Critical Skills For Representing the Startup Technology Company

Representing a startup technology venture is much different than representing a traditional small business. Venture counsel needs to be a 'utility infielder' with the capacity to handle a wide variety of legal issues, including business, tax, UCC, labor and employment, compensation strategies, intellectual property, international operations, and immigration. In this fast-paced, humorous presentation, taught by Cliff Ennico, a solo practitioner with forty years' experience in advising entrepreneurs, you will learn how to address the most common issues ventures and their founders face and (most importantly) when it's time to bring in more specialized legal advice.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define the small business versus the startup venture
2. Choose the appropriate legal entity for a venture and the best state for incorporation
3. Drafting operating agreements and shareholders' agreements
4. Advise clients on financing the startup venture
5. Identify tax law issues, with an emphasis on "sweat equity" owners and IRC section 409A
6. Resolve labor and employment law issues, intellectual property issues and international and immigration law issues for your client
7. Discuss the ethical considerations when representing startup ventures