Our Entrepreneurship & Startups Practice Group is devoted to helping young growing companies manage the complex legal, financial and business issues presented by rapid and significant growth. We advise founders from their initial entity formation, to their first customer, through to exit by sale or initial public offering. At all stages, we partner with entrepreneurs and emerging businesses to lead them through evolving challenges and to build a strong working relationship for their long-term success.
Some of the most important legal decisions a company will make arise during the early stages of its operation. While this is a time when founders want to use every dollar of capital to develop the business, failure to tend to basic legal decisions can have both immediate and long-term consequences. We provide practical advice early to establish a strong client relationship and to avoid missteps that can have far-reaching implications. We advise on a variety of initial decisions, including how to reduce taxes for the owners and the company, and how to structure founders’ rights and obligations to each other.
When businesses begin to scale and attract customers and investors, our interdisciplinary team of lawyers can provide a full range of legal services to serve the progressive phases of business growth. Our comprehensive legal services include:
- Business entity formation, tax planning and structuring to reduce taxes and liability
- Legal review of business plans to attract customers and investors
- Seed stage, venture capital and private equity investment
- Tax credits and government incentive programs
- Intellectual property protection and licensing strategies to protect what is often a startup’s most valuable assets: trade secrets, technology and software
- Equity incentive plans to attract and compensate top employees without discouraging future investors
- Commercial agreements, including leases, loans and agreements with customers and suppliers
- Workforce strategies and employment law advice
- Selling the business, wealth preservation and estate planning