Business Law Essentials
What you'll learn
- Accomplish your legal and business objectives more quickly and cost effectively via online services
- Learn how to do some things yourself (yes you can, sometimes... must be careful but sometimes you can)
- Learn what to look for when hiring an attorney
- Learn how to negotiate a fair fee for attorneys
- Know what questions to ask when you do hire an attorney
- Learn how to keep yourself protected
- Learn the key things to look for when reviewing a contract
Requirements
- You don't need to know, do or bring anything to take this course
Description
If you're a small business owner, entrepreneur or lawyer in a different field of law, this course is for you. You'll learn how to spot basic legal issues and get pro tips and hacks re how to handle them. Whether that means hiring a lawyer (and if so, what kind of lawyer and what questions to ask when you do) or considering doing it yourself - much more of an option for some things these days. And we'll cover the following topics-
- Entity formation, i.e. sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, C Corp, S Corp
- Independent Contractors versus Employees
- Contracts - employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, business agreements (with other companies), non disclosure agreements, shareholder agreements, founder agreements, licensing agreements, user agreements etc.
- Other labor & employment basics
- Disputes and how to handle them
- Fundraising documents including cap tables
- Trademarks
- Copyright, Patents, & Trade Secrets
The course will be approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes total. Throughout the course I'll recommend various do it yourself / do it inexpensively options. Including how to file a Del. C corp for basically free (other than government filing fees) and where to get the best free independent contractor agreement templates, for example. I'll also teach you how to protect yourself with things like entity formation, insurance and the right contract language.
You don't need any special software, tools or study guides to take this course. But you may want to take notes here and there on some of the resources I recommend throughout the course. And bring a "law won't intimidate me, I'm ready to learn how to ask lawyers good questions and spot important issues myself" mindset. Other than that, let's try to have a good time. Law can be dull but I try to make it more relevant and had fun making this course. Hope you do too.
Who this course is for:
- Business owners should take this course
- Start up entrepreneurs should take this course
- Lawyers looking to brush up on business or IP law should take this course
- People without a sense of humor should not take this course
- People who will give me a bad review should not take this course
Course content
- Preview01:33
- Preview12:47
Instructor
![Stephen Kane](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.0 Instructor Rating
- 24 Reviews
- 163 Students
- 1 Course
Stephen L. Kane has legal and business experience ranging from corporate to small business to startup. As a business owner and entrepreneur, he has confronted many of the same challenges encountered by startups, and provides practical legal advice from the perspective of a lawyer who “gets” business. He is a former associate at the national firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP, and earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University.
Stephen is an instructor at General Assembly where he teaches an Essentials of Start Up Law workshop. And an advisor at Bixel Exchange, a tech accelerator within the LA Chamber of Commerce. He provides legal workshops at the LA Law Library, the second largest law library in the world. And Chairs GRID110, a non profit that helps start ups in downtown LA succeed. Stephen is also Founder & CEO of FairClaims, an online small claims court alternative.