Outside general counsel for technology & AI companies
You have real customers, real contracts, and no general counsel.
CharterPoint gives you the legal function before you can justify hiring one. You get senior counsel who knows your whole picture, on a flat monthly rate, and nobody is watching a clock while you talk.
It's a scoping call, you leave with a named takeaway, and nobody tries to sell you anything.
It usually starts with one of these.
Three people usually own this decision. This site is written to all three.
The founder
You're the one signing things. Somewhere between shipping the product and closing the customers, you became the legal department, and you know exactly how much attention you've been able to give it.
The COO / CFO
You inherited legal because someone had to. What you want is a number that holds for the whole year, one person whose name is on the work, and fewer surprises landing on your desk in the last week of a quarter.
The compliance lead
You have the platform, the policies, and a questionnaire backlog you're working through. What you don't have is someone who can make the call on a redline when the answer isn't sitting in the policy.
The Charter Point
Charter Point (n.): the moment a technology company becomes too real to operate without sophisticated legal leadership, but not yet ready to hire a full-time general counsel. You'll know it by the signs:
- Paying customers on negotiated contracts, not just click-through terms
- Employees and equity, often across state lines
- IP worth defending
- Investors, and a board that meets
- Regulators who know your category exists
If most of that is true, you're already past the point, which is where most companies find themselves well before they have a name for it. If it isn't most of that yet, the honest answer is usually three documents, not a retainer, and we'd rather tell you that on the call than after you've signed one.
Read the definition →Nobody wakes up needing “corporate governance.”
You wake up because something arrived in your inbox: a redline, a term sheet, a resignation, a questionnaire. So start from what arrived.
A customer sent a 200-line security questionnaire.
Security & Compliance →
The MSA came back covered in redlines.
Commercial Contracts →
A term sheet landed. Diligence starts Monday.
Fundraising & Transactions →
The customer's DPA says no training on their data. Can we sign?
AI Governance →
We're hiring our first employees, in three states.
Employment & People →
An investor asked for the minute book.
Corporate & Governance →
Our privacy policy hasn't been read since we copied it.
Privacy & Data →
All of the above. Weekly.
Outside General Counsel →
Built for the companies in the gap.
«ATTORNEY_NAME»
«ATTORNEY_CREDENTIAL_LINE»
«ATTORNEY_BIO_SHORT»
You will always know who your counsel is. It's the person on this page, every time, rather than a rotating cast of associates you've never met.
About the firm →A named counsel. A flat month. A number that holds.
The baseline
In the first four weeks we read everything you have, from the charter through the customer contracts, and hand back a written picture of where you actually stand with the findings ranked in the order they should be fixed. If a deal is already in redlines the day we start, we work that deal in week one and the picture follows behind it.
The cadence
Work arrives in your Slack and leaves the same way. «RESPONSE_STANDARD». Anything that blocks a deal, whether that's a redline, a questionnaire, or an incident, gets acknowledged the day it lands and scheduled against the deal's date rather than against ours.
The cost
A flat monthly engagement, agreed in writing, which for most companies at this stage works out to $60K to $180K a year. Nothing is billed in six-minute increments, so calling us costs you nothing extra. Anything that falls outside the agreed scope gets quoted before the work starts, never after.
Nine briefings, each one dated and kept current. They're the questions clients actually ask, answered the way we'd answer them on a call.
Read what we'd tell you on the first call.
All briefings → →Zero data retention
What legal signed versus what engineering shipped, and how to close the gap before a customer's security team asks.
The early mistakes
Ordinary omissions that stay invisible until the round, the enterprise deal, or the acquisition puts them under a light.
The AI regulation map
What binds you now, what binds you soon, and what's still noise at your size. Dated, hedged, and kept current.
Modern practice. Traditional obligations.
- Privilege and confidentiality from the first engagement letter
- Conflicts checked before we say yes
- Professional liability insurance: «INSURANCE_LINE»
- AI used under attorney supervision, disclosed, and never trained on client work
- Fees agreed in writing before work begins
The point is usually behind you before you name it.
Fifteen minutes. No pitch.
You talk, we diagnose. You leave with the two or three exposures worth addressing first, along with a straight answer on whether you need counsel now, including "not yet."