When we started General Legal, we picked one fight: commercial contracts. Sales agreements, MSAs, DPAs, the occasional 60-page customer paper that arrives at 4:45pm on a Friday. We picked it because it's the work that founders need most often, the work BigLaw is worst at pricing, and the work where AI plus a good attorney can crush a partner billing $1,400/hour.
Four months in, we've engaged 250+ clients and worked on 450+ matters. And the same two questions kept showing up in our Slack channels:
"Can you also paper a quick offer letter for the engineer we're hiring?"
"Our lead investor sent over a side letter — can you turn it tonight?"
Today we're saying yes to both. We're formally launching two new practices: Employment and Emerging Company & Venture Capital (ECVC). Same model — flat fees, AI-accelerated, Harvard-trained attorneys, mostly over Slack. Just a wider surface area.
Key Takeaways
- General Legal is launching two new practices - Employment and Emerging Company & Venture Capital (ECVC) - four months in, driven by existing-client demand.
- Both run on the same model as commercial contracts: flat fees, AI-accelerated (Sentinel first pass), Harvard-trained attorney review, mostly over Slack.
- Employment spans $250 (offer letters, NDAs, wage/hour counseling) up to $3,500 (full executive separations); ECVC spans $250 (advisor and SAFE drafts) up to $2,000 (foundational TOS/Privacy/MSA/DPA/BAA drafting).
- A full pricing schedule is now published publicly - flat fees, no surprises.
- Commercial contract review was restructured: the $500 tier now includes a redline plus a negotiation-guide cover letter; full hands-on negotiation is $1,000.
- Existing clients need to do nothing new - employment and ECVC questions go straight into their current Slack channel.
Why these two, and why now
Employment and ECVC are the other two practices a growth-stage company hits constantly. You hire someone, you raise a round, you grant equity, you part ways with someone, you sign a side letter. None of it is exotic. All of it is high-stakes if you get it wrong, and almost all of it is work that BigLaw prices like it's exotic.
The clients telling us to launch these were our existing clients. Once a founder has gotten a sales contract turned in three hours over Slack, they don't want to email a different firm to get an offer letter drafted in three weeks. The work is adjacent, the relationship is already there, and a lot of it is exactly the kind of well-defined, repeatable work where our model has a structural advantage.
What's in scope
Employment covers the full on-demand stack a growth-stage company actually needs: offer letters, NDAs and IP assignments, arbitration agreements, standalone policies, and wage/hour counseling at $250. Commission and bonus plans, independent contractor drafting, leave and accommodation counseling, restrictive covenants, routine and sensitive terminations, and separation agreements at $500. Up the stack: executive employment agreements at $1,500, employee handbooks at $2,500, misclassification audits and RIF/restructuring support at $2,500, equity incentive plans at $2,500, and full executive separations — counseling, agreement, and negotiation — at $3,500.
ECVC covers the corporate agreements every founder ends up signing: advisor agreement drafts at $250, SAFE drafts at $250, side letter drafts at $500, and the negotiation tier — advisor agreements, SAFEs, and side letters — at $1,000 each. Foundational drafting work (TOS, Privacy Policy, MSA, DPA, BAA from scratch) lives at $2,000, and basic research memos at $1,000.
That's why we launched a full schedule of pricing publicly. The pricing philosophy hasn't changed: flat fees, no surprises, and the price reflects what the work actually costs us to do well — which, increasingly, is less than it costs anyone else.
A note on what we updated for contracts
While we were at it, we also tightened up our commercial contract pricing to reflect what we've learned. The headline: a lot of clients don't actually want us to negotiate — they want a clean redline and a clear explanation of what we changed and why, and then they want to go close the deal themselves.
So our $500 standard contract review now includes the redline, one round of internal revisions on client feedback, and a negotiation guide cover letter that walks through every change, the risk of accepting the original language, and a fallback position where it makes sense. If you want us to take it the rest of the way — unlimited turns, calls with counterparty, the full all-in — that's now $1,000.
This isn't a price hike disguised as a feature. It's the opposite. Most of our clients were paying for negotiation muscle they didn't need. Now they don't have to.
TL;DR
What stays the same
Everything that makes General Legal work. Slack-first. Sentinel doing the first pass in ten seconds. Real attorneys reviewing every output. Hours, not weeks. Flat fees, not surprises. The MCP server still runs. The agents can still hire us.
We're also quietly piloting a GC-as-a-service subscription — unlimited work, priced by company size and stage — for clients who'd rather not think about line items at all. If that sounds interesting, ping us.
If you're already a client, your channel is your channel. Just throw the employment or ECVC question in and we'll route it. If you're not yet, we'd love to talk.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is ECVC?
Emerging Company & Venture Capital is the corporate-and-financing work a startup signs as it grows - advisor agreements, SAFEs, side letters, and foundational documents like TOS, Privacy Policy, MSA, DPA, and BAA.
What is a SAFE?
A SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) is a contract that lets an investor fund a startup now in exchange for equity later, usually at the next priced round - with no interest and no maturity date. It was introduced by Y Combinator in 2013 as a simpler alternative to convertible notes. General Legal drafts SAFEs at $250 and negotiates them at $1,000.
How much does employment work cost?
Flat fees from $250 (offer letters, NDAs and IP assignments, arbitration agreements, wage/hour counseling) through $2,500 (handbooks, misclassification audits, RIF support, equity incentive plans) up to $3,500 for a full executive separation including counseling, agreement, and negotiation.
Did commercial contract pricing change?
Yes. The $500 standard review now includes the redline, one round of internal revisions, and a negotiation-guide cover letter explaining every change and its risk. Full hands-on negotiation - unlimited turns and counterparty calls - is now a separate $1,000 tier. It's a restructure, not a price hike: most clients were paying for negotiation they didn't need.