OUTSIDE GENERAL
COUNSEL SERVICES

Businesses often need legal advice to help them avoid problems, monitor compliance, and to protect their rights and interests. Large companies often turn to in-house legal counsel for most of these issues. But what happens when you cannot afford a legal department? When you don’t have attorneys on staff, you turn to outside general counsel.

Instead of treating your business’s legal needs in an ad hoc manner or working with random or semi-random attorneys that may or may not fully understand the current legal matter you and your company are facing, you will be working with an experienced business lawyer that understands your business and its inherent limitations; one you can trust to fully understand the legal issues.

When you hire The Legal Boutique to act as your outside general counsel you will have a piece of mind that you have access to trusted legal counsel that you can rely on to be there when needed.

What is an
Outside General
Counsel?

Outside general counsel, or outside counsel, are lawyers you retain to advise you on critical issues that affect your business. They are not employees of your company. Instead they are independent service providers. You can think of them as outsourced lawyers. You avoid the costs of adding employees, but still have access to top legal talent when you need it.

Why Businesses Hire Outside Legal Counsel

Businesses hire outside legal counsel because it is a cost effective way to gain access to experienced skilled lawyers to help them avoid or resolve legal issues so they can focus on running the business and improving revenues. The most common reason a small to mid-sized business will hire an outside general counsel is to manage the business’ day-to-day common on-going legal matters. Larger companies that have in-house legal staff primarily hire outside legal counsel specialized legal projects or litigation.

Outside general counsel handles issues such as:

  • Contract review and drafting
  • Contract disputes
  • Corporate Governance/Maintenance
  • Due Diligence
  • Reviewing with or assisting in potential mergers or acquisitions
  • Corporate/Commercial transactions
  • Overseeing Litigation

Companies hire outside legal counsel when:

  • They need legal advice, but they don’t have an in-house legal team.
  • Their in-house counsel lacks expertise in a particular area.
  • Their in-house counsel needs additional support for a specific project or case.
  • Their in-house counsel needs additional support for the day-to-day legal work.

One of the main benefits of hiring outside legal counsel is that you build a strong working relationship with that business attorney. Over time, that attorney will develop a deep understanding of your business and goals, and will be able to offer more specialized advice based on what they know about your business and industry.

How Businesses Without Staff
Attorneys Use Outside General Counsel

There are two different models for how businesses without an in-house staff of lawyers use outside general counsel:

Retain outside legal counsel
for individual issues

Under this approach, a company realizes it needs some legal expertise. Because it does not have a legal department to turn to, they hire outside legal counsel to advise them on a specific issue. They may negotiate a flat fee or pay per billable hour for the services of an outside law firm. However, the work is limited to a single issue.

Companies seeking to tightly control costs often use this approach. It works best when companies do not anticipate a lot of legal issues in their business. Even though the company only hires outside counsel for a single issue at a time, it still has the opportunity to develop a professional relationship with the outside law firm.

The firm is able to learn about the structure, culture, and business needs of the company throughout the relationship. The knowledge that grows out of the regular collaboration allows the firm to become more efficient. This helps keep legal costs manageable for the company.

Retain outside general
counsel on an ongoing basis

Under this approach, a company realizes it needs some legal expertise. Because it does not have a legal department to turn to, they hire outside legal counsel to advise them on a specific issue. They may negotiate a flat fee or pay per billable hour for the services of an outside law firm. However, the work is limited to a single issue.

Companies seeking to tightly control costs often use this approach. It works best when companies do not anticipate a lot of legal issues in their business. Even though the company only hires outside counsel for a single issue at a time, it still has the opportunity to develop a professional relationship with the outside law firm.

The firm is able to learn about the structure, culture, and business needs of the company throughout the relationship. The knowledge that grows out of the regular collaboration allows the firm to become more efficient. This helps keep legal costs manageable for the company.

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OUTSIDE GENERAL COUNSEL SERVICES

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