General counsel refers to a company’s chief lawyer within their legal department. Their job is to oversee the legal issues across all departments and report to the CEO. General counsels must be deeply familiar with and immersed in the business, work closely with all departments, and have trusted relationships with leadership. Their roles are often broad, from crisis compliance to public policy advocacy. Many businesses hire in-house counsel for specialized matters including tax work, intellectual property, and so on.

Pact allows a company to have the benefit of general counsel on a fractional basis. In other words, smaller businesses that cannot justify the expense associated with full-time general counsel now have the option of utilizing a Pact subscription to meet their legal needs.

We focus on providing continual business counsel to clients, helping build a relationship that is client-centric, and not just a one transaction at a time. This makes our guidance invaluable compared to the typical narrowly focused, short-term legal advice. Many law firms only consider the specific transaction or problem they are solving for at the moment. The work is hourly and focused on providing an isolated solution to a single or limited scope of problems. It is easy to find a lawyer to dispense legal advice. It’s rare to find a firm with the technical legal skill and an understanding of business and strategic issues—all backed by experience.

Transactional lawyers are typically engaged to work on a specified matter (transaction) for a business. Although their hourly rate varies dramatically depending on the lawyer’s location and experience, transactional lawyers charge for every minute they spend working on your business. This includes the time they spend researching, writing, meeting with other parties on the business’ behalf, reviewing docs, and more. Also, keep in mind that transactional lawyers charge for the time spent by their support staff, including paralegals and legal secretaries, though at a rate below what the lawyer themselves will charge. Pact charges a single, low monthly for access to a dedicated attorney with no hourly charges. Legal fees for work outside of subscription levels is at fixed fees, with discounts for subscription clients. No surprise bills!

The reality is that most companies are too small to need (much less afford) their own in-house, full-time general counsel. Many make the mistake of assuming that this means they don’t need a general counsel – or can’t afford one – at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is the exact reason Pact was created. To focus on this specific need.

“You don’t know what you don’t know” is true, especially when it comes to law. Whether intentional or not, a violation of the law can prove to be a costly – and sometimes very serious – mistake. Preventive maintenance makes good financial sense. It’s always cheaper and less stressful to avoid problems and mitigate risk to begin with than to try to repair the damage after harm has already been done. 

Before there is a clear need for a full-time, in-house attorney, it is common for a company to “staff” the legal function by using a combination of its owners and key officers, and then retain outside counsel for discrete or technical matters, such as for contract negotiations, business litigation or patent work. Sound familiar?

While possibly cost-efficient in the short term, this type of arrangement may result in delegated responsibilities that fall outside of the management’s traditional roles and areas of expertise, which can lead to operational inefficiencies, increased expenses and potential liability, and unanticipated risks.

The leading excuse for avoidance of legal advice is cost. Our fees are fixed and can be incorporated into operational budgets. Overall, engaging outside general counsel can free up management to focus on the business and growth. Tapping into the knowledge of a senior legal counsel can leverage the existing knowledge base of the business exponentially.

Because we will be regularly involved in your company, we develop intimate knowledge of your business, allowing us to develop trusted relationships with key individuals. Like a full-time in-house counsel, we can utilize email addresses on your email system, have an extension on your phone system, and take other steps to be part of your management team as needed.

This will ultimately depend on your specific needs and the plan we lay out for you, but some items to expect include:

• Contract drafting and negotiation
• Customer and vendor agreements
• Human resources issues
• Intellectual property protections and documentation
• Board of Directors matters and corporate governance