Services

Predictable legal infrastructure for founders who are done guessing.

Most small and mid-sized businesses operate without any dedicated legal counsel. Not because they don’t need it. Because the traditional model, a $400-per-hour attorney who bills by the tenth of an hour, was never designed for them.

Understory Advising PLLC was built to close that gap. We provide embedded legal leadership on a flat-fee model, so you know exactly what you’re getting and exactly what it costs.

Every engagement is led by Morgan Bobadilla, Esq., a former Director and General Counsel with 10+ years of experience in global manufacturing, employment, governance, and strategic transactions.

Fractional General Counsel

Your legal department. Without the full-time overhead.

A fractional GC engagement means you have a dedicated legal strategist embedded in your business on a recurring basis. Not a lawyer ou call when something goes wrong. A partner who helps you build systems so fewer things go wrong.

    • Generating revenue but operating without formal legal oversight

    • Signing contracts you haven’t fully reviewed or don’t fully understand

    • Navigating a period of growth, hiring, or operational complexity

  • Engagements are scoped individually, but may include:

    • Ongoing contract review, drafting, and negotiation support

    • Policy development and regulatory risk management

    • Strategic risk counseling and operational legal guidance

    • Outside counsel coordination and management

    • Direct access to an attorney via email for day-to-day questions

Price Tiers

Mid-Market Counsel

$3500+/month

For businesses with $1M+ in revenue navigating active growth, complex vendor relationships, or ongoing transactional needs. Embedded strategic relationships with priority response times and expanded scope.

Small Business Advisory

$500+/month

For earlier-stage founders who need a legal sounding board, policy support, and contract oversight without full-time engagement. Advisory and document review.

We recommend all Fractional GC engagements begin with a Strategic Reset to establish your legal baseline. Pricing reflects starts rates.

Scope determined at intake.

The Strategic Reset

A one-time diagnostic for founders who need clarity before they can move forward.

The Strategic Reset is a structured, intensive engagement designed to map your current legal landscape, identify your highest-risk exposures, and give you a prioritized roadmap for getting your infrastructure in order.

Think of it as a full audit of your foundation. We review your core contracts, governance documents, policies, and operational agreements. We identify exactly what is holding up under pressure and what is not.

    • Entering a new phase of growth and need to know what you don’t know

    • Preparing for a partnership, acquisition, or major contract negotiation

    • Recovering from a legal or operational crisis and need a clean baseline

    • Considering a Fractional GC engagement and want to start with a freshly defined scope

    • Comprehensive review of your key contracts, policies, and governance documents

    • One full strategy session to walk through findings and recommendations

    • 30 day follow-up call to assess progress and further refine the path forward

Workshops

Operational risk and compliance education for founders and their teams.

Understory workshops are not lectures. They are working sessions designed to give founders the tools to think like a General Counsel, spot risk before it becomes a crisis, and make better decisions under pressure.

Each workshop is hosted in Tacoma, WA and limited to small groups to ensure every participant leaves with a usable output, not just notes.

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Current Workshops

Field Notes

Lessons from the Weeds: Operational Risk Management for Founders

Field Notes is a half-day intensive workshop that borrows the toolkit of a risk professional and applies it to the reality of running a small business. We don’t talk about mindset. We talk about contracts, cash flow cliffs, key-person dependency, and the decisions that keep founders up at night.

  • Founders and operators of small and mid-sized businesses who are ready to stop running from fires and start building systems.

    • A completed risk inventory for their business

    • A prioritized Field Chart of their highest-exposure areas

    • A set of If/Then protocols for their most critical red flags

    • The Field Notes Participant Workbook for ongoing reference

Investment

$750/person

Group pricing available for groups of 3+