Ask HN: Terminated two weeks before vesting cliff

Re:Ask HN: Terminated two weeks before vesting cliff – thoug... by dredmorbius on Friday March 18, 2016 @12:48AM (#11309985)

It's not clear what "write up your own response" means here, but:

1. You're in lawyer territory now. Stop talking.

2. Lawyers, the good ones anyhow, run about $350/hr minimum in the Bay Area. Quite possibly more. This will likely cost you $5k - $10k to litigate. The more you talk (and the more you tie up your lawyers time, quite probably billed in 15 minute to one hour minimums per contact -- and email or phone calls are contacts -- the more that will be.

3. Let your lawyer talk for you.

4. We've already established that you're an idiot and you were working for assholes. That's no real insult, most employees in the tech world are idiots when it comes to dealing with employment stuff. I certainly am. There's far too little training on this anywhere, and the law changes both quickly and regionally.

5. Just shut the fuck up already.

6. The fact that most employers are assholes and the law is the shits (among many other faults) are why I'm as far the fuck as I can get from tech these days. Watching my garden grow is both more rewarding and remarkably less stressful. Some plants are assholes, but I can burn them with fire, legally.

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Re:Ask HN: Terminated two weeks before vesting cliff – thoug... by pc86 on Friday March 18, 2016 @08:46AM (#11311372)

This is a side note but if your lawyer charges $350/hr and bills you .25 or 1.0 hours for an email, they are a piece of shit and you should get a different lawyer.

At that rate you should absolutely not be charged in increments larger than .1 hour (6 min).

Our attorney (Associate) charges $145/hr and his boss (Partner) charges $285/hr and they both bill in increments of .1, and they typically won't bill every single email either.

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Re:Ask HN: Terminated two weeks before vesting cliff – thoug... by dredmorbius on Friday March 18, 2016 @03:44PM (#11314366)

Read your lawyer's billing terms and understand them clearly. My information may differ from others, and it's not a field in which I'm an expert, though I've paid for a certain level of education, and not through an academic institution.

There may well be forums for discussing particulars of these terms and there may be value in negotiating those as well.

The larger point is that lawer time is expensive.

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Re:Ask HN: Terminated two weeks before vesting cliff – thoug... by 27182818284 on Friday March 18, 2016 @10:39AM (#11312062)

For what it is worth, 6 minute emails were normal with my lawyer, but I often found it easier in the startup world of things just to give them a phone call to explain an issue rather than back and forth 6 minute emails

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Re:Ask HN: Terminated two weeks before vesting cliff – thoug... by lololomg on Saturday March 19, 2016 @07:26AM (#11318112)

They may not even be able to pay OP even if he does prevail in court. Something to keep in mind.

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Re:Ask HN: Terminated two weeks before vesting cliff – thoug... by dredmorbius on Saturday March 19, 2016 @08:56PM (#11321261)

Good point, but there are almost certainly state labour code violations at play.

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Re:Ask HN: Terminated two weeks before vesting cliff – thoug... by iamphilrae on Friday March 18, 2016 @01:59AM (#11310186)

Up voted for the last point :-)

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