October 13, 2026
Each side of a funding round should pay its own lawyers. In priced rounds, though, term sheets often ask the company to pay the lead investor’s legal fees too. Strike that term first, and if the investor insists, cap it as low as you can. Your own legal cost depends mostly on the type of round: a SAFE round is the cheapest, a seed priced round costs more, and a Series A on NVCA documents costs the most.
Key takeaways
The company pays its own lawyers in every round. The question is whether it also pays the lead investor’s lawyers. In SAFE rounds and most pre-seed deals, the answer is no: investors sign a standard document and don’t hire counsel to negotiate it, or pay for their own review if they do.
In priced rounds, the term sheet often includes a line saying the company will pay the reasonable fees of one counsel for the investors, sometimes with a cap. The money comes out of the round, so in effect the investors are paying their lawyers with the company’s money. It also means the company is paying for the lawyer negotiating against it, with no control over how long that lawyer spends. We think this term is unfair and should be removed from standard term sheets. Investors should pay their own legal fees.
Strike it. In every term sheet, start by proposing that each side pays its own fees. It’s a reasonable ask, and investors accept it more often than founders expect, particularly at seed.
Cap it. If the investor won’t drop the term, insist on a fixed dollar cap and push it as low as you can. Rough market ranges are $10,000 to $25,000 for a seed round and $25,000 to $50,000 for a Series A, but a lean seed round can support a lower number. Make sure the cap covers all of the investors’ legal fees and expenses, not just the lead’s. See How Do I Negotiate With an Experienced Investor on My First Raise?.
Costs vary with the firm, the city, how clean the company’s records are and how hard the terms are negotiated. As a rough guide to what founders see in the market:
| Round | Typical documents | Rough company legal cost | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAFE round | Standard post-money SAFE, board consent | Low single-digit thousands to about $10,000 | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Seed priced round | Series Seed documents | About $15,000 to $40,000 | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Series A | NVCA model documents | About $40,000 to $100,000 or more | 6 to 10 weeks |
Hourly firms often come in above these ranges, especially when diligence turns up problems or negotiations drag on. Most of the cost of a priced round isn’t negotiating the term sheet. It’s diligence, cleaning up the corporate record and preparing the disclosure schedule. A company with organized records and signed documents costs less to close. See Startup Due Diligence.
A SAFE round uses one short, standard agreement per investor and a board consent. There’s usually little to negotiate beyond the valuation cap. A priced round amends the certificate of incorporation and adds a set of financing documents. Series Seed rounds use three core documents. NVCA rounds use six, plus consents, a disclosure schedule, and post-closing work. Investor counsel reviews the company’s records, and each side negotiates the terms. See Series Seed vs NVCA Documents.
A typical SAFE round runs like this: a kickoff call to confirm the terms and the cap, a board consent approving the round, a SAFE template prepared with the agreed terms, individual SAFEs sent to each investor for e-signature, wires received, and the cap table updated. With a responsive founder, that can take one to two weeks. Some founders paper SAFEs themselves using standard templates and legal platforms. A lawyer still adds value on the board approval, side letters and a check of the cap table. See SAFE and What Comes After Fundraising?
The attorney matters more than the firm. Look for someone who closes rounds at your stage regularly, responds quickly and works at a startup’s pace, and whom you’d be comfortable working with for years. Ask how they bill. Hourly billing rewards time spent rather than results and often ends in a bill no one expected. Many startup firms now offer flat fees for standard financings, which lets you budget for the round up front. See Flat Fee vs Hourly: How Should My Startup Pay Its Lawyer?. See Choosing the Best Startup Lawyer and How Startups Can Avoid Wasting Money on Lawyers.
Go deeper: For a full walkthrough, see our Founder Guide to SAFEs, Founder Guide to Seed Funding and Founder Guide to Series A.
Westaway handles financings on flat fees. See our pricing, our SAFE, Series Seed and Series A services, or contact us if you’re planning a round.
