Learn how the product works
Start with a demo, review the designs, and use the product. Legal issues often show up in what users see, how data moves, and what happens outside the expected workflow.
Fractional Product Counsel
I work closely with a small number of established companies, translating fluently among product, engineering, business, and legal teams. I learn their products in depth, help leaders decide which risks require action and which the company can reasonably accept, and recommend practical changes that preserve the product's value.
Product Counsel
What Product Counsel Means
Product counsel advises on the decisions that shape a product: how it works, what it promises customers, how it uses data and AI, and how the company intends to make money from it. For example, an AI product may need to give customers useful information about its limitations without cluttering the interface or overstating the risk. Considering these questions early gives the company more options for reducing legal exposure while preserving the product's design and commercial value.
Product Decision
Product DesignUseful and attractive to customers
Commercial ValueCustomer adoption, revenue, and long-term enterprise value
Legal RiskReduced or consciously accepted
How I Work
Product counsel should turn review into action.
Assess the risks
Assess each issue based on likelihood, potential consequences, imminence, and how difficult it would be to address. Show the reasoning so the company can prioritize changes and decide which risks to accept.
Recommend the change
Propose the smallest practical change that lowers liability: product change, notice, workflow, evidence trail, contract term, or launch condition.
For many reviews, I recommend a focused guide that shows each issue in context, often with screenshots, and explains why it matters and how it might be addressed. The guide records the analysis and escalation points, helping the team resolve current issues and make more consistent decisions as the product evolves.
Advisory
For legal issues inside the product itself.
I work with legal and product leaders when a legal question requires a close review of how the product is designed, how it works, and how customers use it.
Deep Product Reviews
Review the product itself before launch, expansion, or an enterprise sale. Examine what users see, how data moves, what the product promises, and where legal risks arise.
AI and Data
Assess how the product uses AI and data, from training rights and vendor terms to model outputs and customer-facing claims. Recommend changes that fit how the product is actually designed and used.
Risk Remediation
Recommend product or process changes that reduce legal exposure without unnecessary engineering. Weigh the value of each change against its cost and effect on the product.
Complex Technology Agreements
Draft and negotiate complex technology agreements that reflect how the product works and clearly allocate IP and data rights, implementation obligations, and liability.
Insights
Legal changes, tied to product decisions.
I write about AI, IP, data, and product-risk changes in the form counsel and product teams can use: what changed, what it affects, and what to check next.
AI/IP
AI Patent Files Need Separate Records For Inventorship And Eligibility
July 2026 / 4 min readWhat to checkKeep inventorship, eligibility, and implementation evidence in separate records.
Vendor Diligence
EU GPAI Training-Content Template Becomes A Vendor Diligence Artifact
Ask what the template proves, what it omits, and who owns follow-up review.Product Risk
AI Procurement Needs Exit, Agent And Data-Use Checks
Review exit rights, agent behavior, and data-use permissions before pilot use becomes production reliance.About
I have built products, run companies, and practiced technology law.
I earned a J.D. and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford and graduated cum laude from Harvard with an A.B. in Philosophy and a focus on logic. I have also founded and run technology companies and spent more than 20 years building or advising them.
When product, engineering, business, and legal teams disagree, I identify the technical constraints, commercial priorities, and legal risks behind their positions and help them reach a decision the company can implement.
I serve as Of Counsel at Huggins Reddien Kornbacher LLP and as External General Counsel to Swift Navigation, where I previously served as EVP Legal and HR. Earlier roles include co-founder and executive roles at Mediabolic, Virtual Law Partners, and Pogoplug, and IP attorney at Venture Law Group.
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