Startups & Creator Economy · Chicago & National
Chicago Startup Attorney
Founder-friendly.
The two most expensive legal mistakes a startup makes are not having a co-founder agreement before the first dispute and not having IP assignment agreements signed before raising a round. Lysinski & Associates P.C. works with early-stage founders on fixed-fee scopes — formation, co-founder agreements, SAFE notes, cap table equity — with an equity fee option for founders who are building before they are funded.
Fixed fees for defined scopes. Equity fee option available at discretion. Creator economy contracts across all verticals.
Founder-friendly fixed fees
All "from" prices reflect Adam's drafting work only — plus state filing fees, registered-agent fees, and other third-party costs. Final scope is confirmed in the engagement letter before any work begins.
The Practice
The two mistakes
that kill startups legally.
The first is not having a co-founder agreement before the first dispute. The second is not having IP assignment agreements signed before raising a round. Both are inexpensive to address at formation and ruinously expensive to address after a falling-out or an investor due diligence request.
Adam works with early-stage founders who are building real businesses. The engagement starts with a triage call where he understands the business, the cap table, the funding path, and the operational structure. The legal work follows from that understanding, not from a template generator.
The creator economy practice is a natural extension of startup work: creators are solo founders whose IP is themselves. Brand deals, music agreements, modeling contracts, and AI-generated content rights all require an attorney who understands that the creator’s name and likeness are the business asset — not incidental to it.
Illinois HB 4875 amends the Right of Publicity Act to expand enforcement rights and remedies — including for recording artists — when an individual's voice, likeness, or identity is used in AI-generated content; specific application turns on the statutory definitions and commercial-purpose framing. This area is the most active part of the creator economy practice in 2026.
Scope of work
- →Entity formation (LLC, C-Corp)
- →Co-founder agreements
- →IP assignment agreements
- →SAFE notes and convertible instruments
- →Cap table equity planning
- →Brand deal and endorsement contracts
- →Music and sync licensing agreements
- →FTC disclosure compliance
- →AI digital replica rights (HB 4875)
Cross-practice
When the startup deploys AI in operations or hiring, AI Law obligations attach. When it grows, General Counsel retainer structure becomes more efficient than transaction-by-transaction billing.
Why Adam advises startups and creators
AIGP credential matters for AI-startup founders specifically — co-founder agreements that anticipate HB 3773 and BIPA, IP assignments that handle prompt-engineered output, training-data ownership clauses, and vendor-contract structures built for AI products.
Adam has obtained licenses in Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Texas, Minnesota, D.C., and 7 federal courts* — covering founders forming an Illinois operating entity with Delaware C-Corp parent, plus relocations and remote teams across the listed jurisdictions.
Creator-economy practice handles the work most generic startup attorneys refer out: music streaming royalty contracts, influencer agreements with FTC compliance, brand-deal negotiations, and content rights for short-form video creators.
Former service on the Illinois ARDC Hearing Board means Adam can structure co-founder agreements and equity grants with the conduct-review framework most likely to survive disputes years later.
AI-startup formation: what changes from day one
Forming an AI startup in Illinois in 2026 is not the same as forming a typical SaaS startup five years ago. The compliance surface starts on day one, not at growth stage. AI-startup founders need to think about Illinois HB 3773 the moment they hire their first employee using any AI-assisted screening tool, BIPA the moment they integrate any biometric processing, AI vendor contracts the moment they sign their first OpenAI or Anthropic API agreement, and training-data ownership the moment a co-founder generates the first prompt-engineered output.
Co-founder agreements drafted for traditional SaaS startups frequently miss what matters in AI: ownership of fine-tuned models, ownership of prompt libraries and chains, allocation of risk on training-data IP claims, indemnification for downstream model outputs, and equity treatment for the co-founder who brings a research thesis versus the co-founder who brings the code.
AIGP credential matters for AI-startup founders because the legal stack is different. Vendor contracts have AI-specific clauses (data-processing rights, model-update obligations, output indemnity). Employment agreements need HB 3773 disclosure language. IP assignments need to handle prompt-engineered output and fine-tuned models distinct from baseline IP assignment. Adam handles these from formation, not as a retrofit later.
AI law is rapidly evolving. The framework above describes the current Illinois compliance landscape as of 2026; specific terms in any agreement are tailored to the company’s technology stack, jurisdiction, and risk profile.
Why this practice is different at Lysinski & Associates P.C.
For AI startups, Adam's AIGP credential (IAPP) means founder agreements drafted with awareness of AI-specific issues: ownership of training data, IP assignment for prompt-engineered output, BIPA-compliant data collection, HB 3773 compliance from day one, and indemnification structures that anticipate the inversion of vendor risk that AI tools have created. Few Chicago startup attorneys hold this credential.
As a former Illinois ARDC Hearing Board Judge, a former Illinois Licensed Managing Real Estate Broker, and a Certified Mediator with multi-state license (IL, WI, NY, TX, MN, D.C.*), Adam brings disciplinary-grade judgment to founder agreements and the multi-jurisdictional fluency that creator-economy and AI-startup founders need when their work crosses state lines from inception. Adam personally handles every founder-stage matter — no associate handoffs.
Adam holds the IAPP AIGP credential.
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4418 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60630
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