Outside General Counsel
Your legal department, one engagement away.
Every serious business generates legal questions weekly- a contract to sign, an employee issue, a regulator's letter. Hiring an in-house lawyer for that is expensive. Ignoring it is more expensive. Outside general counsel is what we offer as the in-between option.
What it is
A standing relationship and not a one-off matter. Law Quarters acts as your company's general counsel from the outside: we learn your business once, then handle the flow of legal questions as they come. We do so quickly, because the context is already in place.
What's typically covered
- Contracts pipeline — review and negotiation of the agreements crossing your desk, with a standard turnaround.
- Day-to-day advisory — quick answers on employment, regulatory, and commercial questions before they become disputes.
- Governance hygiene — board resolutions, filings, registers, and the paperwork that protects you in a dispute.
- Risk watch — flagging gazette announcements, new regulations, and legal developments that affect your sector.
- Escalation judgement — knowing when a matter needs a specialist or litigator, and managing that engagement for you.
Why outside counsel beats ad-hoc lawyering
Ad-hoc legal work has a hidden cost: every new matter starts from zero. The lawyer doesn't know your contracts, your risk appetite, or your history, so you pay for that education each time, in fees and in slower answers. A standing counsel relationship amortises that cost to zero. The second contract review is faster than the first; the tenth is faster still.
How engagements are structured
Typically a monthly retainer scoped around your volume — a set band of hours or matters, with clear terms for what falls outside it. Terms are agreed in a plain-language engagement letter before any work begins. No surprise invoices.