Why Should a Business Use Fractional General Counsel?

Businesses continually seek to find efficiencies in their operations, and they need to cut costs wherever they can. With this focus on efficiency, many businesses are faced with difficult decisions when it comes to their legal expenses:

1. Do they continue to rely on traditional law firms? Traditional law firm expenses can be high and unpredictable.
2. Do they bring their legal services in-house? Moving their legal services in-house is not always an easy decision. Getting an experienced, highly effective general counsel typically requires executive-level compensation, to which you realistically must add benefits, staff support, technology and the like.
3. Fractional General Counsel offers a third option. With Fractional, or sometimes referred to as Outside General Counsel, businesses pay for an experienced attorney and are usually offered a flexible fee structure. Sometimes the business "subscribes" to a certain number of hours per week or per month and pays a fixed or flat fee. Sometimes the business chooses to pay an hourly rate that is usually a fraction of the hourly rates charged by traditional law firms.

What are the Benefits of Using Fractional General Counsel?

1. Using Fractional General Counsel enables the business to "try before they buy".

The businesses can not only determine if they have the right lawyer but also can determine if they even want to hire a full-time General Counsel. Since the Fractional General Counsel is an independent contractor, and not an employee, the business can simply terminate the arrangement without the fear of adverse employment action. The independent contractor status also provides the lawyer with a strong incentive to quickly understand the business, its issues, and its people, and to build a strong partnership relationship with the business's executives and employees.

2. Using Fractional General Counsel provides the business with a business-minded legal advisor.

The best Fractional General Counsel has served as in-house general counsel to businesses and appreciates the need for giving business-focused legal advice. The business gets a true strategic advisor who understands that good legal advice is about finding solutions and giving legal advice that helps the company achieve its business objectives.

3. Using Fractional General Counsel is cost-effective and predictable.

• As compared to hiring traditional law firms: Fractional General Counsel generally charges a fraction of the hourly rates of traditional law firms.
• As compared to hiring an in-house general counsel: Fractional General Counsel avoids the company having to pay an executive-level salary with benefits, support staff, and technology.
• The company can choose to "subscribe " to a certain number of hours per week/month (the company determines how much it wants to pay) and pays a predictable, "fixed" or "flat" fee. There are no surprises.

4. Using Fractional General Counsel is more Proactive rather than Reactive.

Fractional General Counsel enables the company to proactively prevent risks or claims by conducting legal audits and risk assessments to identify weaknesses or vulnerabilities before they result in claims, losses, and expense. The audits and assessments would involve review of the company's contracts (including leases, vendor contracts, technology agreements, privacy statements, and NDAs), protection of the company's intellectual property, its litigation exposure, employment practices, and compliance with regulatory requirements. The alternative is to hire legal counsel in reaction to claims or crises when the expense is likely to be significantly higher and the problems more threatening.

5. Using Fractional General Counsel allows for scalable growth.

The company can initially subscribe to a minimum number of hours with Fractional General Counsel and as the company grows it can increase the number of hours so that the legal advice evolves with the business.

Partner with a Highly Experienced Fractional General Counsel

Dedicated General Counsel PLLC offers general counsel services which enable your business to obtain cost-effective legal advice from a highly experienced lawyer who has spent decades delivering value to businesses by helping them navigate complex issues and to find solutions to the company's problems and challenges. Dedicated General Counsel can assist virtually all companies, from business startups to companies pursuing growth initiatives, to mature companies seeking to sustain successful operations, to companies preparing for their business exit; and from public companies to private companies, to family-owned businesses, to nonprofit organizations. Having an attorney-client relationship in place means you know exactly who to call when you have a question, when you are faced with a crisis, when you need advice about a brewing conflict, or when you have been served with a lawsuit. Partner with an experienced Tennessee attorney for the peace of mind that comes from having a trusted legal advisor. Contact Dedicated General Counsel today at steve.groom@dedicatedgeneralcounsel.com or at 615-652-0839.