"Most legal problems in fast-moving companies are preventable. The ones that aren't are survivable — if you have the right counsel before they happen, not after."

Michael Nichols · Co-founder, HealthTap · GC / CPO / COO

Nichols Legal PC · Mountain View, California

Counsel that
builds with you,
not behind you.

Senior legal counsel for funded health tech, fintech, and AI companies that are moving fast and can't afford to get the foundational things wrong. Built by a co-founder who's been in your seat.

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Education Stanford · Yale Law · Oxford

Co-founded HealthTap (2010) · Co-founder

Executive & Firm Experience Color Health · Morrison Foerster

The Approach

Legal counsel that
accelerates your business.

Fast-moving companies, especially those building in AI, health tech, and fintech, often treat legal as a cost center and an obstacle. That's an expensive and often incorrect approach.

The founders who raise priced rounds and close strategic deals without drama are the ones who built the right foundations early. Not because they were cautious, because they had counsel who understood what mattered and what didn't.

That's what Nichols Legal provides: focused, senior-level legal partnership built around your company's objectives — not billable hours.

"I co-founded HealthTap, closed multiple financings with leading VC firms, and ran legal and operations for eight years. I know what the diligence process looks like from the inside — and exactly where deals fall apart before they close."

— Michael Nichols, Co-founder, HealthTap · Founder, Nichols Legal PC

Founder-first perspective

Built companies from the ground up — from first hire to institutional funding. Our advice reflects what it actually feels like to be in the room when the stakes are real.

Senior counsel only

No recent law firm associates running your matters. Every engagement is staffed with experienced counsel who knows your business and has partner-level expertise.

Transparent, fixed-fee model

No billable hour anxiety. We price engagements by outcome, not by the clock — because the right incentives create better work and better relationships.

Remote-first, always available

Silicon Valley-based, but structured for wherever your company operates. Efficient, virtual, and accessible when decisions need to be made quickly.

AI Counseling & Governance

The legal risk most
AI companies aren't
thinking about yet.

Companies building AI products are moving at a pace the legal system hasn't caught up to. That gap is both an opportunity and a liability.

The companies that will navigate the next wave of AI regulation — FDA digital health guidance, FTC enforcement on algorithmic systems, state-level AI liability frameworks — are the ones that built governance structures early, not the ones that scrambled after a fund raise put them under a microscope.

Nichols Legal advises AI-focused companies on proactive AI integration, compliance, and governance strategy: how to use AI products and systems, what to build, what to document, and how to structure your AI operations so that regulatory scrutiny and best practices become a competitive advantage, not an existential threat.

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The right legal partnership accelerates and amplifies your AI development — it doesn't exist to slow you down or hedge against risks that may never materialize.

Build & Deploy with Confidence

Know what you can train on, what you can ship, and what your actual exposure looks like — so you move forward with clarity, not hesitation.

Stay Ahead of the Regulatory Curve

Turn evolving frameworks — FDA, FTC, EU AI Act, state legislation — into a strategic advantage rather than a moving compliance target.

Contracts That Enable, Not Constrain

AI vendor, partner, and customer agreements structured to protect your position and give you operational flexibility as the technology evolves.

Diligence-Ready from Day One

Governance infrastructure that satisfies sophisticated investors and enterprise customers — built as part of how you operate, not assembled under pressure before a round closes.

Practice Areas

Focused where
it matters most.

We don't do everything. We do the legal work that determines whether early-stage companies survive their growth — clean formations, airtight commercial contracts, governance that holds up in diligence, and financings that close.

Corporate Formation & Governance

Delaware C-Corp formations, equity structures, option plans, cap table hygiene, and board governance that scales.

Commercial Contracts & Transactions

MSAs, SaaS agreements, vendor contracts, NDAs, and licensing — drafted to protect your business and close quickly.

Startup Financings

SAFE agreements, convertible notes, Series Seed and Series A. Clean documentation that sophisticated investors won't push back on.

AI Governance & Product Counsel

Governance frameworks, regulatory readiness, and product-level legal review for companies building AI-powered products.

Regulatory Strategy

Navigating FDA digital health pathways, HIPAA compliance, fintech licensing, and other regulatory frameworks specific to health tech and fintech.

Dispute Resolution

Pre-litigation counsel, commercial disputes, and strategic negotiation for matters that need experienced resolution without full-scale litigation.

Engagement Model

Priced by outcome,
not by the hour.

Billable hours create the wrong incentives. When your lawyer is watching the clock, you stop calling with questions — and that's exactly when expensive mistakes get made. Every engagement at Nichols Legal is priced transparently, by outcome.

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Strategic Engagement

Fractional General Counsel

$5K – $20K / month

Fixed-Fee Services

Formations, contracts, financings & more

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No billable hours

Transparent pricing from first engagement

About Michael Nichols

A lawyer who's
been in your seat.

Michael Nichols brings something genuinely rare to legal practice: he's built a company himself. As co-founder and Employee #1 at HealthTap — a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and one of the leading digital health platforms in the U.S. — he served as General Counsel, Chief Privacy Officer, and Operations Lead for eight years, closing financings from Seed through Series C and backing from Khosla Ventures and the Mayfield Fund.

That experience shapes everything about how he practices law — because he knows what it's like to be on the other side of the table, making decisions under pressure with incomplete information and high stakes.

He has since served as VP Commercial Legal at Color Health, as General Counsel and CPO at multiple growth-stage companies, and through his firm advises funded health tech, fintech, and AI companies on the legal and governance work that determines whether fast growth becomes durable — or becomes a liability.

Stanford University, A.B. (Honors) Stanford University, M.A. Oxford University (Magdalen College) Yale Law School, J.D. Co-founder & GC/CPO/COO, HealthTap VP Commercial Legal, Color Health Morrison Foerster Licensed: California · Arizona (currently inactive)

Get in Touch

Counsel that builds with you, not behind you.

Legal counsel thataccelerates your business.

The legal risk mostAI companies aren'tthinking about yet.

Focused whereit matters most.

Priced by outcome,not by the hour.

A lawyer who'sbeen in your seat.

Ready to buildwithout surprises?