May 18, 2026
Protect What You’re Building: Legal Essentials Every Founder Needs
Partner Sheryl Galler recently shared her insights into how employment lawyers can help protect businesses and organizations and allow them to thrive.
The forum was April’s JWE conference, which brought together over 500 women founders and executives from across industries and across the country to focus on business growth and development.
From all corners, similar stories emerged: in the excitement over starting a new business, rolling out a new product, or expanding into new markets, we thought we were one team, colleagues, friends. We glossed over the cracks. But now, we’re worried about the teammate who claims he was underpaid, or the employee who might walk off with our secret sauce. What can we do now, and what should we have done?
Part of our role as employment counsel is to guide clients through the legal framework. We help set up the policies and processes that will take some decisions (and concerns) off your plate and help protect both the business and its people, so that leadership can stay focused on growth.
That was the theme of Sheryl’s panel, “Protect What You’re Building: Legal Essentials Every Founder Needs”.
Sheryl focused on four key issues for employers:
Independent contractor classifications are not for everyone.
What may work operationally does not always align with how the law views the relationship between companies and their workers. Executives may think they are saving the company the cost of employees. Workers may prefer to be paid without tax withholdings. But misclassifying employees as independent contractors remains one of the most common and expensive mistakes growing businesses make, particularly as they scale or shift their workforce model. It is a hot topic in the law right now too, as state and federal agencies issue new – and potentially conflicting – rules.
AI in hiring is not just a tech upgrade.
Many businesses are incorporating AI into recruiting without fully considering the legal implications. These tools can create efficiency, but they also have absorbed human biases and prejudices. A growing patchwork of laws requires tech companies to conduct bias audits and employers to disclose when they are using AI. If AI is part of your hiring process, you need to evaluate the risks and keep track of new requirements for compliance.
Clarity at the outset avoids problems later.
The employment lawyer’s mantra is: Document, document, document. Offer letters, employment agreements, memos to file, performance reviews, and more. Sounds dull; we know. But the right documentation, tailored to the role and the business, sets expectations and creates a framework, and can be relied on should any issues arise.
Protecting your business requires more than non-competes.
As more states restrict or ban non-compete agreements and federal agencies keep them in their sights, companies need to be more deliberate about how they safeguard confidential information and institutional knowledge. That starts with the right agreements, but it also requires internal discipline around access and use.
Sheryl’s presentation resonated with conference attendees, who approached throughout the day to share their experiences and ask great questions. To learn more about how we can help protect your business, reach out to Sheryl at sgaller@booklawllp.com or any of her colleagues at Book Law LLP.
