Below you can find a list of frequently asked questions regarding our flexible legal solutions. Please click on a question to reveal the answer.
1. What is The General Counsel?
Answer: The General Counsel, LLC is a new breed of legal services firm that understands that the high cost and opportunity lost with traditional law firms has gotten out of hand — especially for fast-growth and mid-sized companies. The General Counsel’s value-based services make it possible for your company to enjoy all the advantages of having an experienced in-house counsel as part of your management team, working on-site at your company on a flat monthly fee, while reducing your overall legal costs.
2. Why was The General Counsel founded?
Answer: The General Counsel, LLC was founded to provide retained general counsel services to fast-growth and mid-size companies that cannot afford the benefits of a full time in-house counsel or the cost of obtaining legal services through traditional hourly-rate law firms. These businesses rarely have the opportunity to draw on the same corporate counsel day in and day out like large corporations use to their benefit every day. We knew that if smaller companies could gain that type of legal resource it would accelerate their growth and protect the business they are building. As a retained general counsel, The General Counsel attorney maintains regular in-house contact with clients and provides legal services for day-to-day business matters, such as negotiating commercial contracts and employment agreements, as well as highly specialized services, such as counseling to protect trade secrets, copyright, trademarks and inventions.
3. What value does The General Counsel provide to companies?
Answer: Each of the senior level attorneys placed by The General Counsel have many years of experience working in the corporate environment with top-notch executives and board members and understand how to be effective extensions of the management team. Our attorneys have a proven track record of saving companies money compared to using a traditional hourly-rate law firm, while enhancing the strategic business value that only knowledgeable in-house legal representation can provide.
4. How does The General Counsel help companies that don’t have attorneys?
Answer: For a company that does not have an in-house attorney, The General Counsel places an experienced attorney on-site to provide our Client continuing part-time legal advice and review, which then frees up the time of the executive/senior management to focus on the core business of the company. This attorney becomes an intergral part of the management team on an outsourced, contract basis, becoming engrained in the company’s business while providing practical, strategic advice and mitigating risk.
5. How does The General Counsel help companies that already have an in-house attorney or legal department?
Answer: For companies with in-house attorneys, The General Counsel provides a flexible and ready extension of their existing capacities by providing a cost-effective solution to tackle the nagging, smaller legal issues that never seem to rise to the top of an expanding workload. The General Counsel placed attorney also can handle highly specialized projects that require field expertise. All attorneys at The General Counsel have worked in corporate environments and are committed to extending the resources of a client’s existing legal structure.
6. Can The General Counsel provide a permanent solution for legal service needs?
Answer: Yes, in fact, this question underscores the flexibility of The General Counsel and sets it apart from the other, more traditional legal options available to growing companies. The General Counsel offers the ultimate in-house solutions for emerging and midsize businesses. Clients of The General Counsel and their executive/senior management teams enjoy a close relationship with their assigned attorneys. The attorney works at the client offices, offering practical strategic advice and becoming an integral part of the day-to-day operations. The General Counsel assigned attorney, like a traditional in-house counsel, helps clients manage growth while mitigating the risk associated with rapid success and marketplace opportunities. Plus, clients who work with an attorney placed by The General Counsel keep their legal costs in check through prudent managed planning and forecasting.
8. What is the cost of contracting with The General Counsel?
Answer: Our clients typically engage attorneys placed by The General Counsel on a flat monthly fee basis, scheduling the attorney to provide in-house legal support for any number of days per week. In this manner, The General Counsel can offer our clients a customized engagement plan: one that fits a company’s budget and legal needs.
Rates may vary, depending on the nature of the legal services to be provided as well as the number of days per week that the attorney will be retained by the Client.
