Contact us today - 0330 094 9338

What is Fractional General Counsel and how can it help your business?

Being a General Counsel (‘GC’) is much more than being an in-house lawyer, knowledge of the law is essential but often peripheral to the other skills that are required of you; such as advising Boards, managing risks across the business, problem solving, project management, corporate governance being just a few of the additional areas General Counsels are expected to cover in addition to providing general legal advice! In start-up scenarios the GC role can take on even wider responsibilities and, as a sole GC within a business, there is never time to precious about what work you will/won’t do.

Employing a permanent in-house lawyer isn’t always the most appropriate choice for businesses for a variety of reasons, not least the cost. In addition, for example, finding the right lawyer who is able to provide you with a broad range of legal advice may not always be possible and it may not be necessary to employ a lawyer within your business full time.

Using the services of a ‘Fractional GC’ can be of benefit in the following ways:

  1. Represented by an experienced senior lawyer who has operated at GC level for over 10 years;
  2. Certainty of fees and effective management of legal budgets (we can work on a project or fixed fee basis or offer a monthly retainer arrangement where you ‘buy’ days of our time);
  3. Responsive and timely legal advice which is commercial practical and easy to understand;
  4. Clear legal understanding of the risks across your business, balancing them with the competing commercial constraints;
  5. Remove the need for the CEO, CFO or COO to have to manage multiple external lawyers, we will be your single point of contact;
  6. Deal with diverse legal matters (such as business set up and structure, commercial contracts, employment advice, immigration, general terms and conditions – product support, regulatory, GDPR and Data Protection, fund raising, compliance, risk assessment and training) and also manage the instruction of specialist external legal support where needed.

The stage of your business will also dictate the level of legal support you require and we have identified 3 key stages and the ways in which we might be able to assist:

Start Up

  • Ad Hoc support;
  • Policies, procedures, templates; and
  • Assisting with the building blocks for creating a strong base to enable you to move your business to the next stage

Growth/Build Up/Evolution

  • Not ready to hire in-house counsel but need more formal legal support;
  • Single point of contact who understands your business and its needs; and
  • Ability to advise on contracts, people and incentives, provide compliance support and put the legal, compliance and corporate governance structures in place to allow the business to grow and scale.

Established

  • Assist in the creation of an in-house legal team/first in-house appointment;
  • Manage increasing volumes of work; and
  • Workflow management, training, ongoing support.