Most mid-market and growth-stage businesses don't have full-time General Counsel — and shouldn't. The questions that need legal judgement don't arrive on a predictable schedule. Hiring a full department to handle them is an expensive way to wait.
That is the gap I fill.
What an engagement looks like
We act as the in-house General Counsel you don't yet have — or won't ever need to hire. Engagements typically combine:
- Contracts. Drafting, reviewing, negotiating — customer contracts, vendor agreements, distribution and channel arrangements, employment and consultancy, NDAs.
- Compliance and governance. Board minutes, committee structures, regulatory filings under the Companies Act, SEBI norms where relevant, sector-specific compliance.
- Disputes and pre-disputes. Demand notices, contractual breakdowns, settlement negotiations, and instructing external litigators when the matter goes to court.
- Strategic communications.Letters, notices, and counterparty replies that go out under the CEO's name and have to land right the first time.
- Crisis counsel. The Saturday-evening phone call — the regulator has written, the deal has wobbled, the senior employee has resigned with the customer list.
How the engagement is structured
Most clients prefer a monthly retainer with a defined scope and predictable fee. Matters outside scope — major litigation, M&A — are quoted separately. The intent is that you know what you are spending and what you are getting.
Why a boutique firm
Big firms staff your account from whoever is available. The partner you met at the pitch reads your file every third meeting; the work is done by associates several rungs down. A boutique works the other way — the founding partner reads every material draft, sits in every material call, and supervises a small team directly. No four-level review chain, no rebill for the same conversation twice, no handover when seniority is most needed.