Offer letters as professional prenups

Today, my guest is Jotham Stein. Jotham is a principal of the Law Offices of Jotham Stein, located in California, and he has more than a couple of decades of experience representing entrepreneurs and C-Suite executives in a whole bunch of different types of companies. He also represents board members and investment bankers as well as less senior employees of all different sized companies. He has written a book called Negotiate Like a CEO, and it looks at how all employees can protect themselves with the lessons that he's learned from representing top entrepreneurs and executives, and how you can profit from it as well. I think it's particularly enlightening in terms of the legal space these days, with people hiring and firing and merging and acquiring. So I think it's something that we could all benefit from.

In this episode, Neil and Jotham discuss:

• Why Jotham wrote Negotiate Like a CEO and how it can help all lawyers. 
• The purpose of a PIP (performance improvement plan) and how they are often used. 
• What to look for in an offer letter or in a separation agreement. 
• The importance of leverage in negotiation. 

Key Takeaways:

• As the entrepreneurial space has grown and evolved, so too have the legal needs of those in the entrepreneurial space. 
• The most important thing you should look for is how to protect yourself in employment in your offer letter. That includes having a severance agreement argued on day 1 if you do have room to negotiate. 
• There may be a red flag (depending on context) if you get push back when you try to negotiate on your offer letter. 
• Negotiating is the same regardless of what you are negotiating, whether it is a product or yourself as a person. 

"It’s the concept to protect yourself, to read everything or get a good adviser to read everything, to negotiate with leverage, just like a CEO would negotiate with leverage." — Jotham Stein

Get in touch with Jotham Stein:

Book: https://negotiatelikeaceo.net/ 

Website: https://jotham.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jotham-s-stein-7b92474/ 

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 Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

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