Product Counsel: Lawyers' Role in Product Creation

Product teams in tech companies collaborate to plan, develop, release, and market new products or features. While designers, engineers, and marketers are responsible for bringing these innovations to market, lawyers (“product counsel”) are essential for ensuring that these new products or features comply with laws, regulations, or contractual obligations. Involving experienced lawyers early, being proactive rather than reactive, helps avoid costly mistakes impacting time, finances, and/or reputation.

Attorneys in product roles come from diverse backgrounds. Some have litigation experience, managing product-related disputes involving a variety of legal issues. Others specialize in regulatory compliance in sectors like healthcare or finance, advising on risk mitigation strategies. Privacy and data protection expertise is crucial for roles involving data usage, while AI development requires knowledge of intellectual property and licensing.

Initiative, effective communication, and creative problem solving are essential non-substantive skills for product counsel. Product attorneys often are required to identify a wide range of legal issues, and while not expected to be experts in all relevant practice areas, they should take responsibility to refer issues not within their area of experience to subject matter experts. Working with their business partners, product counsel should clearly explain the practical impacts of any legal concerns and collaborate to find alternative solutions to satisfy the underlying needs while minimizing risk.

While tech hiring has slowed in recent years, we expect there to be a continuing need for product counsel in this area as innovation continues to push legal and regulatory boundaries.