Job offer clause guides
Practical reading checklists and questions to prepare before you negotiate. Laws and plan terms change; verify jurisdiction-specific conclusions with a qualified professional.
Non-compete clauses by state
How to identify the governing law, restricted activity, geography, duration, and current-law questions before relying on a non-compete.
Equity exercise windows
Understand what happens to vested options when employment ends and what information you need to estimate the real cost.
Signing bonus clawbacks
Review repayment triggers, proration, tax treatment, and exceptions when employment ends early.
IP ownership and side projects
Separate company work from prior inventions, open-source activity, and projects built on your own time.
Unlimited PTO offers
Turn an unlimited-PTO label into practical expectations about approvals, minimum time off, workload, and separation.
Termination and severance
Map notice, cause definitions, severance conditions, release requirements, and benefit continuation.
Remote-work promises
Make location, office frequency, relocation, expenses, and policy-change rights concrete before accepting.
Bonus targets and discretion
Separate target percentage from guaranteed value and clarify metrics, timing, eligibility, and discretion.
Sales commission plans
Inspect quota, crediting, accelerators, clawbacks, plan changes, disputes, and post-termination payment.
Equity dilution and vesting
Ask for the denominator, vesting schedule, cliff, acceleration, and realistic scenarios behind an equity number.
Relocation repayment clauses
Review covered costs, repayment schedule, exceptions, tax gross-up, and what happens if the role or location changes.
Probationary periods
Understand which protections, benefits, notice terms, and performance expectations differ during probation.
Governing law and arbitration
Locate forum, cost, class or collective waivers, confidentiality, and carve-outs before a dispute exists.
Benefits, pensions, and start dates
Translate benefit summaries into eligibility dates, employer contributions, waiting periods, and controlling plan terms.
Change of control and acceleration
Understand single-trigger, double-trigger, good-reason definitions, and what happens to equity in an acquisition.