Starting by asking people you know (especially people who often work with startups–e.g. Investors, accelerators, accountants), ask if they know any great startup lawyers. When you’re considering them, shop for these credentials, in order:
Googling is tough because many brand leaders in lawyer curation are compromised by their incentive structure.
Once you have a short list, engage multiple attorneys, especially if they don’t need a retainer--many will waive that retainer anyway.
Working with them is the best way to experience the relationship before cutting other leads (assuming there is no utility role for those runners-up).
We also put together this list of law firms that specialize in helping startups.
Size: Boutique
Our Take: Price and turnaround time predictability; a commitment to a good legal consumer experience; BigLaw, Harvard Law, and AZ-backed legal tech alumns. We’re a little biased but hope that you’ll feel like you’re working with a modern and properly incentivized legal team, with our real-time bill views, turnaround time guarantees, and fixed pricing on standard tasks. Our focus on B2B SaaS also means we serve everyday ask with peak efficiency. We ask you how we’re doing at least once a quarter and take feedback seriously!
Size: Boutique
Our take: Kyle Westaway and team are OGs of building a modern law firm with exceptional service and predictable pricing; as a Harvard Law lecturer, Westaway knows his stuff!
With a founder-friendly practice to startup law, Westaway Law offers human, transparent, fast, innovative and reasonable support, with both General Counsel plans and a la carte services.
Size: Boutique
Our Take: A top up-and-coming boutique, bringing experience from Andreessen Horowitz backed Atrium and many top big law experiences, Presidio will offer excellent support with boutique pricing.
Size: Boutique
Our Take: SPZ has contributed a lot to the startup community, especially through Berkeley and some of the great resources on their website. With a growing team of startup professionals, this is one of the more mature boutiques for startup law work, and someone we’d very much trust with our own clients if we were conflicted out of a matter.
Size: BigLaw
Our Take: BigLaw is not a monolith–your experience largely depends on the specific attorneys you work with. That being said, Goodwin seems to have so many of those excellent attorneys who care more about the client experience than the bills per se. We especially love Andrew Sparks, Dave Brekke, and Aaron Terwey!
Size: BigLaw
Our Take: One of the top BigLaw firms for startup work, WSGR has been innovating on its model for delivering legal services, so you may be able to enjoy some value from their technology. If you have a bigger budget, this is an excellent choice!
Size: BigLaw
Our Take: Another top BigLaw firm for startup work, and feeling more dominant each year, Cooley originally broke ground with Cooley Go to help startups get access to template documents and simple support for free–we respect that! Of course, as your needs become deeper and more complex, they have the expertise to back it up; if you have a bigger budget, this is also an excellent choice.
Lots of startup legal mistakes are fixable, and that’s especially true if you address them before changes to your valuation (e.g. material changes in revenue / profitability, capitalization, valuation from a term sheet, etc.).
That being said, some of the most key areas to get legal support include:
Consider getting legal support especially for one of these key areas, and in general if you can afford it!
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