Startup General Counsel

Get ongoing legal counsel for your startup at a fixed monthly fee.

The dreaded billable hour should not slow down your growth.

To avoid high legal fees founders often skip, delay, or DIY their legal needs. But without proper legal counsel, you risk making costly mistakes, such as:

  • Making uninformed “gut” decisions.
  • Using Google as your lawyer.
  • Drafting your own contracts.
  • Focusing on unimportant issues and slowing down deals.
  • Entering due diligence unprepared.
  • Missing opportunities.

Scale your startup smarter with General Counsel.

You have enough on your plate. Legal should not be an additional  source of stress. Get an attorney in your corner to avoid costly mistakes, and breathe easy knowing you’ll never get a surprise legal bill.

Get fractional General Counsel for your startup.

General Counsel is a new approach to law for startups. At Westaway, you can get your own fractional general counsel for a flat monthly fee. Our plans provide ongoing legal services for all the day-to-day needs of high-growth startups so they can scale with peace of mind that legal is taken care of.

  1. Book your free consult.
  2. Choose your plan.
  3. Scale with confidence.

100 Day Promise

We promise to get your legal house in order within the first 100 days. First, we put out any existing legal “fires”, then we draft your custom contracts so you’re equipped to grow with confidence.

TRUSTED BY ALUM OF:

Why founders like you love General Counsel.

Choose your plan.

We offer three plans that meet the needs of startups at every stage of growth.

LAUNCH

For startups who want to get it right from the start.

$3,000 / mo

GROW

For startups who want to grow their business confidently.

$6,000 / mo

SCALE

For mature startups ready to scale.

$9,000 / mo

Compare plans.

 

LAUNCH

GROW

SCALE

Unlimited Calls / Emails
Contract Reviews Per Month2610
Incorporation
Master Service Agreement
SaaS Agreement
Employee Agreement
Independent Contractor Agreement
Advisor Agreement
Confidential Information and Invention Assignment Agreement
Separation Agreement
Mutual NDA
Unilateral NDA
Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
Stock Plan
Stock Grant
Stock Option Grant
Cap Table Management
SAFE
Convertible Note
Series Seed Financing
Series A Financing
Series B Financing
Monthly Cost$3,000$6,000$9,000

General Counsel can save your company up to:

/ year

Avoid these 10 rookie legal mistakes.

Legal missteps can be some of the most costly problems startups face, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Download this FREE guide to get simple actionable tips on how to avoid these common mistakes. By following these simple tips you will save your startup time and money.

FAQs about Startup General Counsel.

The beauty of General Counsel is that you can choose the plan that fits your needs. However, in general:
  • Launch is best for Pre-seed Startups, Solo Consultants, Small Agencies, and Small and Growing Businesses.
  • Grow is best for Seed Stage Startups, Boutique Consulting Firms, Boutique Agencies, Mid-sized Businesses.
  • Scale is best for Series A / B Startups, Consulting Firms, Agencies, Mature Businesses.
Yes really. The whole point of General Counsel is to be there when you need us. By removing the billable hour, we’ve made it frictionless for you to reach out to us on issues big and small. This completely changes the dynamic of the relationship from transactional to partnership.


We work smarter, not harder. Because we designed the firm specifically for entrepreneurs, from day one we’ve been relentlessly focused on the efficient delivery of quality legal services. Our model is built on the 3 Ps: (1) Partner – Each General Counsel client is paired with a Partner with 10+ years experience in startup law. (2) Paralegal – The partner is supported by a Senior Paralegal with 20+ years of experience. (3) Process – We’ve invested in automation (and are exploring AI) to make our process quick, smooth and highly accurate.
We’ve been working with founders for over a decade. From our experience, General Counsel covers about 90% of a startup’s legal needs. Although issues like regulation, taxation, international structuring and M&A are not included within the scope of General Counsel, everything listed above is included. When projects are out of scope, we often work with our General Counsel clients on a per project basis.
Our cost savings are based on the price to get the services on a per-project basis here at Westaway. If numbers excite you, check out this Google Sheet that gives an itemized breakdown for each General Counsel Plan. All calculations are based on our publicly available transparent pricing list averaged over 12 months. Of course, keep in mind that our prices tend to be 20-40% less than most startup law firms, so the cost savings compared to those firms will be significantly greater.

Contract review includes reviewing, editing and negotiating any contract that is 20 pages or less with any counterparty.

A startup General Counsel is a strategic legal advisor who partners with the senior leadership team to steer a young company through critical legal matters. More than just an in-house lawyer, a General Counsel helps shape overall strategy and advises on key legal issues from incorporation to funding to intellectual property. With deep expertise across corporate law, a General Counsel guides startups through major milestones like raising capital, hiring talent, drafting contracts, and establishing policies and procedures. An adept startup General Counsel understands both the legal and business implications of strategic decisions, allowing them to provide tailored guidance on mitigating risk while enabling growth. By leveraging legal knowledge and instincts, a trusted General Counsel empowers leadership to build the strongest legal foundation possible in the early days of a startup.

Startups need a General Counsel to provide expert legal guidance from day one. An experienced startup GC becomes a strategic advisor, getting to know the business to offer tailored advice. Over time, the GC builds valuable institutional knowledge that informs wise counsel as the company grows. Rather than scrambling to find legal help when needs arise, startups benefit enormously from having a startup General Counsel ready to steer them through the twists and turns in the road ahead. With a trusted legal partner, founders can focus on innovation while mitigating risk.

Most entrepreneurs want a trusted legal partner, but they hate surprise legal bills. At Westaway, we take care of your startup’s legal needs for a fixed-monthly fee so you can control your costs and focus on scaling your business.

10 Rookie Startup Legal Mistakes

Download this FREE guide today to learn how to avoid these common legal mistakes. These basic tips will save your startup time and money.
Download Free Guide
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