Firing someone is one of the situations where you can get into legal trouble. So the best advice I can give is to not be heavy handed, and be respectful of the

Firing someone is one of the situations where you can get into legal trouble. So the best advice I can give is to not be heavy handed, and be respectful of the subjects rights and feelings. The best opportunity to do it would be if they stay later than the rest of the team, or come in earlier, to do it away from the rest of the team. It is humiliating to fire someone and then parade them in front of the team. Asking them to stay late (Eg: 5:30 if the team goes home at 5) on a friday night might be a good way to do it. You inform them that they have signed a confidentiality agreement and need to delete any copies of proprietary code or data they may have. Be sure to give them some severance, unless they committed a heinous crime. Some companies make you sign an agreement not to sue as part of severance. Have all this work out after you fire them, rather than on the spot. (You don't want to force them to give up rights in an emotional situation, where they are ambushed by the firing and thus, by definition, have not had an opportunity to consult with a lawyer.) Whatever they have done, realize this is a failure on your part. Treat them respectfully, and do not fall into the trap of attempting to rationalize or justify it. IF you can give them an honest answer as to why (assuming this is not for cause) then do so. Otherwise they may well assume it is for age, religion, skin color, etc. Having a letter of recommendation written "To whom it may concern" beforehand and signed by signficiant people in the company (if this is a startup, that means the CEO) would be a classy thing to do. (again assuming it is not for cause.) If it is for cause then you have to tell them the cause. If they dispute it, then say that decision to fire is made and if they wish to they can of course consult a lawyer. The team will move forward even if you do everything wrong. But how you treat the employee, no matter what they did, will affect how the team sees you. So, treat them as you would want to be treated.