Ask HN: Use a law firm or LegalZoom?

4 pointsnahcub9y ago3 comments

Are the form legal documents on LegalZoom good enough for most tech company purposes? Or should a startup go and find a law firm out there? Are there any firms that specialize in startups?

3 comments

philiphodgen9y ago

I am a lawyer. I used Legalzoom to form a 50/50 California LLC in which I am one of the 50% people. The stakes were low, would always be low, and Legalzoom is cheap.

If you can say to yourself "I will light this investment of my time and money on fire and I don't care" then Legalzoom is a good choice.

If the stakes are high enough, you'd be batshit insane to is an "out of the box" solution until you know what they put in the box. Maybe the documents are fine. Maybe they're not. Care to bet your new business that everything is gonna be ok?

Filing an LLC-1 in California is a commodity service.

People think the LLC's operating agreement is a commodity. They couldn't be more wrong.

Similar conclusions apply to corporations.

dtnewman9y ago

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, so don't take this as legal advice.

Some more information might be helpful for answering your question. I found LegalZoom to be very helpful for simple things like forming an LLC in my State. But it really depends on what stage your company is at. What kind of company do you have and what sort of legal needs do you have (or think you have)?

codegeek9y ago

I am not directly answering your question but this could be useful:

http://startuplawyer.com/

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