For startups without counsel
Protected from day one. Not from day one hundred.
You do not need a general counsel yet. You do need to know which of the things you have already done are expensive to undo — and to stop paying by the hour to find out.
Attorney advertising. Informational only, not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by using this site or by submitting a form.
Order of operations
What actually needs a lawyer first.
In rough order of how much it costs to fix later. Most of this is cheap now and painful at diligence.
- 01
Entity, ownership and governance
The structure everything else attaches to. Cheap to get right at the start, and the single most common thing that stalls a financing later.
Indicative: from $2,000
- 02
Whether your product triggers a licence
Before you scale into more states. The answer changes what you build, so it is worth having before the roadmap hardens rather than after.
Indicative: from $4,000
- 03
What you tell users, in writing
Terms, privacy notice, and the claims on your marketing site. Enforcement in new markets tends to start with what a company said about itself.
Indicative: from $2,500
- 04
Your customer and vendor paper
The agreements you will sign a hundred times. Getting the shape right once is worth more than negotiating each one well.
Indicative: from $2,500
- 05
A privacy and data position
What you collect, why, and who else touches it. This is the question every enterprise buyer and every regulator asks first.
Indicative: from $3,000
Interactive · Cost model
Fractional GC vs. full-time vs. tokens
See what legal coverage actually costs at your stage. The model compares a full-time hire, a fractional general counsel arrangement, and Counsel Tokens on the same inputs.
Full-time GC hire
$297,000/yr
Salary, benefits, equity. Covers everything but comes with fixed cost regardless of volume.
Fractional GC retainer
$96,000/yr
Monthly retainer for a set number of hours. Flexible but still time-based.
Counsel Tokens
$4,400/yr
Pay per deliverable. No retainer, no minimum. Volume matches what you actually need.
These are illustrative models, not quotes. Your actual token cost is scoped and confirmed in writing before work begins.
This is a self-assessment tool. It reflects the inputs you give it, produces no legal advice and no opinion on your specific facts, and does not create an attorney–client relationship.
The prices shown are indicative starting points. The scope and price for your matter are confirmed in writing before any work begins. Nothing here is an offer of representation.