Outsourced General Counsel
All businesses will sometimes need a lawyer to help complete a transaction, deal with a regulatory issue, advise on an employment dispute, negotiate and draft a contract, counsel on strategy, or provide some other kind of representation and advice. Big businesses typically have lawyers on staff, led by a general counsel, and consult with outside law firms only for matters that the in-house lawyers can’t take care of. Many smaller businesses also have enough need for legal services that it makes sense to employ a lawyer (or several lawyers) full time.
For most small and mid-sized businesses, it’s not cost-effective to have a full-time lawyer on staff. As a result they lose the benefit of an in-house lawyer’s familiarity with the business, the people who run it, and the unique issues it faces. But there is an alternative. With his many years of experience as in-house and outside lawyer for both large and small organizations, Bill Stempel can serve as part-time outside general counsel and provide clients the best of both worlds:
- Understanding the business and its issues thoroughly and from the inside
- Identifying legal compliance issues before they become problems, and managing them proactively
- Adding a lawyer’s perspective to business decisions and strategy, and a business-minded perspective to legal issues, especially ones involving weighing risks and benefits
He can provide the advice and representation that a business needs, taking account of its goals and strategy as well as its bottom line. Fees can be based on traditional hourly billing, periodic retainers, or a combination, and the scope of the services can be flexible according to the business’s needs.