8TSSOP size standard in chaos now?

It isn't arrogance. A good lawyer has a huge advantage over your average layman in a contract negotiation, and shooting fish in a barrel isn't sporting. You and I negotiate a lot of contracts, so we're good at it, but not everyone is, by a long shot.

A lot of my gigs are smallish, just a week or two worth, so I can't afford to have a lawyer involved. The one time so far that I needed one (for a royalty deal) it cost about $12k, but if it turns into a product, it was well worth it.

Expert witness work can be fun if the technology is interesting, and it exercises a different part of the brain from design. It also pays roughly half again as much per hour, and if you pick the right gigs, you can help justice get done.

A couple of times, I've had to tell clients quite bluntly that the other side is actually right on the facts. Some don't like that, but it's in their best interest not to pursue a matter that they really can't win, and the sooner they find that out, the better for them.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net
Reply to
Phil Hobbs
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It's a free country so if I am willing to go to the mat in a friendly sense (meaning not in court) I find it unprofessional if a lawyer would refuse that. Often they ended up taking whole section changes from me verbatim. Usually after they found that I would not budge on that issue. I gave them little bits elsewhere to save face. Such as jurisdiction, as long as it isn't in a state where the legislature is crazy.

Then you can buy the island and the matching biz jet :-)

[...]

But one has to dress up :-)

Sometimes that even has to be done when it comes to design wishes. "Bummer! Isn't there some loophole around Kirchhoff's law?".

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Sure! It's called a 'capacitor'. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

I gather that they caved?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net
Reply to
Phil Hobbs

I suspect it's not that at all-- by dealing direct they would be depriving another member of the brotherhood of of their rightful fee.

Of course it's probably actually justified as being unfair in that the other person has no law education and one can only advocate for one client at a time.

--sp

--
Best regards,  
Spehro Pefhany 
Amazon link for AoE 3rd Edition:            http://tinyurl.com/ntrpwu8 
Microchip link for 2015 Masters in Phoenix: http://tinyurl.com/l7g2k48
Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

He may not have to. ;-)

Probably, but it isn't completely outrageous. It's quite friendly to outsiders with a little money, so it wouldn't surprise me.

Reply to
krw

In a way. They gave us enough cash to pay our lawyers, and a bunch of stock that of course was worthless. I got the rights to use a patent, also worthless.

It was sure an experience, meeting with arrogant VCs and their lawyers. The nanotech fad fizzled before they could take it public, so they sold off the company to an established outfit for what is was worth, which was moderate. All the common shareholders (friends, family, angels, all those suckers) got nothing.

Reply to
John Larkin

Except when, like in my case, the other party will not play that game. Then the first guy's fees will evaporate as well because they won't be anything to negotiate. The lawyer could have made more money talking to me than by not talking to me. Happened earlier this year. I simply broke it off and told them it's either my liability terms or nothing.

Not necessarily. There is a growing trend in divorce cases to use the same counsel for both parties in an effort to reach a fair deal without an ugly battle.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Was the company in big debt? In bankruptcy common shareholders are last in line. Otherwise, if the company has assets, they belong to the shareholders.

--

Rick
Reply to
rickman

Is that "mediation" or is this something new?

--
  \_(?)_
Reply to
Jasen Betts

It's sort of mediation but where the person in the middle has bar cert and can legally handle all the official docs right there.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

Minus some exorbitant lawyer fees there might not be any assets left.

--
Regards, Joerg 

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Reply to
Joerg

The process is that VCs contact the founders and express huge enthusiasm and promise floods of cash. The founders then spend themselves into trouble, at which point the VCs stall a while to make things really desperate, and eventually save them but get first in line and own the company. If the company is eventually sold or goes public, the VCs get all the cash and everyone else gets hosed.

I get a call or email about once a week from someone who "has a buyer" for my company. Similar scam.

Reply to
John Larkin

And salaries. And Loans. And.... And.... And.... Common shareholders rarely get anything. If there were that much in assets the company would be unlikely to be bankrupt.

Well, since Obama, there are no bankruptcy rules.

Reply to
krw

What are you talking about? If the company goes public *everyone* does well.

Scams are scams, not at all the same as VC.

--

Rick
Reply to
rickman

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