Fractional General Counsel

Most growing businesses reach a point where they need legal input regularly rather than calling a firm each time something comes up. The work is steady enough that instructing externally becomes slow and expensive, but not heavy enough to justify a full-time hire.

A fractional General Counsel sits in that gap. You get an experienced commercial lawyer working inside your business on a monthly retainer, someone who already understands your contracts, your customers and your commercial priorities, and who is there when questions arise rather than days later.

The role goes by several names. Fractional General Counsel, fractional legal counsel, outsourced GC and part-time GC all describe the same arrangement: senior in-house legal capability bought by the month rather than hired.

What the role actually involves

This is not a cheaper version of a law firm. It is the in-house legal function, delivered part-time.

Your counsel works proactively. They see the deal before it is signed rather than after it has gone wrong. Because the relationship is continuous there is no repeated briefing and no learning curve on every new matter. Advice is given in the context of what the business is trying to achieve. The cost is a fixed monthly figure rather than a series of unpredictable invoices.

When businesses need this support

The need usually becomes clear when:

• Contracts are arriving faster than anyone has time to review them properly.
• Customers, investors or partners start asking detailed questions about data protection, IP ownership or liability that no one internally is able to answer with confidence.
• The management team is spending time on legal issues that would be better spent elsewhere.
• A funding round, acquisition or significant commercial opportunity is on the horizon and the existing paperwork will not stand up to scrutiny.
• External legal spend has grown to the point where a retainer would be more efficient.

What is typically covered

The scope is tailored to the business. It commonly includes:

How the retainer works

You choose a level of monthly support that reflects how much legal work the business generates. The scope is agreed in advance, the cost is fixed, and the arrangement is reviewed as needs change.

Where a matter falls outside the retainer, or if you would prefer not to commit to one, we are also instructed on individual matters.

Full details are on the pricing page. The how we work page explains what the first month typically looks like.

Who we work with

We work with technology and IT businesses, and with companies in construction, renewables and infrastructure. Clients range from organisations of around twenty people to groups operating across several countries.

How this works in practice