Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#21

Post by thrillgore » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 2:56 PM UTC

A lawyer. I would try contacting a local startup incubator to see if they have any recommendations before you start googling or looking up Avvo.

I also found Termly helpful for a first Privacy Policy especially through their wizard, which clears up all your GDPR/CCPA matters, but you want a professional to look this over at some point.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#22

Post by mushufasa » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:01 PM UTC

Public companies have to file a lot of documents with the SEC, and often contracts get disclosed. Paid services such as Bloomberg Law are essentially glorified search engines on this free public dataset.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#23

Post by philip1209 » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:07 PM UTC

Basecamp has their policies on Github under a "CC BY 4.0 DEED" license, though it looks like they've archived the repo: https://github.com/basecamp/policies

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#24

Post by j45 » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:08 PM UTC

thrillgore wrote: post #21

A lawyer. I would try contacting a local startup incubator to see if they have any recommendations before you start googling or looking up Avvo. I also found Termly helpful for a first Privacy Policy especially through their wizard, which clears up all your GDPR/CCPA matters, but you want a professional to look this over at some point.

It’s critical to only hire a lawyer who has exact and recent experience with what you need in tech/startups, or you’re paying to educate them and things might not be as good as they could be because they are new to it.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#25

Post by trevyn » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:09 PM UTC

Legal systems are code execution for people who can’t code. Use accordingly.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#26

Post by corford » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:10 PM UTC

https://www.termsfeed.com/ is handy for TOS, T&C, Privacy Policies etc.

For UK orientated legalese, https://simply-docs.co.uk/ is quite useful for certain things.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#27

Post by aristofun » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:11 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #8

Wilmerhale has a document generator for a lot of what you need. No need to log in, create an account etc. I use these.

I couldn’t find any generator on their site

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#28

Post by traceroute66 » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:12 PM UTC

> Where can I find good legal documents?

A lawyer. A lawyer. A lawyer. A lawyer. END OF STORY.

And I'm saying that from a perspective of someone who used to use free/cheap template docs a long time ago.

The hard reality is that free/cheap ready-made docs are highly unlikely to be suitable for your business context for one or more of the following reasons:

          - Jurisdiction of you or your clients
          - Insurance requirements from your insurer or your clients insurer
          - Clauses not there that should be there
          - Clauses there that are not good enough
          - Clauses there that should not be there

Free/cheap docs are all fun and games until the shit hits the fan and you need to rely on them. Its at that point you'll find yourself wishing you ponied up for a lawyer. Trust me, been there, done that, got the postcard, never again.

Paying a lawyer to help you with legal documents is a necessary business expense. Just like paying taxes, either you pay upfront or you pay the penalty later.

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#29

Post by telebell » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:14 PM UTC

I agree with what lots have written here. The biglaw firms that have notable tech practices are good and have resources for brand new startups. For example, CooleyGo or Latham Drive or Wilson Sonsini's term sheet generator. For PPs and Terms, I tend to start with competitor services and see how theirs are written/compare clauses. The more established the company, the more likely it is that you can rely on them to have had their own docs vetted by decent attorneys, though of course quality isn't guaranteed. I have used TermsFeed as a starting point before.

For employment matters, SHRM's "Tools and Samples" resources are good.

Thompson Reuters has a free 7 day trial of their "Practical Law" product, though I haven't explored it personally.

Techcontracts.com is a good resource.

ETA: these are all starting points - the docs always have to be reviewed and modified for your particular circumstances. But they’re reasonable for the first draft.

(I do outside general counsel work for small startups)

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: Where can I find good legal documents?

#30

Post by fortran77 » Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 3:22 PM UTC

traceroute66 wrote: post #28

> Where can I find good legal documents? A lawyer. A lawyer. A lawyer. A lawyer. END OF STORY. And I'm saying that from a perspective of someone who used to use free/cheap template docs a long time ago. The hard reality is that free/cheap ready-made docs are highly unlikely to be suitable for your business context for one or more of the following reasons: - Jurisdiction of you or your clients - Insurance requirements…

Exactly. These free legal documents are great—until you have to litigate one.