Looking for a Cost Effective, On Call, Legal GP? Try an Outsourced General Counsel
Your business is young, but it has a growing customer base and a growing workforce. You’re the MD or the FD, and you’d love to spend more time doing what you joined up to do but, instead, you’re fielding the day-to-day legal issues, and, while you’re proud to have come this far on your own wits and common sense, the burden is beginning to get you down.
You’re aware that big businesses employ in-house lawyers. (You might be aware that the sole or most senior in-house lawyer in a business takes the title – General Counsel or GC.) But you don’t think your business has enough legal work to keep an employee occupied, you don’t want the back office to outnumber the operational team, and you doubt that the benefit of employing a lawyer will justify the cost of recruitment and overheads.
You could contact your old school friend, now a partner at a law firm. However, when you last did that, you got the firm’s service, which was not the service you wanted. You were hoping that one lawyer could deal with a variety of minor issues, but the firm could only offer specialists, and each of them seemed to make a meal out of the morsels you gave them. You were hoping for a lawyer who would spend time at your premises and get to know your staff and culture, but the firm insisted that you arrange and attend appointments at their swanky, town centre, offices. Then they charged you for every moment spent in their company, plus other time, apparently spent by junior lawyers, who you didn’t meet. You haven’t heard from the firm, since you paid their eye-watering bill.
You’re wondering why lawyers can’t be more like doctors, and offer access to GP’s as well as registrars and consultants? What you really want is a cost effective, on-call, legal GP.
You’re not alone, and you’ll be pleased to hear that these sorts of lawyers do exist. In 2024, roughly one quarter of all practicing solicitors work or have experience of working in-house and, as Thompson Reuters notes, in its most recent report on the state of the UK legal market, “relationships are becoming more important than reputation” and clients are looking for lawyers who understand their business and their sector and are available for consultation without “running the clock”. You’re looking for an external lawyer who behaves more like an in-house lawyer. You’re looking for an “Outsourced GC”, and that service is now offered by a number of reputable law firms, including my own.
Your Outsourced GC should have experience of working in-house and, ideally, experience of working in your industry sector. At first, they should be keen to understand your market position, your goals and values, keen to identify your stakeholders, including regulators and key customers, and keen to meet and start working with your colleagues and not just with you. Your Outsourced GC should be aiming to fit into your team, build trust and add value. They should be aiming for a long-term relationship, not just a one project stand.
Like a GP, or an IT support worker, your Outsourced GC should be on call and should act as a single point of contact for all queries and concerns, no matter how small or mundane. They should be able to deal with most matters on their own or in collaboration with you and/or your colleagues. They should never delegate work to others, without your knowledge and agreement. And, if they identify the need for specialist legal input, you should be able to rely upon them to find, instruct and manage the specialist, for the benefit of your business.
All lawyers are bound by professional ethics and even in-house lawyers are supposed to put their honesty and integrity above the interests of their employers. Nevertheless, your Outsourced GC will know, from experience, that you and your colleagues expect advice, which is generally constructive and enabling, not negative and blocking. They will also know that the legal implications of a proposed course of action may be of less importance to you and your colleagues than the financial, reputational, practical or other implications. They know they will have to be flexible and collaborative, in order for your business to find the best ways to move forward.
The financial mechanism which makes an Outsourced GC service work is a subscription. Nowadays, individuals commonly subscribe for mobile and streaming services and businesses commonly subscribe for software, IT support , accountancy and other services. Your Outsourced GC can help you to estimate the amount of general legal support you require, (e.g. two days’ per month) and will then ask you to commit to a minimum subscription period, (e.g. three months). It is in everyone’s interests for the subscription to be kept under review and increased or decreased depending on predicted and actual use. In return for your commitment to a regular subscription payment, your Outsourced GC should offer their services at competitive rates, more akin to consultancy than to the hourly rates charged by legal specialists.
Does this sound appealing? Do you want to know more about Outsourced GC services? Get in touch for a no-obligation discussion.
Nick Benson
