Finding someone to help with UK Start Up Legal / Contract

Craig Walmsley MD @ Progenit. Founder @ rtobjects. Locke Scholar.

May 1st, 2014

I'm setting up a new company in partnership with an established business.

We've agreed broad terms in an LoI, but need to get all the detail worked out to everyone's satisfaction.

The terms and the fact that the new company will be part-owned by an existing company make it a bit more complex than a standard set of agreements.

Question: Does anyone know of UK / London-based companies / individuals who can help draft articles of association / shareholders agreements / service agreements for start-ups in a suitably efficient and cost-effective manner?

David Crooke Serial entrepreneur and CTO

May 1st, 2014

Scotsman here .... a long time ago I used one of those incoporation services (kinda like Legalzoom) to set up an Ltd. for my father who was a contract conusltant, it's cleaner and more tax efficient than self-employed (c.f. 1099) .. cost £295 in 1986 complete with a wax seal press :) A couple of notes: 1. The UK is 3 separate jurisdictions, slightly more so than the way that the USA is 51. You'll need an address in the one you register with. We operated an England+Wales company from Scotland, with a registered office at an address shop in London. 2. There are laws now to stop what me did, as it basically allowed you to wrap all your income as capital gains and dividends (like Mitt Romney but not quite as egregious). You may need to be wary of these as they may bucket you as a sole proprietorship. Cheers Dave

Steve Karmeinsky CoFounder City Meets Tech / Lean Capital Ltd / Placeholder Ltd

May 1st, 2014

You'll need lawyers to do it properly, there's quite a few in London that do deals for start-ups

Steve

Ps I'm looking for vesting shareholders agreement too

Craig Walmsley MD @ Progenit. Founder @ rtobjects. Locke Scholar.

May 1st, 2014

Manolis - looks interesting - but we're not looking for crowd-funding at the moment - so that looks like it might be better suited to others.

Steve - thanks - lawyers indeed - have you worked with anyone that you'd recommend?

Manolis Sfinarolakis

May 1st, 2014

Hi Craig,

KarmaKrowd is a platform that offers Intellectual Property services from incorporation, to patents, to trademarks, etc to startups that eventually crowdfund on their platform. There is no up front costs associated with the services, as they are taken on the back end. If you are planning to crowdfund as part of your startups evolution, I would register for their site and contact them: http://www.karmakrowd.com/registration

Kind Regards,

Manolis Sfinarolakis

realitycrowdtv@gmail.com

203-232-2462

Craig Walmsley MD @ Progenit. Founder @ rtobjects. Locke Scholar.

May 5th, 2014

Dave - thanks for the advice - will try to be less egregious than Mitt Romney ;-)

Craig Walmsley MD @ Progenit. Founder @ rtobjects. Locke Scholar.

May 5th, 2014

Just in case anyone else comes across this thread - I also found some useful stuff on Quora on this score:

http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-law-firms-lawyers-for-startups-in-london

I've also had http://www.jordans.co.uk/ recommended for straight up company formation.

And people also rate this guy http://www.kemplittle.com/site/people/profile/andy.moseby