Minimal legal work & cost for 2-person startup

Hi,

These are just suggestions that all have to do with minimizing your liability. This isn't legal advice, but is general information applicable to your question.
Depending on your business entity you want to have, e.g. corporation or partnership, you will want to hire an attorney for that entity setup and instructions on how to keep the formalities to protect against liability. Although some services like Legal zoom offer it, I don't recommend using them. I've had to help clients who used such cheap services out of legal issues and it ended up costing them thousands of dollars more in mistakes than just hiring an attorney from the start. Most attorneys offer flat rates from $1000-$5000 varying on complexity and type of entity etc.

You will want to consult with an attorney about labor laws and employment laws before hiring. A basic employment contract written well can save you a lot of heartache. You have to comply with state and federal laws about hiring, insurance, etc. So you will want to do this and not skip it. Again, I'm guessing between $3000-$8000 depending on your type of business. For example, you may have to conform with OSHA standards. An HR specialist may be able to offer some of these services as well.

If have intellectual property, you will want to consult with an IP attorney about protecting your IP via copyright, trademark, trade secret, or patent. Copyright is typically cheap $500-1500, Trademark from $1000-4500, and patent filings in US from (design) $1500-$5000 and utility from $2500-12,000. Again it depends on the practitioner and complexity. Also, please remember you get what you pay for, and the tempting online patents or trademark filings for "$100" is not a good idea.

Consider getting involved in incubators. They specialize in helping new startups be ware of all these issues and launching them successfully. Many incubators have legal service providers lined up for the startups as well.

Hope this helps!
Mary

By what exactly do you mean "minimal?" Any legitimate startup venture will expect to wrangle with legal issues including, without limitation, corporate formation and administration (e.g., filing Articles of Organization, drafting an operating agreement and investment documents), federal/state/local licensing if applicable to your business, intellectual property evaluation and asset protection (e.g., patentability opinions, trademark clearance searches, applications involving the same), and commercial transactions (e.g., service provider agreements, employment agreements). Varying complexities involving the foregoing with generally require more time and, usually, more expense.
Ms. Fales has given you excellent advice and her price range estimations are reasonable. I would only underscore that there are few occasions when you will be able to confidently use a "canned" or other paint-by-numbers type agreement obtainable from Legal Zoom, Rocket Lawyer, or other such services. Legal services, perhaps somewhat like medical services, are not those on which to skimp.
It is advisable to contact various local counsels to get different estimates, with IP firms most likely to be able to provide the broadest scope of legal services you will need at this point.