Meet William: Building Trust, Driving Impact, Growing with Close Peers

William didn’t set out to become a hardware compliance expert or an AI adoption champion. But as a Product Counsel with Axiom, that’s exactly what happened - one embedded engagement at a time.

Becoming the Partner Product Teams Actually Want in the Room

At Meta, William became a trusted partner to product, logistics, and sales enablement teams during the company’s rapid adoption of AI, including the international rollout of AI glasses. What made it work was embedding early with product, logistics, and trade compliance teams rather than waiting for launch reviews.

That meant building deep fluency in both the technology and the regulatory landscape: product safety certifications, packaging and labeling standards, local language requirements, and foreign direct investment rules, plus the logistics legalities of tariff classifications, import/export controls, and global warranty structures.

“Trust came from operating as an advisor who understood their and sprint cadence, balanced speed against risk, and communicated in plain terms rather than legal blockers - enabling the business to move quickly without breaking things,”

For William, that’s the whole philosophy of product counsel: get involved early, match the pace of the business, and find practical pathways to the goal - not just flag the risk and walk away.

Solving Problems That Redefine the Job

The engagement gave William a front-row seat to emerging consumer technology, and the range of technologies and regulatory domains stretched his practice, even within a single project. Supporting the AI glasses rollout meant moving between consumer hardware and generative AI in the same week, each with its own regulatory demands.

At the same time, the company’s rapid adoption of AI was reshaping his own practice. William integrated Harvey AI and custom AI agents into his workflow to accelerate first-pass regulatory reviews across jurisdictions and turn around clear, actionable guidance quickly.

The experience taught him that growth isn’t just a matter of time served. “Growth as Product Counsel comes from range, not just tenure,” he says.

“The more domains you can move between fluently, the faster you can give practical, business-ready guidance from day one.”

Learning from a Community of Peers

Axiom’s product counsel community spans compliance, corporate, employment, litigation, and commercial attorneys - and William credits that mix with sharpening how he thinks.

It’s a community built on the belief that there is rarely a single right way to approach a complex legal challenge, and that the best answer usually comes from comparing notes with someone who’s solved a version of the same problem before.

If you’re a Product Counsel who wants your work to matter, wants to be treated as a strategic partner rather than a checklist, and wants to be part of a community of peers who make you sharper - William’s story is a preview of what’s possible at Axiom.

About Axiom: Axiom pioneered alternative legal services in 2000 and is now the global leader in expert on-demand legal talent. Our lawyers work directly inside in-house legal teams at leading companies, including 75% of the Fortune 100, across more than 3,000 engagements a year in six regions. You’ll join a network of 14,000+ lawyers and legal professionals, more than 4,000 of them with Fortune 500 experience. Through our Tech+Talent solution, you can also use AI-enabled tools for contract review, M&A diligence, and regulatory compliance.