For simple stuff, yea, an attorney could create a decision tree. But:
1) The hard part is objective and accurately assessing the issues at hand.
I haven't done any legal work for startups, but I've done diligence on a few deals that involved a startup getting acquired or funded. I've seen several deals killed because some basic entrepreneurship issues were written off because the company thought it was no big deal.
Nobody thinks they ripped off IP from their old company. But it's done, often unintentionally, all the time.
So the decision tree would ask "Is your company using IP that you developed that is similar to your previous employer?" I can promise you that people who should answer yes, would be completely convinced that they should say no. Zuckerberg would have said no. And yet he had to pay HarvardConnect.
2) You are wasting the founders time thinking about this stuff.
But I get the impulse. Law firms take their pound of flesh. I like Sandworms comment down thread about "legal debt."
1) The hard part is objective and accurately assessing the issues at hand.
I haven't done any legal work for startups, but I've done diligence on a few deals that involved a startup getting acquired or funded. I've seen several deals killed because some basic entrepreneurship issues were written off because the company thought it was no big deal.
Nobody thinks they ripped off IP from their old company. But it's done, often unintentionally, all the time.
So the decision tree would ask "Is your company using IP that you developed that is similar to your previous employer?" I can promise you that people who should answer yes, would be completely convinced that they should say no. Zuckerberg would have said no. And yet he had to pay HarvardConnect.
2) You are wasting the founders time thinking about this stuff.
But I get the impulse. Law firms take their pound of flesh. I like Sandworms comment down thread about "legal debt."