The number you saw is the number you pay.

We're not competing with LegalZoom on price. Below the four-figure mark, you're buying a software platform wearing legal-services clothing. Our formation work includes attorney-drafted, California-specific operating agreements, a real intake call, and — on the single-member package — the state filing fees rolled into one all-in price. That work doesn't fit at $99.

Transactional work — formation, contracts, employment counseling, OGC — has knowable scope, so the fee should be knowable too. Hourly billing puts the cost risk on the client and rewards inefficiency. Flat fees put the scoping risk on us, which is where it belongs: we know what the work takes. The number on the engagement letter is the number you pay.

Depends on the package, and we say which on every page that mentions price (Cal RPC 7.1). Single-Member LLC Formation ($1,595) is all-in — the California Secretary of State fees for the Articles of Organization and the initial Statement of Information are included. Every other engagement quotes state fees separately ($70 Articles + $20 SOI = $90 baseline for formation). The $800 California FTB franchise tax is never included — it's paid annually directly to the Franchise Tax Board, not to us.

A California in-house attorney costs $200K–$350K/year fully loaded (salary, benefits, equity, office, ramp). Foundation handles the routine load at <10% of that. Partner gives you senior judgment-level coverage on a fractional basis at roughly a third. Embedded matches a full-time GC's functional coverage without the headcount onboarding cost.

For flat-fee transactional engagements, the fee is paid before work begins (held in our trust account if over $1,000 per Cal RPC 1.15(b), then transferred as work is completed). For larger multi-stage engagements — an M&A deal, a multi-document formation package — we'll structure stage-based payments aligned with delivery. We don't offer financing or installment plans.

We don't renegotiate by surprise invoice. If a real scope change comes up, we'll send a written amendment with a new fee for the additional work. You decide whether to authorize it. If you don't, we close out the original scope and stop.

We're licensed in California. We can advise California-headquartered companies on multistate questions, but we don't practice outside California. For matters that need out-of-state counsel — or litigation of any kind — we'll refer.

If you're a current client, that's what your engagement covers. If you're not, we don't sell hourly consultations — the discovery call is the right entry point. It's short, candid, and tells you whether a real engagement makes sense.