Six lawyer-led, fixed-fee engagements for the events an Ontario startup moves through: incorporation, the founders’ agreement, the first people, vesting, the option plan, and the first money. Each with its fee on its page.
Pick the stage you are at. The kits run in the order most companies need them, and several can run together — incorporation with the founders’ agreement most often. For the sequence written from the founder’s side, see founders and startups.
Incorporation in Ontario or federally, by-laws and resolutions, founder shares issued, and the minute book delivered within five business days. A multi-class share structure is CAD $795 on top.
View LaunchThe founders’ shareholders’ agreement — board, reserved matters, deadlock, transfers, what happens when a founder leaves — with founder shares issued and founder IP assigned to the company.
View Startup KitAn employment package, an independent contractor agreement and an advisor agreement, each with confidentiality, IP assignment and the covenants Ontario law still allows. Drafted once, reused for every person.
View Build a Team KitRestricted shares with a vesting schedule, a repurchase right if the holder leaves early, and the approvals and records that make the issuance valid — for a founder, a key hire or an advisor.
View Equity Structuring KitThe stock option plan every grant is made under: the plan document, board adoption, the form of option agreement, vesting and exercise terms, the pool recorded and the ledger set up. Grants follow through the add-on.
View ESOP Plan Setup KitCompany-side documents, approvals and closing for a SAFE or convertible note: tier one for investors inside the company’s own circle; tier two, with the certificates, verification and the report of exempt distribution filed, for an angel round.
View Funding KitDescribe the situation in a paragraph. The firm says which kit fits, whether two should run together, or whether the matter needs judgment first and belongs in advisory work — and sometimes that the answer is not yet.
Book a ConsultationOnce the company is running, the questions recur — a hire, a grant, a contract, an investor update. Counsel on standing terms, with the kit documents already on file, rather than kit by kit.
View Ongoing Counsel SupportFauri Law Professional Corporation, First Canadian Place, Toronto. The structural decisions in every kit are made with Khaled El Fauri, a member of the Bar of Ontario; the documents are prepared by the firm’s team to its standard forms under his review. That is what keeps the fees fixed.
How fees and engagement workEach kit is a scoped engagement for one defined event: a conflict check, an engagement letter, calls with the lawyer, documents drafted to the firm’s forms, one round of revisions, and records filed in the minute book. The workflow organizes the delivery; the lawyer makes the decisions.
Every kit has defined deliverables, stated assumptions and a fee on its page — confirmed in writing before work begins, and changed only if the facts turn out not to fit.
A matter that needs negotiation, a valuation or a tax position is not forced into a kit. It moves to advisory work by the same firm, scoped in phases with a budget agreed first, and what the kit already did carries over.
Submitting a kit intake does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Work begins after conflict review, scope confirmation and written engagement terms. Fees shown are the firm’s fees; HST, government and regulator fees, and third-party costs are separate.
Kits handle defined, repeatable work. The moment a matter needs judgment, it is scoped as advisory and transactional work by the same firm — you are never charged a kit fee for work that has outgrown it.
Lawyer-led, defined scope.
Where judgment comes first.
Form the company, build through the kits as the company grows, and keep counsel on hand once the questions start to recur. Most companies take two or three of the six; almost none need all of them at once.
If a matter outgrows a kit — negotiation, a priced round, a valuation, a dispute — it moves to advisory and transactional work by the same firm, and what the kit already did carries over.
The same sequence for every kit: the lawyer makes the decisions with you on the first call; the team prepares the documents under the lawyer’s review; one round of comments; signed documents into the minute book.
You complete the kit’s intake. The firm runs a conflict check and confirms the matter fits the kit — or says which route does.
Scope, fee, assumptions and exclusions confirmed in writing. Then the call with the lawyer where the decisions the documents depend on are made.
The documents prepared to the firm’s standard forms and reviewed by the lawyer. You return one consolidated set of comments, incorporated within scope.
Signed documents filed, records updated, and a delivery call that walks through them and names the next step — another kit, ongoing counsel, or nothing yet.
It follows the company’s stage. Not yet incorporated: Launch, and with two or more founders, Launch and the Startup Kit together. Incorporated with no founders’ agreement: the Startup Kit. About to hire: Build a Team. Promising equity: the Equity Structuring Kit for shares, the ESOP Plan Setup Kit for options. Money coming in: the Funding Kit. The founders and startups page sets the sequence out with the fee for each, and a consultation settles it in a paragraph.
Yes, and most companies with more than one founder should. Launch is CAD $1,595 and the Startup Kit CAD $4,950; together they are CAD $5,950 rather than CAD $6,545 — a CAD $595 saving, because the founder share issuance both kits include is done once — on one intake and one engagement letter, with the shares issued under the agreement from the first day.
Because the work behaves differently. Where the scope is predictable — incorporation, the founders’ agreement, the team agreements — the fee is fixed and stated. Where the work depends on facts the intake reveals — who is receiving equity, what the shares are worth, who the investors are — the fee is a stated starting point for the standard case, confirmed in writing at scope review before any work begins. Each “from” page says what the starting fee covers and what changes it.
Yes. Most companies take them in lifecycle order and two or three at a time: Launch with the Startup Kit; Build a Team with the ESOP Plan Setup Kit when the first hire has been promised options; the Equity Structuring Kit before the Funding Kit when investors will ask about vesting. Where the needs become continuous, Ongoing Counsel Support is usually the better structure than another kit.
The intake catches it, and the answer is the same firm. A matter that involves negotiation, investor counsel, a priced round, a valuation, a tax position or a dispute is scoped as advisory and transactional work, in phases with a budget agreed first, rather than forced into a fixed scope. Whatever a kit has already done carries over; you are not charged a kit fee for work that has outgrown it.
Securities filings are inside the Funding Kit’s accredited-investor tier, which prepares and files the report of exempt distribution as part of the fee, and the equity kits confirm the exemption each issuance relies on. Negotiation with a counterparty or their counsel is advisory work, scoped when it arises. Tax and valuation stay with your accountant, and the firm coordinates with them so the legal documents follow their advice.
A kit is a legal engagement: a conflict check, an engagement letter, a call with the lawyer where the decisions are made, documents drafted to the firm’s forms under the lawyer’s review, one round of revisions, and the records filed. The forms are what make the fee fixed; the lawyer is what makes the documents right for your company. There is no self-serve checkout.
Only if the company does not exist yet. A company already incorporated — online, elsewhere, or years ago — starts at whichever kit matches its stage, provided its records are in reasonable order; where they are not, a short clean-up comes first and is quoted at intake. Launch is for the company that has not been formed.
One consolidated round of comments within the approved scope, on every kit. Further rounds, or changes that fall outside the defined scope, are quoted in writing before they are done.
HST on the firm’s fee; government filing fees, regulator fees and name-search charges, passed through at cost; and the add-ons each page prices — a further shareholder or share class on Launch, a further recipient on the Equity Structuring Kit, each grant under the ESOP plan. Anything outside a kit’s stated scope is quoted before it is done. Fees & Engagement explains how the firm scopes and bills.
They are drafted for Ontario and federal corporations with founders in Ontario, under Ontario law, by lawyers licensed in Ontario. A company elsewhere in Canada can often use them with that province’s differences addressed at intake; send a message and the firm will say. A founder, investor or team member in the United States or the UAE is handled by the same firm through its US alliance or its UAE licence — see Canada–US and Canada–UAE.
Pick the kit that matches the company’s next event, or describe the situation in a paragraph and the firm will say which kit fits — and whether it is ready for a kit or needs judgment first.