where you'll call me if
you're going over that level? _(This is a tall order for many firms' billing
systems, but it can't hurt to ask.)_

10\. [EDIT:] Is your usual inclination (a) to try to negotiate the maximum
possible concessions from the other side of a deal, or (b) to accept a good-
enough deal quickly and move on? _(My experience has been that option b is
usually preferable, especially if you're negotiating with someone with whom
you're likely to do business again.)_

11\. [EDIT:] Will you call me with updates, or should I be calling you? _(Good
lawyers are busy and might not always take the time to provide real-time
updates.)_

12\. [EDIT:] Do you carry malpractice insurance? _(Some sole practitioners
don't.)_

~~~
Jmikulak
thanks this is very useful

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nlavezzo
"Further, throughout this entire process, apparently I was accruing fees which
were non-transparent to me until 6 months later when I received a check [I
think he means bill] that was about 3 times what we had originally
negotiated."

A bill from a law firm is normally more like a proposal / starting negotiation
point :)

------
roel_v
Can I ask, what are considered 'exorbitant fees' by this author and people
like him?

~~~
robfitz
The first round we raised, which was around $500k, we paid $65k in legal fees.
Our lawyers spent 2 weeks in conference calls with the investors' lawyers, so
we were getting billed anywhere from 4x to 6x their individual hourly rates
(600-900/h for partners and 350-650/h for associates) for these conversations.

Part of the problem stems from the lawyer mentality that they are meant to be
going to war for you. Although everyone in our deal was completely amicable,
they spent countless hours haggling over trivial points to "help" us while
losing us far more money in their fees.

What I would like from a dream startup lawyer would be:

    
    
      * Document templates for all common funding/employee/equity situations
      * Work done by single, highly qualified lawyer
      * An understanding of what actually matters to (and is best for) startups
      * The ability to short circuit conversations with the opposing lawyers
      * Lower costs by reducing irrelevant overhead (fancy offices, etc)
    

I'm less fussed about 24h availability and don't care whether someone will
cancel their dinner plans to work on my case, but I can certainly understand
how the author of this article would be pleasantly surprised when he got those
things as well.

Someone could charge me twice what a normal partner was charging per hour, and
I'd gladly pay it if they did the above, since they would be far more than
twice as efficient.

~~~
roel_v
Thank you, your position seems very reasonable.

