Austin Startup Attorneys & Lawyers

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Brandon P.

Brandon Pittard

64 reviews
I've spent the majority of my legal career in house at various companies, and know how to balance legal risk against the needs of a business. As legal counsel at several di... read more
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Erin H.

Erin Hudson

49 reviews
Erin graduated magna cum law from Baylor Law School, clerked for a federal judge, cut her teeth at an AmLaw 200 firm, and spent over a decade representing businesses in com... read more
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Dean E.

Dean Elazab

4 reviews
Dean guides startups nation-wide through the complex landscape of high-stakes financing and corporate transactions, offering strategic and economic insights to drive their ... read more
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Christopher C.

Christopher Cyrus

2 reviews
Christopher Cyrus is a highly-skilled attorney specializing in complex-commercial litigation. He earned his J.D., with honors, from The University of Texas School of Law, w... read more
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Joshua M.

Joshua Massingill

10 reviews
Joshua practices in Austin, Texas and serves clients across the United States. He is a graduate of Pepperdine University School of Law and the Straus Institute, the nation’... read more
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Matthew B.

Matthew Burr

9 reviews
32 years experience in patents, trademarks and copyright Licensed to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) since 1994 Texas Bar member in... read more
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Michael R.

Michael Ramos

8 reviews
Michael Ramos has a notable education and impressive entrepreneurial record. A graduate of the coveted Stanford Law School, he also earned a master’s in Management Science and Engineering. Founder of OJoygives.com, where he serves as General Counsel, he also works in Austin, TX where he focuses his legal practice on serving the technology, real estate, financial and software industries.
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Lia S.

Lia Smith

6 reviews
I am a Duke Law graduate with a computer science degree. As a corporate and IP law attorney, the combination of my technology background, legal education and experience, an... read more
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Jeramie F.

Jeramie Fortenberry

5 reviews
I am an attorney based in Austin, Texas. I focus my practice on meeting the legal needs of business owners and real estate owners and investors. My business planning practi... read more
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Kasey C.

Kasey Christie

2 reviews
Kasey speaks the language of business and technology as an inventor, co-founder of a technology startup, and chief IP counsel. After practicing law for 17 years at law firms, he founded Forefront IP Lawgroup. He has over 20 years of experience in all aspects of intellectual property, particularly in developing and managing patent portfolios. Super Lawyers magazine recognized him as a rising star.
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Austin Startup Lawyers

5.0 
Based on 245 reviews
Clear Communication - 5.0
Response Time - 5.0
Knowledgeable - 5.0
Meets Deadlines - 5.0
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Legal Tips and Information

 


 

Building Your Startup in Austin

 

The City of Austin is known for live music, creativity and “being weird”.  A haven for innovation and ingenuity, within those Austin city limits you’ll find a strong community that supports entrepreneurship and fosters the “built in Austin” movement.  One lookup at the event calendar for tech and other startup enterprises shows a city bursting with new opportunities.  No less than 5 events geared at building your dream happen each week, helping you connect with experts and other Austin dream builders. 

When you art to make plans to build your dream in Austin, you should search for the best startup attorney to meet your needs.  Crafting your new business is exciting but it can also be challenging if you don’t have all the right tools.  An Austin start-up attorney will have the skills you need to build your dream on a strong foundation so that you can reach for the city limits and beyond. 

 


 

Creating a Strong Foundation

 

While you’re putting your plans together to build a strong and vibrant new business, you need to take care to build on a strong foundation.  A startup lawyer in Austin will help you make the right decisions for a solid structure.

Your Austin startup lawyer will help you focus on the essential business building blocks.  If you have partners, your startup attorney will help you and your co-founders lay out an agreement that spells out all of your expectations.  Salaries, profit sharing, loans, management and even the possibility for future sale of your new company should be considered.  With the help of a startup lawyer in Austin, you can avoid the mistakes that have nearly toppled other startup giants.  These days avoiding problems isn’t as simple as merely owning 51% of your company. 

Another decision that your Austin startup attorney will help you make is the right corporate form for your new business. Depending on your future goals, the type of business you want to grow and how you plan to raise money, you’ll want to consider a few forms including a limited liability company and general partnership.  If you don’t need (or want!) partners, you may still want to form a corporation.  The best startup attorneys in Austin will understand the pros and cons of all these business forms, and a few others. 

One often overlooked brick in a strong startup foundation are business documents.  While it’s sometimes easy to find a sample contract on the interwebs that looks “good enough”, not having documents that are tailored to your startup and its products and services may be a liability as your grow.  Your Austin startup attorney will help draft documents that are right for you.

 


 

Funding Your Growth    

 

If you’re like most startups in Austin, you need money to help build your dream into a reality. A startup lawyer will help you not only review and understand the options available, but will also help you avoid potential financial disaster.  Even now, law suits have been filed in Austin by startups claiming to have been taken advantage of or even defrauded by investors.  You Austin startup attorney will make sure that this doesn’t happen to you.

One of the decisions you’ll need to make will be the kind of money you are willing to take.  Are you comfortable with loans, even if you need to sign as a personal guarantor? If not, maybe you are willing to issue ownership in the company or stock.  If you choose to issue stock, you have a few more choices there, including an IPO.  All of the decisions require a careful review of the potential upsides and downsides.  Government rules and regulations all need to be considered.  As you assemble all of the funds you need to construct a strong financial base for your startup, Austin startup attorneys will understanding and tools you need.  Making the rights decisions when it comes to money can make the difference between a startup that rises to new heights and one that never makes it past the ground floor.

 


 

Protecting Your Property

 

If you’re like most startups, one of your most important assets is your intellectual property.  Your intellectual property includes all of those things you’ve created from your name and logo to a new product or service.  At the very least, you’ll probably want a trademark for your name and logo design. If your startup is a business that’s offering a new and innovative product or service that you invented (or even perfected), a patent may also be important. 

A startup lawyer in Austin understands that are a lot of building blocks involved in setting up a startup from scratch.  They not only know that you may need trademarks and patents (you probably thought of that!), but they also know that even beyond these protections from outside sources, you may need protections from within.  Noncompetition and confidentiality agreements can make sure that your trade secrets, ideas and ways of doing business stay in house. 

The best startup attorneys in Austin will also remember your website.  It’s not enough to have great words and pictures for your new startup.  Your Austin startup attorney will understand that having privacy and usage policies on your website will protect you from others taking your ideas through the back door.   These policies will also tell your customers what you’ll do with their information, keeping you in compliance with all those rules that you might not have thought about. 

 


 

Building to the Next Level

 

You’ve built a new business in Austin that’s ready to go to the next level.  Hopefully you’ve found one of the best startup attorneys in Austin to be your partner in framing your company’s growth.  But even if you haven’t, it’s not too late to get the expert help that you need. 

A startup lawyer in Austin knows the ins and outs of the issues that face startups ready to grow.  It may be time to buy a new building or lease some new space.  Your startup attorney will not only help you understand the agreements that go along with those choices, but can also help you decide which choice is right for you.

It may be that you’re weird Austin idea has really caught on and you want to expand by letting other people join your team.  Creating a franchise might be the right decision. Your Austin startup attorney will give you guidance about not only franchise laws but also the tax changes that might happen.   

Whatever your options include for your company’s future, a startup lawyer in Austin has the understanding of the landscape and the tools you need to reach your next level of success. 

 


 

You’re Built in Austin

 

Austin is a great place to build your dream.  It’s a community that loves innovation and ideas, and even likes being a little weird.  There are no limits to how big you can build your dream in Austin.  To help you reach those heights, you can count on a startup lawyer in Austin to be on your team of master craftsman.  These experts in startup businesses have all the tools you need to forge a solid foundation for your startup to grow.  While it’s sometimes easy to think that you can figure it out as you go along, a soft spot in your company infrastructure can cause you to stray from your plans.  Find a startup lawyer in Austin that understands your dream, even if it’s weird.  The best startup attorneys in Austin understand that you want to push past limits and will give you the tools to make sure you can succeed.    Your Austin startup attorney will focus on making sure that your company is built on solid bedrock so that you can reach the Austin city limits and beyond.   

Why use UpCounsel to hire a Austin Startup Attorney?

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Legal Services Offered by Our On-Demand Austin Startup Attorneys

On UpCounsel, you can find and connect with top-rated Austin startup attorneys & lawyers that provide a range of startup law services for startups and entrepreneurs that are starting a business. Any of the top-rated Austin startup lawyers you connect with will be available to help with a variety of your startup law related legal needs on-demand or on an ongoing basis in the city of Austin, TX.

From primarily dealing with things like business formation, contracts, leases, equity financing, securities, and intellectual property protection, the Austin startup lawyers on UpCounsel can help you with a variety of specialized and general startup law related legal matters. No matter what type of startup law needs you have, you can easily hire an experienced Austin startup lawyer on UpCounsel to help you today.

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