Employment Contracts

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Employment contracts that hold up: we draft and negotiate offer letters, employment agreements, separation deals, and executive compensation so you can hire confidently, set clear expectations, and keep your business protected.

Every hire starts with a document, and that document decides what happens when things go right and when they go wrong. We draft and negotiate employment contracts, offer letters, separation agreements, and executive compensation packages so the terms are clear, enforceable, and tilted toward protecting your business without scaring off the people you want.

Offer Letters And Agreements

We write offer letters and employment agreements that say exactly what they mean: compensation, benefits, duties, start date, term, and termination. Where at-will employment makes sense, we preserve it instead of accidentally promising job security in the fine print. The result is a document a new employee understands and a court reads the way you intended, with no surprise obligations buried in boilerplate.

Executive Compensation Packages

Senior hires negotiate, and they bring their own counsel. We structure executive compensation around the levers that matter to you: base, bonus targets, equity, vesting, severance triggers, and change-in-control terms. We also build in the restrictive covenants and clawbacks that protect what an executive learns and walks away with, so a key departure does not hand your strategy to a competitor.

Separation And Severance

When an employment relationship ends, the paperwork either closes the door cleanly or leaves it open for a claim. We draft separation and severance agreements with releases that actually release, including the timing and consideration rules that make a waiver of age-discrimination claims stick. We tailor confidentiality, non-disparagement, and return-of-property terms to the situation rather than reusing a generic template.

Why Founders Work With Us

MC Law was founded by former software engineers, so we read agreements the way an IP and technology company needs them read. We think about who owns the code, the inventions, and the trade secrets an employee touches, and we wire assignment and confidentiality terms into the employment contract from day one instead of patching them later. You get agreements built for how technical teams actually work.

Frequently asked questions

Cover the core terms: job duties, compensation and benefits, whether the role is at-will or fixed-term, confidentiality obligations, assignment of intellectual property, any restrictive covenants, how the job can be terminated, and how disputes get resolved. The IP assignment is especially important if the employee will create work product you need to own.

It varies a lot by state. Most states will enforce a non-compete only if its duration, geographic reach, and the activities it restricts are reasonable. A few states, like California, largely ban them, and the rules at the federal level continue to evolve, so where the employee works really matters.

It's a more detailed contract for senior leaders. Beyond the standard terms, it usually adds enhanced compensation, equity or incentive provisions, change-in-control protections, severance arrangements, broader restrictive covenants, and custom termination provisions. The stakes are higher, so the terms are more negotiated.

An offer letter is simpler and fine for standard positions. Use a formal agreement for executives and key employees, for roles that involve significant IP or trade secrets, and where you need enforceable restrictive covenants. The more the role can affect the business, the more a full agreement is worth it.

Typically the severance terms, a general release of claims, confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions, any cooperation obligations, and confirmation of any post-employment restrictive covenants. For employees 40 or older, the agreement has to meet OWBPA requirements, including specific consideration and revocation periods, or the release of age claims won't hold up.

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