Can a Letter of Intent be legally binding?

Yes. A lawyer can assist you with a letter of intent. Schedule a consult.

Short answer is yes...provided they contain the basic elements of a binding agreement. LOI's can be short and simple or extensive and detailed. Most often, LOIs are intended to provide a road map for the drafting of more formal, comprehensive binding agreements and contain an express a provision that they are not intended to be binding upon the parties to the LOI.

With the caveat that I am a Pennsylvania and not Texas attorney, most LOI's are non-binding, unless the LOI itself provides otherwise. A lawyer would need to review the LOI to determine whether the deal can be enforced. Mostly likely, however, it cannot be enforced.

Yes, they can, depending on how they’re written. Generally speaking, a promise to enter into an agreement isn’t binding. But the problem with most Letters of Intent is that they can sometimes contain all of the essential elements of a contract: offer, consideration, demonstration of capacity, and contracting for something it’s legal to contract for. So how is a Letter of Intent NOT a contract? You have to remove one of the elements, usually the offer or consideration. It has to say that it’s not an offer, for example - that it’s a negotiation document. And 99/100, LoI’s don’t say that at all.

A "letter of intent" is typically not signed by a lawyer, it is signed by two or more parties who intend to enter into a transaction together in the future, but who do not yet have sufficient details regarding the terms of the transaction to enter into a formal agreement. Has the trade show given any additional info / context about this request? - I think your question has not been answered because your use of the term "letter of intent" and "lawyer" in this context is unusual. More information about what you mean by "registered a startup" would also be helpful - if you have formed a company, you should be able to provide a certificate of good standing or other evidence of that formation to the show, which may be sufficient. If you cannot provide that documentation, I wonder if you are also using the term "registered" in another, non-traditional way (from a legal point of view)? Happy to try to help with more info!