On Jan. 28 Andrews Kurth announced a $5,000 fixed-fee startup package. It's for entrepreneurs who want to organize a new company so they can seek venture capital funding. “It’s about creating cost certainty,” says Alan Bickerstaff, an Andrews Kurth partner in Austin who is in the 402-lawyer firm’s technology and emerging companies group. “Our target market is young entrepreneurs who want to start a new company, typically technology related,” he says. For the set fee, Andrews Kurth clients will get “the documents they need to hit the ground running and go out and protect themselves,” he says. The clients also will receive an hour of legal consulting in each of four areas: venture capital term sheets, employment matters, employee benefits and intellectual property. Bickerstaff says the firm advises hundreds of clients each year on starting up companies, and the fixed-fee package should be attractive to cash-constrained clients. “It’s probably a good, fair rate for a large firm for creating a company that intends to be a venture-backed company. . . . It’s a pretty comprehensive set of documents and services,” he says. He says he has not heard of other firms with a similar fixed-fee package.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
Comments