Hire vs DIY
When DIY is fine
When the matter is in between
When you should hire me
Should I hire an attorney for my founder or equity dispute?
Founder disputes break differently from commercial disputes. The contract may exist, may be ambiguous, or may never have been signed. The personal relationships layer on top of the legal posture, and money is rarely the only thing the parties are fighting over. Generic operating-agreement templates have a real lane: they prevent the next founder pair from getting here. They do not resolve the dispute that has already happened. This page is about deciding which posture you are in. If the founders are still aligned and just need paper, the templates are fine. If a founder has stopped working, has been pushed out, or is demanding a buyout, the template is the wrong tool.
Use the templates and free tools on this site when
- You are forming the entity and need a baseline operating agreement. The California LLC Operating Agreement Generator and the Delaware LLC OA Generator produce solid baselines. Use them.
- You are drafting a founders agreement at the very start. The Founders Agreement Generator covers the recurring questions: equity split, vesting, IP assignment, what happens if someone leaves. Better paper now is the best dispute prevention you can buy.
- You are setting vesting on founder stock. The Founder Equity Vesting Agreement Generator handles the standard four-year vesting with one-year cliff pattern. Read the cliff and acceleration insight alongside it.
- You need a co-founder agreement that explicitly handles a future buyout trigger. The Co-Founder Agreement Generator includes the standard buyout language and the deadlock provisions.
- You missed the 83(b) election window and need to understand the consequences. Read the 83(b) election insight. The fix depends on facts. A consult may help; a template will not.
- You are reading an operating agreement to understand what your rights are. The OA breach vs fiduciary duty insight walks through the distinction. Drop the relevant clause into the free AI Legal Analyst chatbox for a clause-level read.
- You are negotiating a clean amicable founder departure with paper in hand. A baseline separation agreement plus the operating-agreement buyout clause may be enough if both sides agree on the number.
Book a 30-minute consultation when
- A founder has stopped working but has not been formally terminated. A $125 / 30 min consult walks through what the operating agreement actually requires, what fiduciary obligations attach to the departure, and whether the dispute is real or just a communication breakdown.
- You are trying to renegotiate equity after a material contribution shift but the operating agreement is silent. One scoping call covers the realistic path: amendment, side letter, or formal restructure.
- A co-founder is asking for buyout terms and you do not know if the operating agreement supports the demand. Thirty minutes against the OA is enough to tell you whether the demand has contract support, fiduciary support, or neither.
- You are facing a books-and-records demand from a minority holder. A consult covers the response window, the privilege boundary, and the realistic exposure. See the books and records demand letters guide.
- You are an LLC member considering exercising the involuntary buyout right under California Corporations Code section 17707.03. Read the involuntary buyout insight first. The consult walks through whether the statutory path is the right tool on your facts.
Hire me for the matter when
- A founder has been pushed out and is demanding accelerated vesting or a forced buyout. This is the recurring dispute. The realistic path is a demand letter, a draft complaint or arbitration demand, and a structured negotiation. The $575 demand letter and the $1,200 demand plus draft complaint on the linked founder dispute practice page are the working tools.
- A founder is alleging breach of fiduciary duty against another founder or the company. Fiduciary duty in a closely held LLC is a real claim, and the templates do not cover it. Read the OA breach vs fiduciary duty insight and the California fiduciary duty breach demand letter guide.
- The company is approaching a financing or M&A event and an old founder dispute has not been resolved. Investors will not close on an open cap-table dispute. Resolution work, including a release running in both directions, is the deliverable. Hourly at $240/hr.
- A founder claims pre-formation IP belongs to them, not to the company. This is the recurring trap, especially for founders who built early prototypes solo. The co-founder IP disputes guide walks through the analytical pattern. A demand letter or a draft assignment with consideration is usually the right tool.
- You are exercising or defending a section 17707.03 involuntary dissolution petition. The statute is real, the leverage is real, and the work is litigation-adjacent. The $1,200 demand plus draft complaint tier is the right starting posture.
- A minority holder has sent a books-and-records demand that puts the company in a position to respond formally. The response has procedural deadlines and privilege boundaries that the template does not capture.
- The dispute is cross-border, particularly between US-incorporated entities and Asia-based or Russian-speaking founders. Layer the cross-border analysis on top of the founder dispute analysis. See the cross-border practice page.
The honest decision rubric
- Are the founders still aligned, or has someone stopped working? Aligned founders need paper, not an attorney. The template prevents the next dispute. A founder who has stopped working is dispute work.
- Is the operating agreement signed and in force? If yes, start with what the OA actually says. Most fights are about whether the OA allows what one founder is doing. If the OA is unsigned or missing, the analysis shifts to fiduciary duty and California default rules.
- Is real money at stake? Under roughly $25,000 of realistic recovery, attorney work rarely pencils out and a structured mediation may be cheaper. Over $50,000 of realistic recovery, attorney work usually pays for itself.
- Is the company in a position to take outside capital while this is open? If yes, the dispute has to be cleaned up before the round. The timeline is fixed, not flexible.
This page is informational and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Engagement begins only after written conflict check and a signed scope agreement. I represent one side of a founder dispute at a time; I do not jointly represent two co-founders. Outcomes are not guaranteed.
If your situation lines up with the hire column
Send me the operating agreement, the founders agreement, and one paragraph on the dispute. I respond personally, usually within one business day. If a template, a consult, or a mediator is the right answer, I will tell you. I will not push the demand letter as a default.
See the founder and equity disputes practice page Email the intake