Tech & AI Startup Lawyers in New York
We are a tech-driven law firm in the center of Manhattan, working with U.S. and non-U.S. founders who build software, AI, robotics and fintech companies. Our firm began litigating AI and software liability in 2019, before AI was a household word, against regulated billion-dollar fintech companies whose DNA is automation and AI. We won. AI can draft your agreements. We know which clauses hold when they are tested.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Your terms decide whether the company survives its first bad day.
Every technology company runs on documents it did not read closely: terms of service, a privacy policy, a SaaS subscription, a vendor’s data terms. On a normal day none of them matter.
Then a customer says your software caused a loss, a user says your chatbot harmed them, or an attacker gets in. On that day the liability cap, the dispute clause and the security promises decide what happens next, together with a rule you never wrote: whether the law lets you shift that loss at all.
A disclaimer is not a shield.
In New York, and in most states, a company cannot contract out of its own gross negligence. A cap that limits liability can hold. A clause that tries to erase it will not, and the test is whether the conduct was intentional, willful or reckless.
Six services for technology companies.
Each has its own page. Start with the one you need today.
Part-Time General Counsel
Ongoing counsel without a full-time hire. Contracts, hiring, fundraising, vendors and the rules that reach your product.
Learn moreTechnology Agreements
SaaS, license, API and AI vendor terms, terms of service and privacy policies. Drafted with AI where it helps, finalized by lawyers who have litigated these clauses.
Learn moreAI Governance & Compliance
Which state, federal and EU AI rules reach your product, and the assessments, notices and policies they require.
Learn moreData, Privacy & Cyber Incident Response
Privacy programs, security terms you can keep, and the plan for the day they are tested.
Learn moreIP, Training Data & Open Source
Who owns the model, the output and the code. Training data provenance and open-source compliance before diligence.
Learn moreTech Disputes & Arbitration
Software liability claims, AI disputes, platform fund holds and founder conflicts, before the AAA, JAMS and NAM and in New York courts.
Learn moreEverything is becoming software. Courts are deciding who pays when it fails.
AI is software. So are a trading app, a robot’s control loop and the chatbot answering your customers. When one fails, three rules decide most cases.
A company cannot waive its own gross negligence, and the test is intentional, willful or reckless conduct. The economic loss rule decides whether a customer is held to the contract and its caps or may sue in tort. And courts are deciding, case by case, whether software is a product subject to strict liability, including toward people who never signed your terms.
We have litigated these questions through major breaches, account takeovers and AI systems that did not do what they were sold to do. That experience is where our drafting comes from.
Sources: Abacus Fed. Sav. Bank v ADT (N.Y. 2012) · Matter of Part 60 Put-Back Litig. (N.Y. 2020) · Dormitory Auth. v Samson Constr. (N.Y. 2018) · Congressional Research Service, software as a product (2026) · Fischman v Epic Systems (N.D. Tex. 2026) · Cal. Civil Code § 1714.46 · FTC, accessiBe settlement (2025)
Software liability is a drafting problem first.
The cheapest time to change a clause is before anyone has relied on it.
The options are open.
- Governing law and forum chosen for your facts
- Caps and remedies drafted as limits, not blanket disclaimers
- Security and accuracy claims matched to what the system does
- Testing and release decisions put in writing
- Third-party exposure mapped and allocated by contract
The terms are what they are.
- The clause is read as written, against the drafter
- A disclaimer of negligence meets the gross-negligence rule
- Marketing promises become the claimant’s exhibits
- What you knew, and when, becomes the case
- Planning gives way to defense
Founders at every stage, in the U.S. and abroad.
New York is where many of them land. The work follows the product wherever it ships.
SaaS and software companies
Customer terms, uptime commitments and liability caps that need to hold.
AI developers and deployers
Companies training models, building on them, or deploying AI in hiring, lending, health and customer service.
Robotics and fintech
Software inside physical products and businesses that move money, where product rules, licensing and processor relationships meet the code.
Non-U.S. founders
Forming a U.S. company, relocating a team or signing first U.S. customers, with our international tax practice alongside.
Start with the rules.
Plain-language guides to the questions founders ask us most.
AI Startup Attorney: Legal Guide for Founders & Seed Funding
Formation, equity, early contracts and the questions seed investors ask AI founders.
Read the articleInternational Tax Lawyer for AI & Software Startups
Launching an AI or software business in the U.S. from abroad: entity, IP location and the taxes that follow.
Read the articleStripe Won’t Release Your Funds? Attorney Insights
What happens when a payment platform closes an account and holds the balance, and how the dispute clause works.
Read the articleFrequently asked.
For the first draft, often not. For the final version, yes, if the document will ever be tested.
AI tools produce clauses that read well but may name a forum that does not exist, choose a governing law that voids your cap, or make promises your marketing turns into warranties. We start from your draft.
Ordinary negligence, often yes between businesses, if the clause is clear. Gross negligence, no.
New York and most states bar a company from insulating itself from reckless or intentional conduct. A cap or exclusive remedy that limits liability is far more likely to hold than a clause that tries to eliminate it.
Some do, from the first customer. Texas regulates AI deployment regardless of size, Colorado’s rules reach consequential decisions from January 1, 2027, New York City regulates hiring tools, and the EU AI Act reaches anyone selling into the EU.
Others, like New York’s RAISE Act, aim at the largest developers. We map which rules touch your product.
Yes. Many of our founder clients are from outside the United States.
We form the U.S. company, connect it to the company at home, handle the reporting foreign-owned U.S. companies owe, and plan for founders who relocate.
We read your terms as they existed when the user signed up. Those terms control.
We check the dispute clause, the cap, the disclaimers and any class waiver, then respond in a way that preserves them. Many of these disputes are heard in arbitration before the AAA, JAMS or NAM.
Sources: Texas Attorney General, consumer AI rights · Colorado SB26-189 · NYC DCWP, automated employment decision tools · NY DFS, frontier developers · EU AI Act timeline · AAA · JAMS · NAM
Fix the documents before they are tested.
A confidential consultation about your company, your terms and the rules that reach your product. Bring the documents you have.
Request a consultation