You need a lawyer

(2 min read) Why every Creator should get a lawyer — for the important stuff and the gnarly stuff

Author

Avi Gandhi
May 06, 2025

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TACTICS

You probably need a lawyer.

I'm not saying you need to have one on retainer, or pay one to review every contract.

I'm saying you need a lawyer that you trust that you can pay to handle:

  1. The important stuff

  2. The gnarly stuff.

But what exactly am I talking about?

*(I am not an attorney, this is not legal advice, consult an attorney for legal advice. My lawyer told me to say that.)

Important stuff

Talk to anyone who's been in the Creator Economy for long enough, and you'll eventually hear about the multi-channel networks of the mid-2010s. Maker Studios, Fullscreen, Awesomeness TV, Machinima - these were venture-backed fixtures in the Creator Economy through YouTube’s meteoric first decade.

They also f*cked over a lot of Creators.

The MCN business model was to sell premium ads and sponsorships in exchange for a share of AdSense revenue. This model might have been fine if they were actually making Creators lots of money, but what they ended up doing is signing tens of thousands of Creators only to actually service a few hundred. The rest paid 30% (or more…) of their AdSense revenue without getting any real value in return. Many even signed contracts that locked them into paying 50% of their revenue, tying them up for 4+ years.

The MCNs got away with this for years because the vast majority of Creators they were signing did not have any representation. This was early in the Creator Economy, so there were very few Creator-focused agents and managers (I was one of them), and we really only worked with the very, very biggest. The rest had no access to business representation.

But anyone can hire a lawyer.

So.

Many.

Lawyers.

If a contract is important, then you should have a lawyer look at it.

What makes a contract important varies from person to person, but the core question you should ask is this:

If something goes wrong, could it potentially mess with you, your business, or your happiness?

If YES, hire a lawyer.

I would even say that if you’re UNCERTAIN, hire a lawyer.

Why?

Because you want to avoid the gnarly stuff.

Gnarly stuff

The term “gnarly” originates from Southern California surf culture; based on the word 'gnarled', which means “rough and twisted”, it was used to describe dangerous waves.

A Creator recently hit me up because an agency withheld money they were owed.

The Creator thought it was fine to do something based on their contract with the agency and a brand, but the agency claimed the Creator was in violation.

The Creator was trying to get in touch with the brand directly to work it out.

Doesn't this just scream "gnarly"?

Contract disputes are, by their nature, “rough and twisted”. Words are interpretable, and sometimes what’s in the contract is less important than what isn’t.

I told this Creator they needed to talk to a lawyer, and I put them in touch with a good one.

The thing with contract disputes is that they are unpredictable, time-consuming, and painful. Like a gnarly wave you might be able to ride it to shore if you are lucky, but you are equally likely to get crushed and swept under.

Once you mention the terms of a contract, if the other party disagrees, it becomes a contract dispute. If it gets to that point, don’t try to surf the wave yourself. Bring in a lawyer.

The best way to avoid getting to that point is by bringing a lawyer in early, for the important stuff.

And that's why you probably need a lawyer.

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Written by Avi Gandhi, edited by Melody Song,
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