Who this is for
This is sized for businesses that have outgrown DIY templates but do not yet need in-house counsel. Three profiles fit best.
Funded startups, Series A to B
You have closed a round, the legal volume has spiked, and your investor counsel only handles the deal docs. You need someone to take the steady stream of customer NDAs, vendor MSAs, employment offers, and IP assignments off your CEO's plate.
Tap for details ↻How it works: each recurring item (NDAs, MSAs, offers, IP assignments) is a defined written engagement with an agreed scope and fee, so it stops landing on your CEO, and larger one-off matters are quoted separately. Your investor counsel keeps the deal docs; I handle everything around them.
Tap to flip back ↻SaaS and fintech with no in-house
You are shipping product, signing enterprise customers, and the legal stack (ToS, Privacy, MSA, DPA, BAA) needs to keep pace. You want a lawyer who already understands SaaS and AI legal work, not someone you have to educate.
Tap for details ↻Why there is no ramp-up: I already work in SaaS and AI legal, ToS, Privacy, MSA, DPA, BAA, plus AI output-rights and pilot-risk questions. No time spent teaching me your model, and the legal stack keeps pace with shipping.
Tap to flip back ↻Solo founders running real businesses
You are profitable, you do not want a co-founder or a fractional GC, but you have actual contracts and actual disputes. You want fixed-fee, fast-turnaround legal help without the firm-overhead markup.
Tap for details ↻What you get: flat fees, fast turnaround, and no ongoing commitment. Reach out when a contract or a dispute comes up, get a clear quote, and skip the firm-overhead markup. Most single documents are $1,000.
Tap to flip back ↻Why this model, and not the alternatives
Most growing companies do not have a legal problem so much as a legal-throughput problem: a steady stream of contracts, employment documents, IP questions, and small disputes that each need an attorney's eyes but none of which justify a full-time hire. Outside general counsel is the model that fits that stage. Here is how it compares to the three options founders usually weigh against it. This is general information about how I structure the work, not legal advice about your company.
Versus DIY templates
Templates are fine until a counterparty redlines them, a clause actually gets tested, or an investor's counsel reads them in diligence. Then the gaps that were invisible become expensive.
Tap for details ↻What changes: an attorney reviews the document against your actual facts, catches the present-tense IP-assignment and liability-cap problems a template cannot, and gives you a redline you can send. Most single documents are a flat $1,000, so you are not choosing between a free template and a five-figure firm bill.
Tap to flip back ↻Versus hourly billing at a large firm
A large firm can do everything, but the model is built around billable hours, junior-associate handoffs, and partner rates that make a quick contract review feel like a budget decision.
Tap for details ↻What changes: you work directly with me, the work is scoped and quoted before it starts, and recurring matters are fixed-fee engagements scoped in writing before they start, instead of an open-ended hourly meter. You get a senior attorney on the routine work without the firm-overhead markup, and you bring in specialist firms only for the matters that genuinely need them.
Tap to flip back ↻Versus hiring in-house too early
A full-time general counsel is a real salary plus equity plus benefits, and at an early stage the legal volume usually is not steady enough to keep that role busy on its highest-value work.
Tap for details ↻What changes: you get business-law coverage as defined per-matter engagements, scaled to the work you actually have, with no headcount commitment. When your volume genuinely outgrows the fractional model, you will know, and the foundation will already be clean for the in-house attorney who takes it over.
Tap to flip back ↻What the relationship actually buys you
Beyond any single document, the value of an ongoing OGC relationship is continuity: one attorney who already knows your contracts, your cap table, your customer paper, and your risk tolerance, so you are not re-explaining the business every time something comes up.
One point of contact
A single attorney handles the recurring flow and routes the rare specialist matter, so legal stops being a scramble to find someone who understands your business.
Context that compounds
Because I keep the through-line across your documents, each new matter starts from what I already know, which generally means faster turnaround and fewer avoidable conflicts between agreements.
Predictable spend
Scoped flat fees per matter make legal a line item you can plan around, instead of an hourly meter you are afraid to start.
A simple entry point
If you are not ready for a larger engagement, start small: a $300 written consultation or a single $1,000 document. Each one is its own defined engagement.
Startup legal readiness
Before you take SAFE money, onboard advisors, or sign your first design-partner pilot, the legal foundation either holds up under investor diligence or it does not. The most common reason a clean round gets slowed down is not the cap table math; it is missing IP assignments, advisor equity promised by handshake, a founder who never filed an 83(b), or a pilot contract that quietly licensed away the core product. Startup readiness reviews are scoped and quoted separately as defined written engagements that close those gaps so your data room survives a serious look. This is legal information about what the work covers, not legal advice about your specific company.
Pre-financing cleanup
Confirm founder IP assignments are in place, founder stock has timely 83(b) elections, advisor and contractor equity is documented with vesting, and there is a single source-of-truth cap table. These are the items investor counsel checks first.
Tap for the deliverable ↻Deliverable: a legal-readiness gap map and prioritized checklist, the first thing produced in the engagement. It tells you what to fix before SAFE money, in the order investor counsel checks.
Tap to flip back ↻Contractor and consultant IP assignment
Present-tense invention-assignment language so work product the startup paid for is actually owned by the startup, not licensed from a former contractor. Open-source usage reviewed for license contamination.
Tap for the deliverable ↻Deliverable: a present-tense IP-assignment template for contractors and consultants, plus a review of your existing agreements for the promise-to-assign gap and any open-source contamination.
Tap to flip back ↻Advisor agreements
Advisor agreements with an equity range appropriate to the role, a vesting schedule, and a cliff, instead of a verbal promise that becomes a diligence red flag. Common frameworks discussed; the right number depends on stage and contribution.
Tap for the deliverable ↻Deliverable: a clean advisor agreement plus equity-range and vesting guidance (schedule and cliff), so a grant is documented and board-ready instead of a handshake that resurfaces in diligence.
Tap to flip back ↻Design-partner and pilot SOW
A usable pilot agreement that keeps your core IP: pre-existing IP stays yours, customer feedback gives only a license back, no implied warranties, liability capped at fees, clean data-handling terms, and a fixed term with a clean exit.
Tap for the deliverable ↻Deliverable: a usable pilot and design-partner SOW that keeps your core IP, with the feedback-license, warranty, liability-cap, and clean-exit terms already drafted in.
Tap to flip back ↻AI or security pilot risk boundaries
Clear advisory or log-only versus blocking framing, customer-responsibility and human-in-the-loop language, security and data reps scoped to the pilot, incident-notification terms, and limitation of liability, so you ship without taking on uncapped product liability.
Tap for the deliverable ↻Deliverable: the risk-boundary language for your pilot contract, advisory or log-only framing, human-in-the-loop and customer-responsibility terms, scoped reps, and a real liability cap.
Tap to flip back ↻Investor data room
A legal checklist across corporate, IP, commercial, people, financing, and compliance, plus a pre-pitch pass for the diligence red flags that slow rounds down, and a list of what you should not sign before your first financing.
Tap for the deliverable ↻Deliverable: a data-room legal checklist across all six areas plus a pre-pitch red-flag pass, organized the way diligence counsel actually asks for it.
Tap to flip back ↻Startup readiness reviews and document work are scoped and quoted separately as defined written engagements. The quote identifies the documents, deliverables, exclusions and delivery timing.
Your engagement states the included revision rounds and any post-delivery support. Additional documents, counterparty negotiations and new matters are scoped and quoted separately.
Related engagements: founder and formation documents, Delaware C-Corp incorporation, contract drafting and redline, and an AI legal audit for AI and security products.
Not sure where to start? Ask the AI Legal Analyst
Pricing and scope questions answer instantly and free below, no email required. Pick a question to unfold a plain-language answer, then dig deeper or describe your own situation and the analyst routes you to the right next step. This is AI-generated legal information, attorney-supervised, not legal advice.
Startup legal readiness: instant answers
Tap a question. Each opens a free, preloaded answer with follow-ups that either go deeper or hand the question to the live analyst.
Common OGC and founder questions, always free
What it includes
Six categories of work cover the vast majority of OGC requests at Terms.Law. Anything that does not fit gets quoted separately.
Contract review
NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, vendor agreements, customer order forms, channel partner agreements, settlement and release documents.
Tap for details ↻Flat $1,000 per contract. You get a redline plus a short risk summary, the 3 to 5 clauses that actually matter, usually within a few business days. Not a 20-page memo.
Tap to flip back ↻Demand letters
Unpaid invoices, breach of contract, IP infringement, deposit recovery, contractor disputes. On firm letterhead, certified mail.
Tap for details ↻Demand-letter engagements start at $2,500. The quote identifies the demand, delivery method, included revisions and any response review. Complaint drafting requires a separate written engagement. Court filings and appearances are excluded.
Tap to flip back ↻Employment documents
Offer letters, employment agreements, contractor agreements, separation and severance agreements, employee handbooks.
Tap for details ↻California-compliant offer letters and agreements with at-will, IP, and confidentiality language built in, plus separations with proper releases. Flat fee per document.
Tap to flip back ↻IP assignments
Founder IP assignment, employee IP assignment, contractor IP assignment, work-for-hire language, trademark assignments.
Tap for details ↻Present-tense invention-assignment language so the work actually belongs to the company, not a promise to assign later. Founder, employee, and contractor versions. This is the item investor diligence checks first.
Tap to flip back ↻Compliance touch-ups
Privacy policy updates, terms of service revisions, data processing addenda, CCPA and GDPR clause refresh, click-wrap audits.
Tap for details ↻Privacy and ToS refreshes, vendor DPAs, CCPA / CPRA and GDPR clause updates, and a clickwrap review of your implementation with recommended changes. Scoped per matter.
Tap to flip back ↻Regulatory questions
Quick attorney answers on California-specific issues, federal consumer-protection rules, and SaaS or AI compliance questions.
Tap for details ↻For a defined legal question, request a Written Attorney Consultation through the consultation page. Document work is scoped separately.
Tap to flip back ↻Services and fees
Standard contract drafting or review: $1,000. Complex document drafting or review: $1,500. Coordinated two-document bundle: $2,500. SaaS Legal Stack: $2,750 for its defined standard scope. Demand-letter engagements start at $2,500. Each quote identifies the applicable scope and fee.
Contract Draft / Review
One standard contract within an agreed scope. Your quote identifies the drafting or review work, deliverables and included revisions.
Request this scopeComplex Draft / Review
One complex document within an agreed written scope. Your quote states the work product, exclusions and delivery timing.
Request this scopeCoordinated Two-Document Bundle
Two related documents prepared or reviewed together under one agreed scope. Your quote identifies both documents and the included revisions.
Request this scopeHow I handle a request
Send a brief description of the matter; receive a written scope and fee; complete the agreed engagement steps; receive the work in organized files. Further work is agreed separately before it begins.
Describe
By email, you describe the decision, the result you want, the deadline, the parties, and the controlling documents. Pricing and scope questions answer instantly and free.
Organize
The AI Legal Analyst builds the chronology, pulls the relevant clauses, flags what is missing, and proposes the specific attorney task.
Approve scope
I confirm in writing exactly what I will review, the deliverable, and the flat fee it costs. You approve before I start, so nothing runs open-ended.
Attorney review
I review the materials and deliver the written answer, redline, document, or strategy. I prepare the work using AI-assisted tools, review it before delivery, and remain responsible for its content. Each task includes a defined number of revision rounds within its scope.
What this is NOT
Not litigation, not class actions, not regulatory enforcement defense.
OGC at Terms.Law does not cover filing complaints, appearing as attorney of record in court or arbitration, defending enforcement actions by federal or state regulators, or running discovery in active litigation. When a matter heads in that direction I coordinate with specialist counsel and stay in the loop on the business-side legal work.
Not a substitute for transaction counsel on financings or M&A.
Series A through D rounds, secondary transactions, full M&A deals, and complex tax-driven restructurings need specialist counsel running the deal. I can review the surrounding business contracts, employment docs, IP assignments, and customer-side fallout but I am not your lead deal counsel on a financing or sale.
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