Recycling is generally considered a good thing when it comes to trash. It helps the environment and conserves resources. However, in the context of legal work, it is not such a good thing. Of course, when I use the word “recycle,” I don’t mean recycling the paper that the legal documents are on. I’m talking about recycling the actual words on the page. When a client “recycles” their lawyer’s work which was performed on a previous deal and uses it in a new deal, the client is asking for trouble.
Let’s look at a hypothetical example: The founder of a startup has some friends and family invest in the seed round of the company, issuing stock to the investors. He hires a lawyer to draft the documents and offering materials. The work is done correctly and the offering of stock is completed without a hitch, and rather importantly, carried out in compliance with securities laws. The lawyer’s bill came in at $5,000 and the founder is not exactly happy about it (it’s just for “paperwork” after all!), but he begrudgingly pays it.
A year later, the company is running out of money and needs to raise more capital, perhaps this time from a few angel investors. The founder thinks to himself: “I’m in luck, since I have the documents from our last stock offering, I have what I need and I can simply recycle the old documents. That way I won’t have to pay the bloodsucking (or some other expletive) lawyers to charge me more exorbitant fees for more paperwork. It’s just changing the date on the form for heaven’s sake.”
So that’s what he does. He takes the old documents, changes the dates and the names of the investors and takes in the new investment. Unfortunately for him and the company, the capital raise is not done in compliance with securities law, causing the offering to be considered an unlawful sale of an unregistered security. In addition, because the disclosure is a year old, certain events from the past year which would be considered material information are omitted, resulting in a potential securities fraud claim against the company and the founder. Finally, because provisions in a previous buy-sell agreement or subscription agreement relating to rights of first refusal and preemptive rights are not complied with, there is a dispute as to whether the stock was validly issued.
These kinds of defects have real world consequences. When securities laws are violated, investors essentially have a “put” option against the founder; that is, if the company fails and the stock is worthless, they can sell it back to the founder and go to court to force him to pay them. In addition, the SEC and state securities regulators can bring an enforcement action against the founder. The confusion over whether the stock was validly issued could result in expensive litigation for the company at a later stage, as competing groups of shareholders dispute the ownership of the company. Even if none of these things happen, and the company continues to grow, if the company were to later seek VC or institutional funding or engage in an IPO, the due diligence will reveal the problems. At this point, the VC fund or underwriter will either (a) force the founder to pay the VC fund’s lawyers (at high NY rates like $1,000 per hour) to painstakingly clean up the violations or (b) pass on the deal altogether.
The above story is hypothetical, but similar real life examples happen all of the time. A startup may save some money upfront by doing its own legal work, but the costs down the line will usually end up much higher. Therefore, trying to draft your own legal documents based on prior work by an attorney ends up being penny-wise and pound-foolish.
© 2011 Alexander J. Davie — This article is for general information only. The information presented should not be construed to be formal legal advice nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship.
