The Wish List

In the months that we’ve been telling folks about LexPublica, we’ve heard a lot of different suggestions for the agreements that we should draft up for the alpha release in August. The most common requests for templates have been for:

  • Consulting and service agreements
  • Confidentiality/non-disclosure agreements
  • Employment agreements
  • Family agreements (such as pre-nuptial agreements and wills)
  • Location and model releases
  • Rights assignment agreements
  • Website privacy policies and terms of service

If there is something on the list that you need but don’t see (or want to help draft), drop us a comment. We’re not going to promise that we’ll deliver any particular agreement, but the greater the interest in a given area, the more likely we’ll focus on it.

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8 Comments

  • On the personal side, "power of attorney" for specific events or times; a discussion on enduring powers of attorney, living wills, representation agreements and the like. this is something which impacts most, is a tricky area, probably with differences between jurisdictions.

    For business, "shareholder agreements" (with a good explanation for why); sales contracts, service contracts, check lists for due diligence; typical term sheets for financing (structure or elements, rather than detailed content).

  • hmmm for me the order of priority would be:

    1) contracting stuff

    2) software licensing stuff

    3) starting your own company/entity stuff

    4) being an employee related stuff

    5) licensing of media e.g. your photos stuff

    6) family stuff e.g. wills

  • Anyone who is starting a company for the first time will quickly realize (hopefully!) that they need proper legal documents from the get go – especially if one is talking to investors. Here are just a few documents I can think of that could go in your Start-up Kit –

    Articles of Incorporation
    Termsheets
    Shareholder Agreements
    Promissory Note/Shareholder Loan

  • It's a bit of a laundry list for you, Martin, but here are some things that have been of interest to me over the course of time and made me wish I had gone to law school.

    In some cases actual templates could make sense, in others just a basic understanding of what the documents are meant to do and how the essential terms are defined would be helpful.

    (1) Articles of Incorporation
    (2) Sharholders' Agreements
    (3) Basic security agreements
    (4) Documentation with respect to establishing Trusts
    (5) Bills of sale
    (6) Estate documentation including
    - Last Will and Testament
    - Powers of Attorney
    - Living Will
    - Procedural guides for settling an estate
    - Roles and responsibilities for executors
    (7) Non disclosure agreements
    (8) Employment agreements
    (9) Contractor / sub contractor agreements
    (10) Basic service level agreements
    (11) Basic financing agreements
    (12) MOU template(s)
    (13) Lease agreements
    (14) Basic boiler plate
    (15) Incentive stock option plan
    (16) Notice of Claim

  • I'd like to see lightweight forms of agreement for getting trade work done on your house. It's scary how often people get contractors to rip things apart before realizing there's no shared written understanding in place of how it's supposed to go back together, when and for how much.

  • Off the top of my head:

    - Office/overhead sharing agreement
    - Non-exclusive partnership agreement
    - Buying and selling stuff on Craigslist/forums on quality of good and payment
    - Bartering skills: i.e. 10 hours of consulting time in exchange for a fence being built.

  • It would be amazing if each agreement had a human-readable summary of the Legal Code like Creative Commons does.

  • How about a roommate contract?

 

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