Outside General Counsel Services
At a bare minimum, every company needs to operate within the law to avoid risk. As companies grow, they should employ strategies to achieve success, and those strategies should be informed by applicable laws. Each company will undoubtedly face legal challenges as it develops, and the way the company responds can make the difference between failure and success. Companies that use skilled legal professionals to mitigate risk, comply with applicable laws, and develop strategies to achieve competitive advantages have a significantly higher probability of long-term success.
Generally speaking, companies take one of three approaches to acquiring legal services. First, companies do everything they can to avoid the expense of hiring a quality attorney, and do so only when they have no other choice (and when it is too late). We at Drexler Law implore you to avoid that type of outlook. Second, companies hire law firms to provide legal services. This approach is often successful, but often comes at a high cost, especially when the company waits until it has a major problem before hiring the law firm. Third, companies hire a lawyer as an employee of the company to serve as a full-time legal professional. This lawyer/employee is often referred to as “general counsel” or “in-house counsel.” This approach is perhaps the wisest, but many companies (especially in the start-up phase) cannot commit to hiring a full-time professional because of the impact it would have on overhead. This desire to save money up front often backfires, resulting in law firm fees that exceed the cost of the legal professional’s salary. Nevertheless, a company cannot hire a legal professional as an employee if it simply does not have the money to do so. So, how should companies navigate this conundrum?
Our solution to bridge the gap is called “outside general counsel services” or “fractional general counsel services.” You can retain Drexler Law to do a portion (or “fraction”) of the work that a traditional general counsel would perform, which translates into a significantly reduced cost compared to what it costs to employe a full-time general counsel.
Drexler Law, as your outside general counsel, can proactively work on your company’s behalf to mitigate risk, develop strategies for success, and solve small and mid-size problems as they arise. Drexler Law can also be retained to help resolve those larger problems on a fee arrangement that is not only customized to fit your needs, but informed by all of the working knowledge Drexler Law will have acquired as your outside general counsel – working knowledge that another law firm will not have because it has no preexisting relationship with your business.
Drexler Law offers several different subscription options specifically tailored to fit your company’s needs and budget. You can retain BLG on a “Broad Scope” basis that is meant to function like a traditional general counsel arrangement, insofar as the scope of work is limited only by the broad arena of “Business Law” and the amount of time you select. Drexler Law also offers a “Contract Review” subscription for companies who want to retain Drexler Law specifically to review and analyze contracts. Lastly, Drexler Law offers “Compliance Monitoring” subscriptions for companies who wish to focus on the legality of their operations and mitigating risks associated with non-compliance.
Each of these types of outside general counsel subscriptions comes at Basic, Plus, and Premium price points with corresponding levels of involvement. If none of the standard offerings fit your needs, please do not hesitate to contact us to schedule a consultation so we can develop a customized level of service for your company. All outside general counsel subscribers will be offered significant discounts on hourly services as needed in addition to the included tiered services (e.g., research and document drafting. We invite you to review our Services and Fee Structures to learn more details about each of the subscription tiers we offer.
