Lunch & Learn: Common Legal Traps for Early-Stage Companies

It is imperative that a company’s legal affairs are in order. The session identifies the critical legal issues an early-stage company needs to address, including:

• Choosing the right type of entity
• Protecting the company’s intellectual property
• Subjecting cofounders to vesting and filing the Section 83(b) election
• Making arrangements for dealing with the “what-ifs,” such as your co-founder’s death or decision to quit working for the company or sell his interest in the company
• Granting the right incentive awards

If you have not addressed these issues, you are putting your company at risk. The presentation will be amplified with war stories from Michael’s many years of working with early-stage companies. The session will be interactive, so bring your questions.
Lunch is included, please RSVP in order to attend!
About the Speaker

Michael Horten, Horten CC
Michael Horten is a US and European educated lawyer with over 40 years’ experience as a practicing attorney. Mr. Horten began his legal career with Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and Paris. He then spent 25 years with King & Spalding in Atlanta. At the end of 1999, he retired from the King & Spalding partnership to launch Horten CC, a virtual law firm that focuses on the needs of entrepreneurial growth companies.
Horten CC employs a non-traditional practice model that is based on two key philosophical underpinnings: First, Mr. Horten founded the firm on the premise that top-rate legal services do not have to be bundled with the "marble" and "mahogany" environment that typically is associated with those services. The firm has no central offices, no paper files and it uses the latest technology to create efficiencies. As a result, the firm’s fees are considerably lower than those charged by firms of comparable ability and quality. Second, Horten CC bills its clients for the value delivered and not for the time spent by the attorney. The firm does not keep track of every "six minutes," as is the norm in most law firms. The firm believes that its clients purchase its lawyers’ skill, not their time. The firm’s work is typically performed for a fixed fee.