Comments on: The Wish List

By: Travis

Travis — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:25:37 +0000

How about a roommate contract?

By: Lloyd Budd

Lloyd Budd — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:09:42 +0000

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

By: Dean Leung

Dean Leung — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:07:55 +0000

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.

By: Ryan McCuaig

Ryan McCuaig — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:45:05 +0000

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.

By: Mark Mawhinney

Mark Mawhinney — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:44:20 +0000

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

By: Maura Rodgers

Maura Rodgers — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:07:31 +0000

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

By: roland

roland — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:29:04 +0000

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

By: John H Goodwin

John H Goodwin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:27:09 +0000

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).