Honest answer from a law clinic: for some of it, no. For the parts that decide whether your company survives a dispute or a fundraise, yes, and here's how to tell the difference.

You can handle plenty yourself. Reserving a name, opening a bank account, basic bookkeeping, none of that needs a lawyer. Where founders get hurt is the stuff that looks like paperwork but is actually a decision with consequences: how you split equity, what you sign with a co-founder or investor, whether your brand is protected, what your contracts actually obligate you to do. Those are cheap to get right and brutal to fix after the fact.

The tell is simple. If getting it wrong would cost you the company, your ownership, or your brand, that's not a DIY moment. If it's an errand, do it yourself.

The catch used to be cost. That's the gap BLIP exists to close. We're a law clinic that represents founders who can't yet afford private counsel, at no charge, so "I can't afford a lawyer" stops being the reason you skip the parts that matter.

See if you qualify.