How we work with lawyers

We got a $12,952.50 legal bill for what we thought were small asks. Turns out the asks add up fast. Here's what we do differently now.

Since then, we’ve figured out how to stretch our legal spend—still getting the expertise we need, without draining the bank account.

Because legal help is non-negotiable when you’re building a real business.

But it doesn’t have to bankrupt you.

Here’s how we work with lawyers strategically to keep legal bills tight, while still getting what we need:

  1. We work with both a big firm and a boutique one

    2. We use a large corporate firm for the big stuff—like fundraising docs or equity structuring.

    But for faster-turnaround work like NDAs, vendor contracts, or quick advice, we go with a boutique firm. They’re more responsive, more affordable, and honestly, just faster to work with on the day-to-day.

    If you’re in the search for an awesome one, highly recommend Harrison Hawkes! 🙂

  2. We ask ourselves: does this need a lawyer—or a specialist?

    3. Not everything involving a legal doc needs a lawyer.

    We now turn to purpose-built services—like HR consultants, equity specialists, or compliance vendors—that are more affordable and better suited.

    For example, instead of using a law firm’s in-house compliance team, we worked with a specialized firm focused solely on compliance (with in-house counsel too). They handled our BSA/AML policies, MSB registration, and more.

  3. We never start from scratch

    4. We’ve learned to start with a template or draft—pulled from past docs and online templates or generated via LLMs—to give our lawyers something to react to instead of build from zero.

    It easily avoids $1k/hour spent on template-finding and small edits.

  4. I use ChatGPT for first-pass contract reads

    5. Whenever I get a contract, I’ll throw it into ChatGPT to help me understand it—especially the sneaky parts I might miss.

    If I see something off, that’s when I escalate it to our lawyer.

    This alone has saved us dozens of hours (and thousands of dollars).

  5. We get specific

    6. We highlight specific questions in the doc—like “Is this clause standard?”—instead of asking, “Does this entire document look good?”

    It helps our lawyers focus on what matters and avoids full, unnecessary reviews.

  6. We set time caps upfront

    7. We’ll usually say: “We’re hoping this takes no more than 30 minutes—let us know if it’s looking more involved.”

    As a startup, our counsel appreciates that we’re trying to be efficient. It gives them permission to flag issues, but also helps us keep control of the bill.

💡 TAKEAWAY:

You don’t have to avoid lawyers to manage legal costs.

You just need to use them like the high-leverage resource they are—intentionally, not reactively.