Outsourced General Counsel Services
Your business is growing and you need more than just one-off legal services
Once your business hits seven figures in revenue (and maybe even before you hit that milestone), you will start to run into legal issues on quite a regular basis. Everything from employment issues to contracts to protecting your intellectual property and data. Now is the time to consider hiring a lawyer to serve as your outsourced general counsel. Read on to learn how we can help to legally protect your growing business.
As your business grows, so too do the legal issues you will need to deal with.
Why Outsourced General Counsel?
As your business grows, you may need assistance answering legal questions and getting counsel on a regular basis, but don’t yet have the budget for a full-time in-house attorney. This is where outsourced general counsel comes into play. For a predictable monthly fee, you will receive assistance on a variety of legal issues and questions.
What is Outsourced General Counsel?
At its most basic level, when you engage outsourced general counsel, you are hiring a lawyer or law firm to serve as the “legal department” of your company. Their role is to manage the routine legal needs of your business on a part-time basis. Some of the tasks that we can perform as your outsourced general counsel include contract drafting and negotiation, managing human resources and employment issues, managing your intellectual property portfolio, drafting letters and correspondence, working with outside law firms on litigation matters, corporate renewals and governance, and much more.
Costs of In-House vs. Outsourced General Counsel
Most startup businesses aren’t sure how much they should be budgeting for legal fees. My general recommendation is between $10,000-$15,000 for your first year.
As your business continues to grow, you can expect to be spending 3-5% of your gross revenue on legal fees, with the percentage decreasing as your revenue increases. The largest fortune 500 companies are spending less than 1% of their revenues on legal, and have large teams of lawyers working for them.
With these numbers in mind, a solid in-house counsel will run you at least $200,000 in annual salary, not including benefits, bonuses, equity and more. To afford this, your business will likely need to be generating $5-10 million per year in revenue, likely more than that.
On the other hand, an investment in outsourced general counsel can be as little as $1,000 per month - and you don’t have to worry about benefits or paying out bonuses.
What types of assistance does an outsourced general counsel provide?
Aside from having an attorney that is always available to speak with and answer your questions, outsourced general counsel can assist you with:
Strategic Advice and Counsel on a variety of legal and business matters
Deciding how and when to enter a new marketplace
Formulating marketing plans that comply with federal rules and regulations
Protecting your intellectual property on a national and global scale
Properly hiring and firing employees and contractors to minimize risk of lawsuits
Securing your customer data against costly cyber attacks
Regularly auditing your business to discover legal vulnerabilities
Anticipating potential legal problems and proactively working with you to minimize the financial damage to your bottom line
Taking part in shareholder and board meetings to insure all legal and strategic considerations are taken into account
Reviewing your contracts and agreements to insure you are properly protected
Ongoing legal counsel without paying hourly fees