ENSPIRAL LEGAL LTD 27 March 2012
I’m so thrilled to announce that I’m launching Enspiral Legal Ltd today.
If I had my way, no one in the creative and innovative sector would see what I do as ‘just the legals’. Instead they will develop a good understanding of the important legal concepts that govern the way business is done. Without that understanding, it becomes difficult to grow and develop any organisation successfully to a significant scale. To make sure my documents can become an integral part of the structure of a business, I work hard to ensure that they are drafted in plain English where it is possible, so that you can refer back to them as your business grows and changes.
I have loved working with Enspiral for the last 12 months. I have 17 years New Zealand legal experience, specialising in intellectual property law at a large trans-Tasman law firm in the past. After a couple of years contracting, I will now be providing legal advice and drafting legal documents for commercial technology companies, web startups, social enterprises and charities.
It has been both interesting and challenging watching Enspiral grow over the last year. I am now looking forward to growing Enspiral Legal Ltd in our unique way, by nurturing excellence while promoting and supporting lawyers as they grow their own legal businesses within Enspiral Legal Ltd.
I am motivated by building a great social enterprise and charitable sector, with an emphasis on legal education for businesses and those operating in the not for profit sector. But Enspiral Legal Ltd will continue doing a good proportion of its work in the commercial sector. Commercial work is a great way to keep grounded in commercial realities, and helps to bring excellence and perspective to the social enterprises.
For many years I was a litigator, appearing in courts arguing over who was to obtain the spoils after businesses broke down or came to an impasse. The wasted energy and expense of determining ‘who was right’ convinced me that there had to be a better way. Often sub-standard documents, or even no documentation, lay behind the dispute. Because of this, I want to help startups and not-for-profits to ensure they have access to good advice, but more importantly that they gain an understanding of the type of legal structures they are working in, and the ways to avoid common pitfalls as the organisation grows.
I have listed the work types that Enspiral Legal Ltd will offer, and would love to chat with anyone who wants to talk about how Enspiral Legal Ltd can help them or their organisation.
Enspiral Legal Ltd:
Commercial Law
Employment and Contractor Agreements
Distribution and Sales agreements
Franchise Agreements
Open Source documentation
Terms of Trade
Website Terms and Conditions
Privacy clauses
Business and Social Enterprise Structures
Company constitutions
Shareholder agreements
Partnership agreements
Licensing agreements
Charitable Trusts
Charitable companies
Incorporated associations
Company documentation and procedures
Intellectual Property
Trade Mark applications
Copyright advice
Patent advice (not applications)
General intellectual property advice and strategies
International Trade Mark applications can be made through my network of trusted T M professionals.
Commercialisation and licensing agreements
Sponsorship agreements
Awesome cake, what amazing company made that?
Hi Rochelle,
I’m involved in an initiative called Nondominium, which is a legal and regulatory framework for collaboration and co-created value exchange. We’re working on financial instruments needed for people-based (p2p) credit and asset-based (p2a) credit. It is a neutral framework agreement for both financing and funding.
For this, we’re examining different open value networks – tools and methods for value accounting, value flow dynamics and fluid equity structures.
We’re looking to engage with legal experts in different countries to understand legal and tax implications of this type of legal structure. Would be great to connect with you.
Given the way that Enspiral operates how come you don’t list cooperatives among your business and social enterprise structures but every other kind? Especially as 2012 is the International Year of Cooperatives this is a serious omission.
Good Question Ramsey
It is also interesting that if one was to look for business structures among our Govt or private Business Advisors often one would find a)Company, b)Partnership, c)Trust.
As a previous small business operator who decided to look at different models available I have noticed the lack of cooperatives among the structures recommended.
Fonterra, our nation’s biggest business is a cooperative, although I wonder whether it is true cooperative or a hybrid, or if it is, whether it will remain one for long after what I recently read the management is proposing.
Good points Philip and Ramsey – I’ve been looking into quite a few different legal structures for the different companies we’ve been launching and the cooperative legal structure was one we considered.
At the end of the day we went with a company with a modified constitution to make it collective like as that gave us greater flexibility to structure things how we wanted to.
That’s just us though and I’m sure if anyone wanted to setup an formal cooperative then Rochelle would be able to help them out.
keen! Anything Enspiral has gotta be good. I too spent ages trying to work out a utopian business structure to work for our digital media collective. I feel it is an area that is very neglected and if considered difficult to find alternatives to setting up a LLC and joining the pack as I ended up doing for lack of advice and pressure to have a legal entity setup. What’s your guys contact details?
Cheers