A Part-Time General Counsel

✓ Is an elegant solution that allows your Company to gain access to an experienced General Counsel who can – efficiently and affordably – fill leadership gaps, solve specific problems or help the company expand, experiment or improve in new areas.

✓ Can work for your Company on a long-term or project basis or serve in the interim while your Company is searching for a full-time professional to fill the role.

✓ Will develop a good understanding of your Company’s business, risk appetite, and policy approaches. This allows her to collaborate more effectively with your business and the leadership to provide strategic and legal advice and to assist you in policy making and business decisions that are not specifically legal in nature and, therefore, not suitable for outside counsel.

✓ May retain and work with outside transactional counsel on behalf of your Company, to ensure that outside counsel is working efficiently and providing the advice that the company needs.

✓ Can serve the same role as an experienced in-house lawyer but does so more flexibly and often more efficiently as an independent contractor rather than as a full-time employee.

The Part-Time General Counsel arrangement can be a win-win for all involved, offering right-sized fees, predictability of legal costs, and development of institutional knowledge in the business.

✓ Any company that wants the benefit of a commercially-oriented and highly experienced lawyer at a lower price than a full-time employee or law firm partner.

✓ Any company that wants to avoid costly outcomes down the road because of litigation, contracts that don’t accurately reflect the business deal, or contracts that do not mitigate risk appropriately caused by a lack of an experienced and commercially-oriented legal perspective. A legal perspective can be valuable in almost every business matter, and at some point, every business encounters legal needs that require the assistance of an attorney. Because of budget constraints, some businesses try to do their own legal work, without the benefit of a lawyer, by using boilerplate contracts and entering into all types of agreements without any legal review. Others hire a junior lawyer who doesn’t yet have enough experience to spot issues or fully address the company’s legal needs or who does not understand how to properly mitigate issues

✓ Any company that wants an affordable, seasoned in-house lawyer who is deeply familiar with the business and can handle most of your company’s legal needs without the high cost of a full-time employee.

If you answer “yes” to any of the following questions, you should hire a Fractional General Counsel:

Do you

• spend time managing legal matters for your organization that you could be spending on growing your business?

• regularly have a non-lawyer drafting, negotiating, and/or reviewing your contracts?

• worry that your corporate policies need to be updated to reflect your current risk appetite and/or best practice?

• or another non-lawyer supervise outside lawyers' work and the cost of their services?

• spend time on issues such as human resources matters, which interrupt your ability to focus on your business?

• currently use outside attorneys for matters that do not require legal specialization, such as tax or intellectual property?

Would you like to have a lawyer who:

• Understands all aspects of your company’s business, including the objectives of the CEO, the management team, and the Board;

• Appreciates the financial impact of each business decision, establishes ways to generate revenue through contract negotiation, drafting, and management, and properly budgets and controls the company’s legal spend;

• Creates innovative ways to make the legal department a profit center, while limiting legal risk and exposure;

• Collaborates and develops relationships with all levels and departments of the organization to truly understand the inner workings of the company and objectives of the business; and

• Charges substantially less than big law firm partners.