Terms of Use

Welcome to Qounsel (“Qounsel” or the “Company”), a private Internet platform designed for leading attorneys to connect, cooperate, and build relationships. Please review these Terms of Service carefully:

1. Accepting the Terms; Modifications

By using the Service (as defined below), you (“user”) agree to be legally bound by the terms set forth herein (the “Agreement”). If at any time you does not agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you must cease using the Service immediately and request your account be terminated. By using the information, tools, features and functionality located on the Service (together with related software and applications, the “Service”), you agree to be bound by this Agreement as a registered User of the Service.
If you accept this Agreement, you represent that you have the capacity to be bound by it and that you have read and understood all of the terms and conditions expressed herein.
We reserve the right to amend this Agreement at any time by notifying you as provided in this Agreement, provided that no notice shall be required for non-substantive changes to the Agreement. If we substantively amend this Agreement, we will give you at least seven (7) days notice before the changes take effect, during which period of time you may reject the changes by terminating your account. Your continued use of the Service after any such change constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms of Service. If you do not agree to any of these terms or any future Terms of Service, do not use or access (or continue to access) the Service.

2. Availability and Eligibility

The Service is available only to, and may only be used by, individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, our services are not available to children (persons under the age of 18).
In order to use the Service, you must be a licensed attorney. It is your responsibility to maintain your state’s license to practice; the Company will not be responsible for monitoring your license or compliance status. Further, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use of the Service is not in violation of any rules or standards set by the bar(s) of which you are a member.
If you register with the Service, your account LoginID and password may not be transferred, assigned, loaned, given or sold to another party, and that any attempted transfer, loan or assignment shall be void and shall constitute a material breach of these Terms of Service.
You further agree that the Company may at any time, at its sole discretion, and without prior notice to you, transfer or assign the information contained in your profile and any or all of its rights and/or obligations for your account hereunder in its free, sole, and unfettered discretion at any time, to an affiliated or non-affiliated Company.
This Agreement is not for the benefit of any third party, and shall not be deemed to grant any right or remedy to any third party whether or not referred to in this Agreement.

3. Registration Information

You agree and understand that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password which, together with your LoginID, allows you to access the Service.
Your Login ID and password, together with any phone number, email address, physical address or other contact information you provide, form your "Registration Information."
By providing us with your e-mail address, you agree to receive all required notices electronically, to that e-mail address. It is your responsibility to update or change that address, as appropriate. Notices will be provided in HTML (or, if your system does not support HTML, in plain-text) in the text of the e-mail or through a link to the appropriate page on our site, accessible through any standard, commercially available internet browser.

4. Use of the Service

Your right to use the Service is personal to you and is not transferable by you to any other person or entity. You are granted a nonexclusive access to use the Service and its contents that is limited in accordance with these Terms of Service. You are only entitled to access and use the Service for lawful purposes.
In order for you to use the Service, you must provide true, accurate, current and complete records and information about your account, and you may not misrepresent any information including but not limited to your Registration Information and your professional qualifications and status. In order for the Service to function effectively, you must also keep your Registration Information up to date and accurate. Your failure to provide accurate and current information will adversely impact the accuracy and effectiveness of the Service.
Your access and use of the Service may be interrupted from time to time for any of several reasons, including, without limitation, the malfunction of equipment, periodic updating, maintenance or repair of the Service or other actions that may occur and/or that the Company, in its sole discretion, may elect to take.

5. No Attorney-Client Relationship; No Warranty

You acknowledge that, in the event you elect to engage or otherwise collaborate with any other attorney participating in Qounsel, it is your responsibility to independently confirm that participating lawyer’s qualifications and capabilities. Qounsel makes no warranty as to the qualifications or capabilities of any participating attorney. Further, Qounsel makes no warranty as to the accuracy of any information provided by attorneys through the Service.
Qounsel is not a law firm. By utilizing the Service, you acknowledge and agree that Qounsel is not entering into any attorney-client relationship by offering the Service.

6. Payment For Qounsel Services

The Service may be provided for a fee or other charge. If you elect to use paid aspects of the Service, you agree to the terms of sale, pricing, payment and billing policies applicable to such fees and charges. Qounsel may add new services for additional fees and charges, or amend fees and charges for existing services, at any time in its sole discretion.
In the event that Qounsel suspends or terminates your account or this Agreement for any reason, you understand and agree that you shall receive no refund for any unused time on a subscription, any license or subscription fees for any portion of the Service, any content or data associated with your account, or for anything else.
All information that you provide in connection with a purchase or transaction or other monetary transaction interaction with the Service must be accurate, complete, and current. You agree to pay all charges incurred by users of your credit card, debit card, or other payment method used in connection with a purchase or transaction or other monetary transaction interaction with the Service at the prices in effect when such charges are incurred. You will pay any applicable taxes, if any, relating to any such purchases, transactions or other monetary transaction interactions.

7. Our Intellectual Property Rights

The contents of the Service, including its “look and feel” (e.g., text, graphics, images, logos and button icons), photographs, editorial content, notices, software (including html-based computer programs) and other material are protected under both United States and other applicable copyright, trademark and other laws.
The Service grants you the right to view and use the Service subject to these terms. You may download or print a copy of information provided on the Service for your personal, internal use only. Any distribution, reprint or electronic reproduction of any content from the Service in whole or in part for any other purpose is expressly prohibited without our prior written consent. Use of the Service is an acknowledgement that all content is the property of the Company (and its licensors) and that the Company (and its licensors) owns all rights, including copyrights in and to the content.
By accessing this information, you agree that you will not use it for any unintended purpose including but not limited to use for competitive endeavors, adversarial activities or corporate espionage. You also agree you will not remove, scrape, copy or otherwise emulate any of the information on the Service.
Qounsel reserves all rights not expressly granted herein with respect to the Service or the components thereof.

8. Access and Interference

You agree that you will not:

Use any robot, spider, scraper, crawler, deep link or other similar automated data gathering or extraction tools, program, algorithm or methodology to access, acquire, copy or monitor the Service or any portion of the Service, without the Company’s express written consent, which may be withheld in its sole discretion;
Use or attempt to use any engine, software, tool, agent, or other device or mechanism (including without limitation browsers, spiders, robots, avatars or intelligent agents) to navigate or search the Service, other than the search engines and search agents available through the Service and other than generally available third-party web browsers (such as Microsoft Explorer);
Post or transmit any file which contains viruses, worms, Trojan horses or any other contaminating or destructive features, or that otherwise interfere with the proper working of the Service; or
Attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse-engineer any of the software comprising or in any way making up a part of the Service or the Service.
Transmit spam, chain letters, or other communication that the Company deems inconsistent with the best interest of the Service and its users,
Attempt to interfere with, compromise the system integrity or security or decipher any transmissions to or from any servers running the Service.
Take any action that imposes, or may impose at our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure.
Upload invalid data, viruses, worms, or other software agents through the Service.
Collect or harvest any personally identifiable information, including, without limitation, account names, from the Service.
Impersonate another person, misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity, or attempt to hide your identity.
Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as of privacy and publicity) of any other user of the Service or staff member of Qounsel.
Interfere with the proper working of the Service.
Bypass the measures the Company may use to prevent or restrict access to the Service, including without limitation features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any content or enforce limitations on use of the Service or the content therein.
Encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing.

9. Rules for Posting

As part of the Service, you may to post content on bulletin boards, forums, blogs and at various other publicly available locations on the Service. You agree in posting content to follow certain rules.

You are responsible for all content you submit to the Service.
By submitting content to the Service, you represent that you have all necessary rights and hereby grant us a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, modify, display, and perform all or any portion of the content in connection with the Service and our business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user a non-exclusive license to access your posted content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under this Agreement.
You may not post or transmit any message, data, image or program that would violate the property rights of others, including unauthorized copyrighted text, images or programs, trade secrets or other confidential proprietary information, and trademarks or service marks used in an infringing fashion.
You may not post or transmit any message which is libelous or defamatory, or which discloses private or personal matters concerning any person. You may not post or transmit any message, data, image or program that is indecent, obscene, pornographic, harassing, threatening, abusive, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive; that encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or violate any law; or that is otherwise inappropriate.
You may not interfere with other users' use of the Service, including, without limitation, disrupting the normal flow of dialogue in an interactive area of the Service, deleting or revising any content posted by another person or entity, or taking any action that imposes a disproportionate burden on the Service infrastructure or that negatively affects the availability of the Service to others.
You agree that we may use any feedback, suggestions, or ideas you post in any way, including in future modifications of the Service, other products or services, advertising or marketing materials. You grant us a perpetual, worldwide, fully transferable, sublicensable, non-revocable, fully paid-up, royalty free license to use the feedback you provide to us in any way.
You represent that all information that you (or anyone you allow to interact on your behalf) post on the Service is accurate and current. You agree to be responsible for any and all damages, direct or indirect, resulting from providing inaccurate or outdated information and agree to reimburse the Service for any direct or indirect costs of litigation resulting from your failure to provide accurate or outdated information.

10. Unlawful Activity

The Company has the right to investigate complaints or violations to the Terms of Service and to take all actions deemed appropriate, including but not limited to, reporting suspected unlawful activity to local authorities and state regulators, or others, and disclosing any information necessary to such authorities and entities regarding posted materials, user profiles, e-mail addresses, internet protocol addresses and usage history.

11. DMCA Policy

Company takes claims of copyright infringement very seriously. Our policy for handling claims of infringement is to have our designated agent review and respond to notices of infringement when a DMCA compliant notice is provided to us.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires that all infringement claims must be in writing and must include the following information:

A description of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
A description of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit the Company to locate the material;
Your contact information, including your mailing address, telephone number, and email address;
A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on of the copyright owner; and
A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or the person authorized to act on its behalf.

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), Company has designated an agent to receive notification of alleged copyright infringement occurring on the Service. If you believe that your copyrighted work is being infringed, notify the designated agent specified below by email and first-class mail as follows:

John H. Snyder PLLC
555 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1700
New York, NY 10017
[email protected]

12. Notices

Notification Procedures. Qounsel may provide notifications, whether such notifications are required by law or are for marketing or other business related purposes, to you via email notice, written or hard copy notice, or through conspicuous posting of such notice on our website, as determined by Qounsel in our sole discretion. Qounsel reserves the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to our Users, provided that you may opt out of certain means of notification as described in this Agreement. Qounsel is not responsible for any automatic filtering you or your network provider may apply to email notifications we send to the email address you provide us. We recommend that you add [email protected] to your email address book to help ensure you receive email notifications from us.

13. Entire Agreement

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement of the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof, and supersedes and cancels all other prior agreements, discussion, or representations, whether written or oral. No officer, employee or representative of Company nor you have any authority to make any representation or promise in connection with this Agreement or the subject matter thereof which is not contained expressly in this Agreement; and, Company and you hereby acknowledge and agree that neither Company nor you have entered into this Agreement in reliance upon any such representation or promise.

14. Enforceability

In the event any one or more of the provisions contained in this Agreement is deemed unlawful, void or unenforceable by any arbitrator or court of competent jurisdiction, this Agreement as a whole shall not be deemed unlawful, void or unenforceable, but only that portion of this Agreement that is unlawful, void or unenforceable shall be stricken from this Agreement and the rest shall remain in full force and effect.
You agree that the Service does have the right to release any legal right or remedy which is contained in the Agreement (or which the Service has the benefit of under any applicable law). This will not be taken to be a formal waiver of the Company’s rights and that those rights or remedies will still be available to the Company.
All covenants, agreements, representations and warranties made in this Agreement shall survive your acceptance of this Agreement and the termination of this Agreement.

15. Waiver

A waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement in any one instance shall not be deemed or construed to be a waiver of such term or condition for any similar instance in the future of any subsequent breach hereof. All rights, remedies, undertakings, obligations and agreements contained in this Agreement shall be cumulative and none of them shall be a limitation of any other remedy, right, undertaking, obligation, or agreement.

16. Warranties; Disclaimers; Limitation on Liability

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, THE COMPANY EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. THE COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR BE AVAILABLE ON AN UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE BASIS. THE COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE QUALITY OF ANY SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICE OR THE ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, TRUTHFULNESS, COMPLETENESS OR RELIABILITY OF ANY CONTENT OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICE.

NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED FROM THE COMPANY OR THROUGH THE SERVICE, WILL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY MADE HEREIN.

YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF YOUR COMMUNICATIONS AND INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER USERS OF THE SERVICE AND WITH OTHER PERSONS WITH WHOM YOU COMMUNICATE OR INTERACT AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THE COMPANY DOES NOT SCREEN OR INQUIRE INTO THE BACKGROUND OF ANY USERS OF THE SERVICE, NOR DOES THE COMPANY MAKE ANY ATTEMPT TO VERIFY THE STATEMENTS OF USERS OF THE SERVICE. THE COMPANY MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE CONDUCT OF USERS OF THE SERVICE OR THEIR COMPATIBILITY WITH ANY CURRENT OR FUTURE USERS OF THE SERVICE. YOU AGREE TO TAKE REASONABLE PRECAUTIONS IN ALL COMMUNICATIONS AND INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER USERS OF THE SERVICE AND WITH OTHER PERSONS WITH WHOM YOU COMMUNICATE OR INTERACT AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, PARTICULARLY IF YOU DECIDE TO MEET OFFLINE OR IN PERSON.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICE REMAINS WITH YOU. NEITHER THE COMPANY NOR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING, OR DELIVERING THE SERVICE WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA OR LOSS OF GOODWILL, SERVICE INTERRUPTION, COMPUTER DAMAGE OR SYSTEM FAILURE OR THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY DAMAGES FOR PERSONAL OR BODILY INJURY OR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OF SERVICE OR FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, OR FROM ANY COMMUNICATIONS, INTERACTIONS OR MEETINGS WITH OTHER USERS OF THE SERVICE OR OTHER PERSONS WITH WHOM YOU COMMUNICATE OR INTERACT AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE COMPANY HAS BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE, EVEN IF A LIMITED REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

IN NO EVENT WILL THE COMPANY’S AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OF SERVICE OR FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE EXCEED THE AMOUNTS YOU HAVE PAID TO THE COMPANY FOR USE OF THE SERVICE, OR FIFTY DOLLARS ($50.00 USD) IF YOU HAVE NOT PAID ANY SUCH AMOUNTS, AS APPLICABLE. THE LIMITATIONS OF DAMAGES SET FORTH ABOVE ARE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN THE COMPANY AND YOU. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

17. Your Indemnification of the Company

You shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company and its officers, directors, shareholders, contractors, employees and other users, from and against all claims and expenses, including but not limited to legal fees, in whole or in part arising out of or attributable to any breach of this Agreement by you.

18. Termination

Without limitation, the Company may terminate your right to use the Service if (1) you breach any term of these Terms of Service or the Privacy Policy, (2) you are not a licensed attorney in the United States, (3) you are impersonating a licensed attorney in the United States, (4) you enter false information about yourself in your profile, (5) the Company should otherwise determine, in its sole discretion, that you have engaged in inappropriate and/or offensive behavior or behavior that may negatively impact the Company, the Service or the Services, or (6) the Company determines in its sole discretion that you do not meet the standards that the Company may prescribe from time to time for participation in Qounsel.

Should the Company terminate your right to use the Service or the Service for any of these reasons, you will not be entitled to any refunds. In addition to terminating your account, the Company reserves the right to take appropriate legal action, including without limitation pursuing civil, criminal, and injunctive redress. Even after your right to use the Service is terminated, these Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy will remain enforceable against you.

19. Governing Law and Forum for Disputes

This Agreement, and your relationship with the Company under this Agreement, shall be governed and construed by the laws of the State of New York without regard to its conflict or choice of law provisions. Any dispute with the Company, or its officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents or affiliates, arising under or in relation to this Agreement shall be resolved exclusively through the State and Federal Courts located in Manhattan, New York, except with respect to imminent harm requiring temporary or preliminary injunctive relief in which case the Company may seek such relief in any court with jurisdiction over the parties.

20. Legal Fees, Costs

If suit, action or arbitration is brought to enforce or interpret any provision of this Agreement, or the rights or obligations of any party hereto as they relate to the subject matter of this Agreement, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover, as an element of such party's costs of suit, and not as damages, all reasonable costs and expenses incurred or sustained by such prevailing party in connection with such suit or action or arbitration, including, without limitation, lawyers' fees and expenses and court costs.