>Even though I used Orrick to create these docs, I did not hire them when it was time for a lawyer.

I don't think this was their intent. What kind of crazy law firm would want a client that used free legal documents off the web? They want the super rich people who would say "Oh, that's really nice what they are doing" and will file the Orrick name in the back of their head. People like you and me are the targets of the low-end of the legal field. $100/hr guys that work without a retainer.

The only case where they'd want a free customer to convert to a paid customer is if the free customer became really, really wealthy.

I don't know about this. I'm sure there's a kernel of truth to it, but I think the most lucrative source of billings for corp law have more to do with circumstances than with client selection. Being a deal lawyer for an M&A event just generates more hours than a boring company formation.

And the people involved in those M&A events are very often the same people that would have had trouble paying a $550/hr-billed project just a few years ago.

There's another advantage for Orrick: Suppose a growing company were to come to Orrick for help with an M&A event, a VC financing, etc. Now suppose the company's initial corporate paperwork were a stew prepared by non-lawyers (or non-expert lawyers). That would make Orrick's job more difficult. So it's to Orrick's advantage to have the initial corporate paperwork be competent: even though Orrick doesn't necessarily get to bill for doing that initial paperwork, its later work is made easier.

It can also be advantageous in negotiations for Orrick's documents to have become de facto standards.

Best practices in many cases are to incorporate with as little expenditure as possible, then clean up the mess ASAP when you get on stable financial footing (e.g. funded). Most top firms will strike a deal with promising companies: all payments are waived until <milestone> in exchange for <percent> of equity. A typical milestone is a financing of $1mm or more, and the percent is usually <1%, varying by the firm and the optimisim about the startup.

Another reasonable approach would be to start with documents like this. However, if you do this, you would be much better off to use Orrick. That's because each firm's standard documents are significantly different. If you use someone else's, they will have to come up to speed - on your dime. They will also likely want you to make amendments and changes to bring the documents in to line with what they consider best practices.

Then, years down the line, when it comes time to litigate something (hopefully not), you'll have lawyers who know your company's paperwork intimately, vs. dealing with unexpected details (e.g. your company is a WA corp instead of a DE corp so you have to send papers by courier instead of faxes, delaying your closing by 3 days, costing the company a few thousand dollars lost interest payments on a $10mm round).

Take it from someone who's spent many tens of thousands of dollars cleaning up after extremely smart lawyers who did things that were just a little bit wrong. The sooner you get represented by top-tier legal counsel, the better.