Outside General Counsel
An outside general counsel relationship is not a subscription to a fixed set of services. It is a standing arrangement in which the attorney who handled last quarter’s lease renewal is the one available for whatever comes up next: a cease-and-desist letter, an employment agreement, a vendor dispute, a question from an investor, a new location.
The value is continuity. Because the same attorney already knows the entity structure, the existing guaranties, the governing documents, and the commercial relationships, a question that would otherwise require a new lawyer to learn the business can usually be answered directly.
Standing company-counsel relationships are particularly useful for:
Family-owned and closely held businesses
Franchisees and multi-location operators
Restaurant, hospitality, recreation, and consumer-service companies
SaaS, technology, digital-platform, and IP-intensive companies
Professional practices
Real estate ownership and operating groups
Companies managing recurring leases, contracts, workforce issues, financing, and disputes
How the relationship is structured
Work is billed hourly. Clients in an ongoing relationship maintain a retainer balance that the firm bills against, so that when something time-sensitive arises the work can begin without a separate engagement process for each matter. The scope is deliberately open: it expands and contracts as the company’s needs do, and the terms are set out in a written engagement agreement before the relationship begins.
Services
- Ongoing counsel on commercial contracts, vendor and customer agreements, and recurring documentation
- Entity, governance, and ownership questions as they arise
- Employment agreements, restrictive covenants, and workforce documentation
- Demand letters, cease-and-desist correspondence, and early dispute assessment
- Lease review and real property questions across locations
- Transaction support as the company acquires, expands, invests, or restructures
- Coordination with the company’s accountants, insurers, lenders, and other advisors
Representative Experience
Outside general counsel to operating companies across multiple locations, handling leases, expansion, vendor and customer contracts, governance, workforce documentation, and disputes as they arose.
Outside general counsel to technology and platform companies, building and maintaining the commercial contracting stack alongside entity, intellectual-property, and investor matters.
Standing counsel to family-owned and closely held businesses through ownership changes, financings, and succession planning.
Representative matters. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Process
Initial review
The company’s structure, governing documents, existing contracts, and the matters most likely to arise.
Engagement
Scope, hourly rates, and the retainer arrangement set out in a written engagement agreement.
Ongoing work
Matters are handled as they arise, billed hourly against the retained balance, with the same attorney throughout.
Continuity
The documents, structures, and history built in earlier matters carry forward, so later work starts from knowledge rather than from intake.
FAQs
What does an outside general counsel relationship cost?
Work is billed hourly. Clients maintain a retainer balance the firm bills against, which keeps counsel available for time-sensitive matters without a new engagement process each time. The arrangement is set out in writing before the relationship begins.
Is there a minimum commitment or a fixed monthly fee?
No. The arrangement is deliberately flexible: some months involve substantial work and others very little, and the billing reflects that.
What kinds of matters does this cover?
In practice, whatever the business generates: contracts, employment documents, a demand letter, a lease, a governance question, an investor request. Larger discrete matters, such as a sale of the business or contested litigation, are typically scoped separately.