Technology law firm Simmonds Stewart has released a suite of template documents online for New Zealand tech companies to help them with the legal basics. 

The first batch of templates is likely to be especially helpful to early stage startups, addressing initial governance, fundraising and company administration documentation needs. Employee share option documents are also included on the site (new share purchase scheme rules come into force under the Financial Markets Conduct Act on April 1).

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Simmonds Stewart partner Julie Fowler, who’s managing the project, says: “We are involved with a lot of early stage tech companies and saw a need to help these companies, who are usually cash strapped and time poor, with the legal basics.  By making these templates freely available on our website, companies will find it easier to stay on top of their legal house-keeping, which is much better than trying to sort out messy legals under the pressure of a financing or exit deadline.”

She says the documents are designed to give companies a good starting point, rather than discourage them from using lawyers. 

“A great result for us would be to see companies finding it easier to get ‘investment ready’ because they have had access to good legal documents from the get-go.”