One thing to note here is that there are fairly significant differences in law between states. Especially employment and corporations laws (e.g. why lots of companies are Delaware corps)<p>While these might provide a good basis to start conversations I would still have a lawyer that is licensed to practice in the state in question and also specializes in the area of expertise in question review them before anyone executes them. I have spent a lot of money on lawyers in my life but I can tell you I actually have realized more gain back when things went wrong and my contracts were there to protect me.<p>Nobody reads the contracts until something goes wrong! Do you really want to fight about millions of dollars with someone on your team when you get bought because you didn't spend $2,500 getting a contract reviewed?
To me this is an example of great marketing by Orrick. Making these basic resources available to startups raises awareness of their firm among new companies, some of which will grow and inevitably develop more complicated legal needs that require a firm of Orrick's size.
The documents have actually been up on Orrick's site for awhile: <a href="http://www.orrick.com/practices/corporate/emergingCompanies/startup/index.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.orrick.com/practices/corporate/emergingCompanies/...</a><p>I used these docs in 2010 to form my company.<p>What's new here is Docracy, a "Github for Law", where you can version and branch legal docs. It's a cool concept, and I hope they succeed.<p>Some thoughts:
- A huge value-added would be turning the document variables into a questionnaire. Just answer the questions (CEO name, address, etc.) and it will populate the doc. That'd be awesome.<p>- Even though I used Orrick to create these docs, I did not hire them when it was time for a lawyer. Can open sourced legal docs really be used for law firm lead generation, and if so, how? I suspect "brand awareness" is not sufficient. For instance, if I branch an Orrick doc, I'd say that they should have the right to add me to their mailing lists. What I'm getting at is that I think it'll be important to take the idea of making-law-firm-lead-generation-happen-through-open-sourced-docs really seriously and build in real hooks to make it happen. Otherwise, quality content will be hard to come by.<p>- I wonder if e-sign is out of scope for where they are now. I suspect that they're doing it because it will help get distribution for the docs, but it's the most sloppy part of their site right now. They know better than I do, but if I were them, I would focus 100% on getting the content and making the content shine.
For many who may not know orrick has been hosting some great events for entrepreneurs in the valley. These are all free. some of the more useful ones, help you walk through and understand the key components of a terms sheet, etc.
Legal template sites tend to assume that the only value that lawyers add is to provide the documents. Whilst making the docs available is great, lawyers can still add value in terms of negotiation.<p>For me, lawyers extract the salient points avoiding the need to get bogged down in the text itself. I think anyone could if they had the time read through lengthy docs and make a decision as to whether to sign. However the reality is that using a professional who has experience will allow you to focus on the stuff you're good at.<p>Also my problem with these sites is that no liability is accepted for the use of the documents. I realise this isn't viable on a free docs site, however people may use the documents without actually realising this.<p>One of the main benefits of retaining a lawyer is that there is a route to redress if they make a mistake.
I am a very happy customer of Orrick. They helped me tremendously with my incorporation (c-corp Delaware) and I attend their seminars frequently. These documents are great, but I recommend you go directly to Orrick: <a href="http://www.orrick.com/practices/corporate/emergingCompanies/startup/index.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.orrick.com/practices/corporate/emergingCompanies/...</a>. They also have some wizards that help you prefill documents, like the term sheet generator (<a href="https://tsc.orrick.com/" rel="nofollow">https://tsc.orrick.com/</a>)<p>Also, the Founder Institute advisory template (<a href="http://fi.co/contents/fast" rel="nofollow">http://fi.co/contents/fast</a>) was created with the help of my lawyer at Orrick.<p>BTW no I do not get paid to post this!
Great move by orrick.<p>Value ressource for entrepreneurs.
They level themselves above the cliché of a lawyer that gets his money just for documents (not saying this cliché really exists). Could turn out to become a brilliant marketing stunt - apart of just the pure PR they should receive now.<p>But the big thing could maybe come based on this move a bit later…
If this becomes successful and they are wise enough to iterate on it they could establish their documents as defacto (outline) standards for legal documents for (tech, delaware) startups.<p>We have seen similar starting steps with Seedsummit[1] and Seriesseed[2] would be great if someone steps up to move this forward.<p>[1]: <a href="http://seedsummit.org/legal-docs/" rel="nofollow">http://seedsummit.org/legal-docs/</a>
[2]: <a href="http://www.seriesseed.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.seriesseed.com/</a>
Does anyone have a good privacy policy document style recommendation?<p>I'd like to give visitors and customers the best possible experience when viewing such boring but important documents. Saving their time and allowing easily to grasp the document. Particularly, also content wise, what should be really in there?
Awesome. Previously I'd been pointing people at Gunderson Dettmer's set of documents (<a href="http://www.docracy.com/userprofile/show?userId=80" rel="nofollow">http://www.docracy.com/userprofile/show?userId=80</a>) but it looks like Orrick's is more comprehensive.
This is awesome, thanks Orrick team. Even if you don't use these verbatim, take a look at your current docs and then scan the Orrick version to see if any improvements occur to you. I'd like to see more law firms do this.