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The LLC, or Limited Liability Company, is a unique business entity that has many financial and social benefits. Falling somewhere between a general partnership and a more formal corporation, the LLC creates a layer of protection for individual members and offers great tax incentives. For these reasons, an LLC is a common way to structure small businesses with more than one owner.

A Master Service Agreement (MSA) is a standard contract in the subscription software industry. It lays a strong foundation for the relationship between provider and user and establishes a solid framework for other agreements. While the MSA typically ensures protections like confidentiality, clarity on each party’s responsibilities, and guidelines for dispute resolution, sometimes companies need more specific guarantees of service. This is where the Service Level Agreement comes into play.

Patrick O' Malley, a business attorney, and executive for over 26 years, discusses three non-disclosure agreements: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Patrick has seen many NDAs and has a strong opinion on them, having run the world's first incubator and being involved in a cannabis business. Here, he walks through what a good NDA looks like, and shows some examples of laughably bad ones.

Much of the software used on the internet today is released under open-source licenses. But how do you comply with those licenses as you use free software in your business and products? Attorney and former software engineer Matthew Nuzum walks us through the different open-source public licenses and shows contract drafters how to avoid getting legal notices of non-compliance.

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence (AI) research and deployment company that started in 2015 when Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and others formed the company and pledged more than one billion dollars. As an AI research laboratory and company, OpenAI has one of the most advanced AI language model producing human-like content. Lawyer and legal technology entrepreneur Justin MacFayden explains how OpenAI tries to use its Terms of Service to create a sharing culture, while still imposing ethical and legal limits.

When lawyers negotiate service agreements, the language they use defines more than just the legal terms of the contract. It can also have a direct financial impact on how the company reports and recognizes revenue. Attorney Andrew Antos and accountant Nick Tiscornia compare three service agreements and show how your choice of contract language can directly impact the company's financial side.

Y Combinator developed the Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) agreement, in 2013 to help young startup companies raise capital quickly and easily. Since then, this template has been a staple in the tech startup community. In this episode, Chilean startup attorney Matias Vukusic tears down the Y Combinator SAFE Agreement and talks about identifying impostor SAFE agreements and determining “reasonableness” when advising young companies looking for startup financing.

Indemnification clauses are important but often overlooked parts of most contracts. Eric Drattell, general counsel at Roostify, tears down Microsoft's indemnification clause in their Online Subscription Agreement. He explains how contract drafters can use these principles to avoid getting tied up in lengthy litigation and how to keep their client’s company afloat when IP issues are at stake.

International commercial attorney James Raanan tears down a shareholders agreement from Ultrasonic Medical Mapping. James notes the unique context of a shareholders agreement where many of the interested parties aren’t even signing the agreement. He walks through how fiduciary duties change the risks, the complexity of “fairness” in a document like this, and a bit of clumsy math.

It’s hard to think of anything more frustrating than signing on to a contract that, turns out, you didn’t understand at all. Kanye West felt this frustration over one of his music contracts. He posted his contract publicly to show what he meant. Contract drafting expert Ross Guberman touches on necessary and unnecessary language, why this conversation is important, and how to implement these tactics in any industry.

We’ve all been on the receiving end of a sales pitch that promises one thing but delivers something very different. Oracle’s software license agreement is a document that has made more than one lawyer feel misled. Oracle offers many solutions, but their agreement needs an overhaul. Attorney Martin Clausen argued that it has many loopholes and flaws which give Oracle the power to bully users into handing over extra fees and risking major business disruptions.

In this episode, Chilean startup attorney Matias Vukusic tears down the Y Combinator SAFE Agreement, or Simple Agreement for Future Equity.

In this episode, media, tech, and entertainment lawyer Darlene Tonelli breaks down the Salesforce Master Service Agreement.

In this episode, Eric Drattell, general counsel at Roostify, tears down Microsoft's Indemnification Clause.

Join this episode of the Contract Teardown Show with Rachel Brenke.

Join us for this episode of Contract Teardown from Law Insider.