Hello , I hope the weekend was awesome!

In today's email, I will like to show you Important Legal tools that you can use to protect yourself In a partnership Business.

Let's get right into it...

1. Incorporate the Company.

The first tool would be the Vail of Incorporation.

Register the business with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for Nigerians or in the relevant regulatory body for company registrations in your Country.

This is the first place to start.

2. Co-founders/Partnership Agreement

Another legal tool is to Have a comprehensively drafted founders Agreement. You can also call this a Partnership, Co-founders, or a shareholders agreement.

This would serve as the Agreement that will regulate the relationship with you and your co-founders.

It will clearly define terms to ensure that you all are on the same page from Day 1.

3. Vest the shares.

 Ensure that each partner's or co-founder's shares including your own shares are vested over a cliff period of at least one year.

You can have a special clause in the main shareholder's Agreement for this purpose or you can have a separate share vesting Agreement.

4. Intellectual Property Assignment Agreement

Have an Intellectual Property Assignment Agreement to transfer the intellectual property right to any innovation, work, or work product created by your co-founders to the company.

This will ensure that even if they leave the company, the proprietary right in the innovation or work remains with the company.

Co-founders are not the only ones who need an IP Assignment Agreement. 

Employees including independent contractors who work for and with the company also need to be bound by this agreement so that the intellectual property in the work they do for the company can be transferred to the business.

5. Non Disclosure Agreement

Have a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to protect certain confidential information about the company, from client list to trade secrets, to formulas and processes used by the company to virtually any information that is disclosed to the public or a competitor can commercially affect the interest of the company.

You can take it a notch higher by adding another clause which is...

a Non-Compete Non Circumventing clause to prevent the receiving party from bypassing the disclosing party or the company in any transaction relating to the business of the company.

This is not just for the founders alone, anyone including the employees and independent contractors, and consultants who come in contact with the company should be made to sign this.

Dear , the sooner you start to take the legal aspect of your business very seriously. The better for you and your business.

Don't wait to do damage control when things go wrong, the consequences will be too costly in time, money, and energy.

Start implementing steps 1-5 from the word go your business will thank you for it.

I hope this was helpful to you?

Please, kindly reach out if you have any questions or need help.

Till next time, have a lovely day.

To your #LegalSense!

#BarinaadaLegal