This is a post in by Misae Richwoods, The NextWomen event reporter and a previous Golden Web Award winner who helps start ups, SMEs and independent professionals market themselves via MRMedia Group.

The story goes like this. Its a legal nightmare. EDS have a very enthusiastic salesman. He speaks to BSkyB for some work they need done and gets a deal for £50million. So far so good, only salesman has overpromised and EDS can’t actually deliver. Part way through the job they realise it’s more than they can do and stop work. Sky steps in a fix the project. The cost of doing so according to Sky is now £200million. BSkyB then sue for £700million damages. Ouch! My eyes are burning just looking at the gossip between these two!

It doesn’t stop there either! It turns out that the salesman for EDS has a degree which he claims he earned in the British Virgin Islands. What’s that got to do with anything? Well normally, a case is capped at the value of the contract. In the case of BSkyB vs EDS, that was £50million. However, it turns out that the salesman stood up in court and claimed he earned his degree fair and square and denied allegations he may have bought it through the internet. The prosecuting QC then produced a degree from the same university. It appears that the QC’s dog is a rather bright pooch, for not only did he get the same degree as the salesman; he also got a higher mark! The degree was of course bought through the internet. At this point everything the salesman said had to be disregarded. EDS are now standing accused not of negligently making misrepresentations but of fraudulently doing so. An interim damage of £200million has already been awarded while the judge figures out the true cost of damages. The story is set to go on…

Bootlaw for Bootstrapping Startups
That’s one of the fascinating stories shared by Barry Vitou (@bazv) and Danvers Baillieu (@danversbaillieu), the solicitors from Winston Strawn behind the highly successful Bootlaw community (@bootlaw). One of the things most bootstrapping start ups and tech entrepreneurs can’t afford to do is to hire lawyers to sit as part of their company the way corporations do. However being ignorant of the law is an even more costly game to play.

Barry and Danvers therefore put together Bootlaw as an effective means of solving the guidance needs of the start up community. It takes the form of a monthly talk around specific legal threads start ups need education on, followed by the chance to enjoy a few beers and pizzas whilst chatting with everyone. The sessions are free but limited to delegates who RSVP via the Bootlaw meetup group (http://www.meetup.com/bootlaw)

Bootlaw on pre-court methods of contraception
“Good entrepreneurship” began Barry, a partner at Winston Strawn, “is like good sex – if you do it well, everyone is happy! I’m going to show you some pre-court methods of contraception that may stop you getting into trouble, after which Danvers is going to share some tips on what to do if you have gone a little too far.”

After that tantalising opener the boys were keen to please and managed to cram the full hour of presentation with hot insights into how to handle even one’s most sordid affairs!

Here are a few choice thrusts:

1. You don’t need to be a big company to have a procedure for dealing with issues. Have someone be responsible for them and nip problems in the bud. If there are ways you can resolve issues amicably, try to do so as a first choice. It’s almost always cheaper than litigation
2. Work out how you’ll sign off contracts. Some start ups get in a mess because anyone can sign a contract on behalf of them. That person may then leave and you may find you’ve got a legal and financial responsibility for things you didn’t want/need/use
3. Be aware of legality as you plan your business. Some start ups (think Napster or Pirate Bay) deliberately infringe the law, knowing full well a big lawsuit will be coming at them. Disruptive business models need to plan for litigation from outset if it’s part of their business model
4. Make sure your contract is incorporated. It’s simply not good enough to have a link at the bottom of the page to your Terms & Conditions – make people tick a box agreeing to them if they are becoming transactional with you
5. Good housekeeping is important. Lawyers are never impressed with clients who ask them to litigate on contracts where they have no paperwork. Keep the contracts, keep the Terms and Conditions and file everything until it’s all done. Otherwise you’ll be even less impressed with the lawyer’s bill for having play Dr. Watson on your behalf.
6. Monitor agreements. Letter writing and documenting provides a clear audit trail. The last thing you want to do is go to court on a “he said” when you could have the facts clearly written. More than anything judges will look at paperwork.
7. Get to know a lawyer. Bootlaw allows you to get to know a lawyer as a human. If you ever do need help and someone already understands what you do, it stands to reason that they can help you far more than if you come running in one day with a big story and a pile of letters.

It seems like you don’t have to be some type of dominatrix to enjoy the types of pleasures Barry speaks of! Just get some simple basics right. There are lots of other great legal tips for start ups on their website, www.bootlaw.com including some great videos covering things like Angel investment and Employment 101, as well as a special session they ran at January with Ed Vaizey MP.

As you can imagine, it’s not everyday you get some of the best lawyers in town offering free sessions for bootstrapping start ups and the meetings are very well subscribed to, typically filling on the same day as they are announced. It’s a hot pot of some of London’s bright young things with many ideas that are about to bubble to the surface being discussed.

One of the women I met at February’s Bootlaw was Claire Thompson (@claireatwaves). Claire personifies much of what the technology revolution has done for women. She’s a successful PR consultant who freelances and has used the power of the internet to enable her to build a lifestyle that serves her. It’s enabled her to provide outstanding service for her clients without sacrificing the relationships she has with her partner and children.

As well as being a regional co-ordinator for Twestival, Claire is running a series of informal events to enable PR workers to evaluate and select the perfect tools for the way they work. Tools That Help Us PR, or Thupr, as it’s known, came from Claire’s own experiences.

“For a while I’D been on the hunt for the best tools to help us operate,” she said. “I’ve trudged to expensive conferences. Heard the sales pitches. Got the price lists. But until these things are demonstrated, as PR professionals we have no idea if we really do have the best tool for our own style of use.”

Claire’s Thupr is a series of mixers that allow vendors and start ups to present their tools to PR professionals in an informal environment. Last held at Sun Microsystems’ HQ in London, it’s organized via http://www.meetup.com/thupr2010/ and represents a great way for both start ups and PRs to get to know one another and what they do… without the need for enthusiastic salesmen with degrees from the British Virgin Islands! How many million?!!!