Category: Entrepreneurship

Startup questions for choosing your lawyer

I don’t know about you but certain things are hard to differentiate. For me with AppSumo an annoying challenge is finding a lawyer or law firm. In trying to find the right one to work with I started ask lawyers what are the best questions to ask.

Here’s the list. Hope it helps.

1- What’s your expertise?

2- What do you do outside of work? Personal questions to see if you like them.

3- How much do you cost? Are you able to defer fees?

4- What relationships do you have that could be beneficial to us?

5- What companies similar to us do you represent? Can you intro me to X?

6- Who would you use if you were looking for a lawyer / law firm?

7- What are the most useful questions to ask when choosing a law firm?

Any others you like?

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6 Responses to “Startup questions for choosing your lawyer”

  • Josh
    November 17th, 2010
    6:56 am

    3- If your company is in the infancy stages, an important question to ask in terms of money is how much they want for retainer. The real test is if your company is young and has a limited budget: are they willing to lower their initial legal fees because they believe in your product or management.

  • Derek Scruggs
    November 17th, 2010
    6:09 pm

    What are your rates?

    if high: why so high?

    else: why are you less than the others?

  • BT
    November 18th, 2010
    7:47 am

    - how quickly will you respond to my questions? (lawyers can be out of touch forever – one of the biggest reasons for formal complaints against them)

    - specify how you want to be contacted, via email or phone, and specify what type of work product you want: a long memo, a quick phone conversation.

    - have you done this type of work before, for the same type of client as we are? (you’d be surprised, even at big law firms)

    - how do you bill and for what tasks? (most lawyers bill in 6 minute increments) would you be willing to negotiate a flat fee?

    - what types of clients do you have? (knowing the mix of institutions they serve will help you assess both their expertise and contacts)

    - who will be working on my projects? (Partners don’t do all the work themselves, they give it to associates and bill accordingly.)

  • BT
    November 19th, 2010
    5:18 am

    Noah, for you re: AppSumo, one way to find an excellent lawyer is to call top tier firms and ask which of their associates have recently left to go out on their own. Top firms won’t often work with small clients and are happy to refer you

  • Pat Braswell
    November 23rd, 2010
    4:33 am

    Noah, what are some of the reasons to get a lawyer – especially for APPSumo? Is it a situational necessity?

  • Matt Bartus
    December 4th, 2010
    9:15 am

    Hi Noah,
    As a practicing starting lawyer for almost my entire career, I blogged a list here: http://www.mattbartus.com/five-questions-that-startups-should-ask-a-prospective-law-firm/. Hope that is helpful. -Matt

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