Comments on: What should legal fees in a Series A financing be? http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/ Venture capital, seed financings, convertible note bridge debt, M&A, option vesting and other matters explained for founders and entrepreneurs Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:54:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Yokum http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/comment-page-1/#comment-2980 Yokum Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:47:19 +0000 http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/#comment-2980 The median cost of the Series B financing in 2008 (based on 64 deals) was $75K. Thus, $100K wouldn't surprise me if there were a difficult issue or two in the financing.<br><br>$30K/month in legal seems high for a typical Series B-level startup. I suspect you have a lot of patent, regulatory, licensing or litigation work. Only a very few large companies with multiple outside counsel have seemed to develop billing policies that they expect their outside counsel to adhere to. I think that the best you can do is ask for estimates and updates on the bill on a regular basis. I'm not really sure how billing guidelines would be effective with a typical startup. The median cost of the Series B financing in 2008 (based on 64 deals) was $75K. Thus, $100K wouldn't surprise me if there were a difficult issue or two in the financing.

$30K/month in legal seems high for a typical Series B-level startup. I suspect you have a lot of patent, regulatory, licensing or litigation work. Only a very few large companies with multiple outside counsel have seemed to develop billing policies that they expect their outside counsel to adhere to. I think that the best you can do is ask for estimates and updates on the bill on a regular basis. I'm not really sure how billing guidelines would be effective with a typical startup.

]]> By: nomorehighfees http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/comment-page-1/#comment-2979 nomorehighfees Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:15:45 +0000 http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/#comment-2979 We just closed Series B and our counsel just charged us over a $100K. It was a big round and our counsel is one of the bigger, established players in the valley. I do think the number is high and i want to push back. <br><br>On a separate issue, do you think establishing billing guidelines and getting the lawyers to sign it (i know they will push back hard) is a good strategy? I think just a routine email asking to establish transparency is probably not going to be an effective strategy. For a pre-revenue company, we are paying close to $30K a month for legal work (excluding the $100K on Series B). I have to get serious about this issue. We just closed Series B and our counsel just charged us over a $100K. It was a big round and our counsel is one of the bigger, established players in the valley. I do think the number is high and i want to push back.

On a separate issue, do you think establishing billing guidelines and getting the lawyers to sign it (i know they will push back hard) is a good strategy? I think just a routine email asking to establish transparency is probably not going to be an effective strategy. For a pre-revenue company, we are paying close to $30K a month for legal work (excluding the $100K on Series B). I have to get serious about this issue.

]]> By: Yokum http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/comment-page-1/#comment-2911 Yokum Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:47:19 +0000 http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/#comment-2911 The median cost of the Series B financing in 2008 (based on 64 deals) was $75K. Thus, $100K wouldn't surprise me if there were a difficult issue or two in the financing.<br><br>$30K/month in legal seems high for a typical Series B-level startup. I suspect you have a lot of patent, regulatory, licensing or litigation work. Only a very few large companies with multiple outside counsel have seemed to develop billing policies that they expect their outside counsel to adhere to. I think that the best you can do is ask for estimates and updates on the bill on a regular basis. I'm not really sure how billing guidelines would be effective with a typical startup. The median cost of the Series B financing in 2008 (based on 64 deals) was $75K. Thus, $100K wouldn't surprise me if there were a difficult issue or two in the financing.

$30K/month in legal seems high for a typical Series B-level startup. I suspect you have a lot of patent, regulatory, licensing or litigation work. Only a very few large companies with multiple outside counsel have seemed to develop billing policies that they expect their outside counsel to adhere to. I think that the best you can do is ask for estimates and updates on the bill on a regular basis. I'm not really sure how billing guidelines would be effective with a typical startup.

]]> By: nomorehighfees http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/comment-page-1/#comment-2910 nomorehighfees Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:15:45 +0000 http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/2007/12/08/what-should-legal-fees-in-a-series-a-financing-be/#comment-2910 We just closed Series B and our counsel just charged us over a $100K. It was a big round and our counsel is one of the bigger, established players in the valley. I do think the number is high and i want to push back. <br><br>On a separate issue, do you think establishing billing guidelines and getting the lawyers to sign it (i know they will push back hard) is a good strategy? I think just a routine email asking to establish transparency is probably not going to be an effective strategy. For a pre-revenue company, we are paying close to $30K a month for legal work (excluding the $100K on Series B). I have to get serious about this issue. We just closed Series B and our counsel just charged us over a $100K. It was a big round and our counsel is one of the bigger, established players in the valley. I do think the number is high and i want to push back.

On a separate issue, do you think establishing billing guidelines and getting the lawyers to sign it (i know they will push back hard) is a good strategy? I think just a routine email asking to establish transparency is probably not going to be an effective strategy. For a pre-revenue company, we are paying close to $30K a month for legal work (excluding the $100K on Series B). I have to get serious about this issue.

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