Fractional General Counsel for UK Businesses
Senior in-house legal support for start-ups, scale-ups, tech companies and SMEs. A named legal adviser for your leadership team, without a full-time General Counsel hire.
Legal leadership without a full-time appointment
A fractional General Counsel gives your business ongoing senior legal input through a monthly arrangement, rather than a separate instruction every time a question arises. The role combines practical commercial work with a wider view of legal risk, governance and the decisions facing your leadership team. You agree the days or hours your business needs, with flexibility to scale support up or down and no long-term lock-in.
This is for founders, CEOs, managing directors and finance directors who need an experienced legal voice at the table but do not need, or cannot justify, a full-time General Counsel. A start-up may be preparing for investment while building its first commercial relationships. A scale-up may need a more consistent approach to contracts and decision-making. An established SME may want senior oversight without creating a permanent executive legal role.
One adviser across the issues that shape your business
The scope is built around your company, not a standard list of documents. Ongoing contract review and negotiation can sit alongside drafting commercial agreements, examining shareholder arrangements and supporting investment matters. Connecting those issues matters: a commitment made in a customer agreement may affect the business's risk position, while an investor's request may raise questions about how decisions are taken and recorded.
Support can also cover employment and HR issues from the employer's perspective, regulatory compliance and dispute management. The aim is to help leadership understand the commercial implications, prioritise the work and decide when a specialist adviser is needed. The service is business-side legal support, not a route for personal or consumer claims.
Board-level legal advice and a named legal contact for the team bring continuity to the arrangement. Directors have someone to discuss the legal implications of an important decision with; colleagues have a clear point of contact for the matters within scope. Where specialist input or reserved legal activities are required, we can work alongside your existing advisers rather than presenting fractional support as a substitute for every professional discipline.
A monthly arrangement shaped around priorities
An initial call starts with the business: its stage, leadership structure, current legal workload and the decisions ahead. We discuss where senior input would be most useful and agree a set number of days or hours each month. The scope, working arrangements and cost are agreed before the engagement begins. There are no specific prices published here because the arrangement needs to reflect the work your company actually requires.
The monthly allocation creates space for both active matters and planned work. That might mean reviewing a significant agreement, preparing for a board discussion and looking ahead to a funding round rather than treating each task in isolation. Priorities are agreed with your leadership team, including how new requests will be raised and how work outside the agreed scope will be handled.
Support is flexible and can increase or reduce as the business changes, without a long-term lock-in. A busier commercial period may call for more time; a quieter period may need less. Changes to the allocation are agreed together. This is not unlimited availability or an automatic promise that every urgent matter can be handled within the existing hours. Clear planning keeps the relationship useful and the budget understandable.
Compared with recruiting a full-time General Counsel
A permanent General Counsel can be the right choice when a company needs continuous executive legal leadership and has the workload to support it. A fractional arrangement offers another route: access to senior experience from day one, while paying for an agreed allocation rather than making a full-time appointment. It can help avoid committing to a permanent role before the business needs that level of capacity.
The benefit is flexibility, not a claim that part-time support does everything a full-time employee would. You can draw on senior judgement as the company develops, then reconsider the arrangement as the legal workload grows. Comparing the options should include the breadth of responsibility, availability and internal management required, as well as the cost of hiring.
Compared with separate law firm instructions
Ad-hoc instructions are useful for a defined issue. Their limitation is that each matter may start with explaining the company, its history and its commercial priorities again. A fractional General Counsel develops that context over an ongoing relationship, making it easier to connect an individual legal question with the wider business position.
An agreed monthly scope provides more predictable cost for covered work. Familiarity with the company can also reduce repeated briefing and support faster turnaround than starting each instruction from scratch, without guaranteeing a response time or outcome. Specialist law firms, accountants and other advisers still have an important role; your fractional General Counsel can help coordinate their input and keep leadership informed.
Questions from business leaders
- What is a fractional General Counsel?
- It is a senior legal adviser working with your business for an agreed part of each month. The role brings together commercial legal work, board-level input and oversight of legal priorities without a full-time General Counsel appointment.
- How is it different from a law firm?
- The difference is the working relationship. Instead of only handling separate instructions, your adviser builds ongoing knowledge of the company and helps leadership connect legal issues across the business. Specialist firms can still be instructed where needed.
- How many days a month do I need?
- That depends on your workload and the level of leadership support required. The initial call considers active matters, upcoming decisions and the team's needs before agreeing monthly days or hours. The allocation can then scale up or down by agreement.
- Can you work with our existing advisers?
- Yes. Fractional support can sit alongside your existing lawyers, accountants and other advisers, with responsibilities agreed so work is coordinated rather than duplicated. Matters outside scope or requiring specialist or reserved work remain with appropriate advisers.
- Is there a long-term commitment or a published price?
- There is no long-term lock-in. The monthly allocation, scope and cost are agreed with your business, and support can scale up or down. Specific prices are not published; enquire to discuss an arrangement suited to your company.
- Do we need a General Counsel or a fractional lawyer?
- Choose the General Counsel conversation if you need senior oversight and board-level legal input across the company. A fractional lawyer may be more suitable if your main need is part-time capacity for regular legal tasks rather than a broader legal leadership role.
This is general information, not legal advice for a specific situation. Legal explanations relate to England and Wales. We do not offer reserved legal activities.
Discuss senior legal support for your business.
Founders, CEOs, MDs and finance directors: book an initial call to discuss your company's legal priorities and the senior support you need.