lawyer up

lawyer up (third-person singular simple present lawyers up, present participle lawyering up, simple past and past participle lawyered up)

1. (intransitive, chiefly US, informal) To exercise one's right to legal representation, especially on the occasion of refusing to answer law-enforcement officials' questions without the presence of such legal representation.
   • 2001, Amanda Ripley, "Rage Of The Hamptons," Time, 15 July:

     By the time patrol cars got to the friend's house, so had her lawyer. With her attorney running blocker, police could not even ascertain if Grubman had been driving the car, says Suffolk County district attorney James Catterson. "She was lawyered up, as we like to say."

2. (intransitive, chiefly US, informal, business) To conduct matters in accord with legal formalities or so as to avoid legal risk.
   • 2010, Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin:

     And I'll bet what you hated the most was that they identified me as a co-founder of Facebook, which I am. You better lawyer up asshole, because I'm not coming back for 30%, I'm coming back for EVERYTHING.

   Whenever we do business with those guys, we lawyer up to protect ourselves.

3. (transitive, informal, business) To arrange in a way reflecting legal advice.

   By the time we finished lawyering up the agreement, we didn't want to sign it.