'We need to talk to our lawyer first': how partners should respond

What should a partner do when a client says "we need to talk to our lawyer first"?

Encourage it, offer to wait, and step back. Legal review is a sign the owner is taking the license seriously, not a stall. Your job is to keep the introduction moving without giving legal advice, describing confidential records or pressing on timing.

A data license is a contract about rights in company records. Counsel will want to read it. Nothing is binding until the company agrees price and terms and signs, so there is no deadline that makes a lawyer's review a problem.

Why is the lawyer objection usually good news?

Counsel asking questions early surfaces the problems that would otherwise appear later: unclear rights, missing consents, records that belong to someone else. A company that clears legal review has already worked through questions it will face in rights review.

Treat the reaction as a filter in your favor: an owner who involves counsel is choosing scope deliberately. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

How do you respond in the moment?

Use a short script and move on.

Three rules for the conversation:

• Never summarize the law. If asked whether licensing is legal, say that depends on the company's rights and contracts and that counsel should answer.
• Never push a date. The introduction can wait; the company's calendar is the only one that matters.
• Never discuss what is in the records. Partners give basic fit information only.

What can you send the owner's counsel?

Counsel will want questions and process information, not records. A short list of topics the owner can hand over, drawn from how the program works:

For a deeper question list, the pages on what is in a data license agreement are a better handoff than anything you write yourself, and the company can start its application at sourcex.si/apply when it is ready.

How to support legal review: a step-by-step

1. Say yes. Agree that counsel should look, and ask whether they have outside or in-house counsel.
2. Offer the process outline. Share the stages from the program page, not any dataset detail.
3. Point to the specific concerns. If the owner's worry is customers' data, share how partners answer "we'd never let our customers' data be used". If it is source code, share whether licensing a private codebase creates a security risk.
4. Make the introduction when ready. Use the referral form or link so the company can speak to SourceX directly.
5. Step back. Check in once at a time they chose, never more often.
6. Keep your own file tidy. Note the date of the introduction, because attribution goes to the first valid referrer whose introduction leads to a verified company application within the attribution window.

What mistakes make a legal objection worse?

Illustrative: a delay that was fine

Illustrative and fictional. A regional logistics company with several hundred employees hears about a data license from an operating advisor. The CEO says the general counsel must review first. The advisor sends the process outline and the application link, and says nothing else. Three weeks later the general counsel asks about scope and de-identification. The CEO applies. The advisor learns of progress only from the CEO, and that is fine. The delay had no cost to anyone, because nothing was binding.

What if counsel says no?

Then the answer is no, and you thank everyone and leave it. Counsel may say the company lacks rights, or that existing client contracts block licensing, or that the risk outweighs the payment. All are valid. Check the situation against red flags that make a data licensing introduction a bad idea if you want to learn from it. For the pricing question that often comes up next, see what partners can and can't say about price.

If you are a lawyer or other licensed professional yourself, check your own rules on referral fees and disclosure before accepting any reward. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel or professional body before acting.

What does the owner usually want from counsel?

Owners rarely want a legal essay. They want a clear yes, no or "yes if". Help them frame the request so their lawyer can answer quickly:

• Does the company own the records it would like to offer, or do client and vendor contracts restrict them?
• Do employee notices, privacy policies and customer terms allow the intended use?
• Is the owner comfortable with an exclusive license for AI training for an agreed term?
• Who at the company is authorized to sign?
• What happens to personal details inside the records, and who decides?

Those five questions are the owner's, not yours. Offering them as a starting list saves the lawyer time and shows you respect the process.

Next step

Welcome the lawyer, keep your introduction ready, and let timing belong to the company. When the company is ready, register as a partner and make the introduction. Partners earn 25% of eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects, capped at $100,000 cumulative per referred company, payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; rewards are not guaranteed. The referral earnings calculator and the FAQ explain how the program works.