I'm in what might be a very similar position: I'm employed at a startup and was just given an option grant as a performance bonus. I believe I can't sell the stocks, and we're not really looking to go public, so I don't know what use they are or what any of it means. Is there a certain class of lawyer I can take my paperwork to and pay some fee for them to go over it and tell me what my options are (no pun intended)?
Are you upset you received options instead of cash for your bonus? If so, you could have mentioned that you would take a salary raise instead of options. There really isn't much you can do with options until they go public or the company gets bought. You can also try to sell them on Secondary Market or SharesPost.
Oh, I'm not upset, I'm doing quite well otherwise, I've just been unable to find a law firm advertising anything related to what I'm looking for, which either means to me I need a specific type of lawyer to evaluate it or any ol' lawyer might work?
Ahhh, it's probably better to have an investor look over it as they probably deal with hundreds of these. It would probably be the simplest route and they have a clear understanding of this market.
Don't spend money on a lawyer to ask about your company's stock options. Instead, sit down with HR when it's convenient, and ask them to explain to you the key terms.
How many shares am I getting? Roughly what percentage of the company does it represent? When do I need to pay for them? How much do they cost me? Do they expire at some point? Once I buy them, can I sell them?
That should cover most of what you need to know for now. Then read the paperwork and see if it matches mostly what you were told. Then forget about them and wait until something big happens at your company.
You can definitely pay a lawyer to explain this stuff to you. Make sure to pick one who has regular experience with startups and equity. Because a) you don't want to pay 'em to learn it, b) they'll need current experience to tell you what "normal" looks like, and c) if things go south, it's good to have an established relationship with a lawyer who regularly works in the field.
The (awesome) lawyer I've used for years is Adam Slote of Slote, Links, and Boreman: http://www.slotelaw.com/
But I'd encourage you to do your research first, so that you aren't paying a lot of money to be spoon-fed stuff you could get from Wikipedia and elsewhere. I'd start here:
It might be worth paying a lawyer for advice specific to your situation, but sometimes people pay lawyer (or consulting) rates for what is generic information about a particular topic.
In the case of stock options, you may want to do some preparation so you know what questions you need to ask:
1. Read the paperwork to get a general sense of what you have been given. Make a bullet point summary of the rights (exercise date, price) and obligations (e.g. deadlines for exercise, or what happens if you leave).
You will also want to understand the tax implications of the grant, as there may be things you need to do now, in order to minimize your tax liability.
IANAL but feel free to email me at the address in my profile
I would try reading your agreement, it usually plainly talks about what its restrictions are.
For instance a very common clause is called "first option" (don't quote me on these names, not 100% certain they are correct), in order to sell the stock you must first offer the company the stock at the same price.
An alternative (probably the one in the Uber example here) is "first option at market" where in order to sell you must first offer to sell to the company at the market rate ("helpfully" determined by the company).
Yes there are lawyers who can help you however, options are essentially worthless unless the company goes public.
Option grants, employee benefits, bonuses...these are all carrot sticks employers use for employee retention. Bigger companies like Google can offer bus rides, better benefits, higher salary, etc. Make sense?
