Fractional General Counsel
LWD Advisors gives early-stage companies a seasoned fractional General Counsel and a working in-house legal function. We work with founders who build in the physical world: energy, heavy industry, defense, advanced manufacturing, and medical devices.
What you get
A law firm waits for you to call. You have to know that a problem exists, know which specialist to ask, and then manage the bill. That model fails a company that moves quickly.
LWD works the other way. We learn your business, sit in your leadership and Board meetings, use your email and your Slack, and raise legal matters before they turn into problems. Founders describe it as having a General Counsel and a small legal team on staff.
Customer, supplier, and partner agreements from first draft to signature.
An automated review service that returns redlines in two business days.
Offer letters, policies, classification, terminations, and California compliance.
Ownership, licensing, and the protection strategy that fits your stage.
Manufacturing, tooling, component supply, and quality agreements.
Export control, product compliance, and the agencies your sector answers to.
We select outside counsel, set the strategy, and control the spend.
Diligence, Board materials, and the legal workstream in a raise.
Why founders choose LWD
Jeff Hyman led the hardware legal team at Apple, spent eight years at Intel, structured silicon and manufacturing deals at Google, and served as General Counsel at Pebble.
A cleantech EPC contract, a wafer supply negotiation, a contract manufacturing agreement in Asia. We have closed these before, on both sides of the table.
A flat monthly fee for the General Counsel function, with hourly work only where it belongs. You know the number before the month starts.
NDA review service
Send the document by email or through a web form. Our system reviews it against your playbook. A contracts professional checks the result, applies the changes as tracked changes, and returns it to you.
Initial redlines start at $200. Follow-on redlines start at $140. Subscription pricing brings both down for companies with steady volume.
Software does the first pass. A lawyer or a contracts professional signs off on every redline that leaves this firm.
Who we serve
Our clients raise venture capital, ship hardware, sign long-term supply agreements, and answer to regulators. That combination creates legal work that a generalist law firm handles slowly and at high cost. It is the work we do every day.
Wind, solar, thermal and battery storage, power electronics, carbon removal, and grid infrastructure.
Metals, materials, and industrial process companies. Equipment supply, EPC, and long-cycle plant projects.
Dual-use hardware, government contract flow-downs, supplier agreements, and export control.
Robotics, semiconductors, and medical devices. Contract manufacturing, quality agreements, and regulated products.
Tell me what you are building and where the legal work is piling up. If LWD is not the right answer, I will tell you that and point you somewhere better.