A Fractional In-House Lawyer for Your Business
Part-time legal capacity for companies with regular legal work but no need for a full-time lawyer. Practical support that fits into your team's working month.
Keep everyday legal work moving
A fractional lawyer works with your company on a part-time basis, handling an agreed stream of legal work rather than taking on a full General Counsel role. If supplier terms, customer agreements and internal questions regularly land on a founder's or finance director's desk, this arrangement gives that work a named legal contact and dedicated time each month.
The emphasis is practical delivery. You might already know your commercial priorities but need someone to review the documents, discuss proposed changes and help colleagues identify issues before an agreement is signed. A fractional in-house lawyer adds legal capacity to the team without requiring enough work to fill a permanent position. It is ongoing business support, rather than an invitation for individuals to bring personal legal matters.
For companies that need capacity, not another executive role
This service suits start-ups establishing their contracting processes, tech companies dealing with recurring customer negotiations, scale-ups whose commercial workload is increasing and SMEs without an internal legal department. It can also complement existing advisers where there is a gap between specialist instructions and the routine work happening inside the business.
The distinction from fractional General Counsel is the centre of gravity. Here, the starting point is the work queue: which documents need attention, who needs input and how the agreed time can be used. A General Counsel engagement starts with broader legal leadership, board-level advice and company-wide priorities. The roles can overlap, but the right arrangement depends on the responsibility your business wants the lawyer to take.
Support for contracts and the colleagues who use them
Contract review and negotiation are common parts of the workload. Customer and supplier agreements, commercial terms and proposed amendments need to reflect how the company actually operates. Your fractional lawyer can discuss the business context with the people responsible for the relationship, identify legal concerns and work on wording that supports a clear commercial decision.
Having a named contact gives colleagues a place to raise questions within the agreed scope. A sales team may need to understand a customer's proposed terms; an operations lead may need input on a supplier's obligations; a director may want to clarify the implications of a new arrangement. The lawyer supports the company's decision-makers rather than replacing their commercial judgement.
Other agreed work can include shareholder and investment documents, employer-side employment and HR questions, regulatory matters and support with commercial disagreements. The allocation is tailored to the tasks your company needs handled. Specialist issues are identified and coordinated with the appropriate adviser, and reserved legal activities are not part of the service.
Agree a manageable monthly workload
We begin by discussing the legal tasks that recur, how your team currently handles them and where work is getting stuck. Together we agree a set number of days or hours a month and the matters that sit within that allocation. We also establish who can request work, how priorities are decided and which documents or background information are needed to begin.
A workable brief matters as much as a time allocation. For a contract, that includes the commercial purpose, the version under discussion and the points your company is prepared to negotiate. For an internal question, it includes the relevant facts and what decision needs to be made. Gathering that context helps use the agreed hours on legal work rather than repeatedly reconstructing the instruction.
The arrangement is monthly, flexible and has no long-term lock-in. You can agree more capacity when the workload rises and reduce it when demand eases. Scope and cost are discussed directly, with no specific prices advertised here. Work beyond the allocation needs agreement; part-time support should not be mistaken for an unlimited legal service or guaranteed immediate availability.
An alternative to hiring before you are ready
Employing an in-house lawyer gives a company dedicated internal capacity, but a full-time appointment may be difficult to justify where the workload is regular rather than constant. A fractional arrangement lets you access senior experience from the outset and allocate cost to the capacity you have agreed, rather than recruit for a role that is not yet needed throughout the working week.
It also leaves room to adjust. The company can learn which tasks benefit from ongoing legal involvement, which belong with specialist advisers and when a permanent hire might become appropriate. The choice is not simply between having an internal lawyer and having none: part-time support can fill a genuine operational gap while the business develops.
Less repeated briefing than one-off instructions
A lawyer who becomes familiar with your commercial documents and the way the team works does not have to start from the beginning on every request. That continuity can make exchanges more focused and reduce the briefing delays associated with separate ad-hoc instructions. It can support quicker progress, but there is no promised turnaround time: complexity, priorities and the agreed capacity still matter.
Predictability comes from the monthly arrangement and its boundaries. Your company knows the scope and cost it has agreed, while retaining its existing advisers for work better handled elsewhere. The objective is a useful working relationship with a part-time legal colleague, not to replace every external professional or to promise that legal questions will disappear.
Questions from business leaders
- What does a fractional lawyer do?
- A fractional lawyer handles agreed legal tasks for a business on a part-time, ongoing basis. This can include reviewing commercial documents, negotiating terms and answering business-side legal questions within a monthly allocation.
- Is a fractional in-house lawyer an employee?
- The service is an agreed monthly legal support arrangement, rather than a full-time recruitment offer. The engagement terms define the working relationship, scope and responsibilities; it should not be assumed to be an employment appointment.
- Can we start with a set number of days each month?
- Yes. Days or hours are agreed around the work your company needs handled. The allocation is flexible, can scale up or down by agreement and comes without a long-term lock-in.
- Can our team contact the lawyer directly?
- A named legal contact is part of the support. At the outset we agree which colleagues will request work, how requests are prioritised and what falls within the monthly scope, so the arrangement stays manageable.
- Can you support us alongside our current law firm?
- Yes. Routine commercial work can be handled through the fractional arrangement while your existing firm or other advisers retain specialist matters. Clear responsibilities help avoid overlapping instructions and make it easier to share relevant context.
- When would fractional General Counsel be a better fit?
- If your leadership team needs wider legal oversight, board-level input and help setting company-wide legal priorities, consider fractional General Counsel. If the need is primarily hands-on delivery of regular legal work, start with the fractional lawyer service.
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.
Give your team a part-time legal colleague.
If you are a founder, company owner, director or finance lead, enquire about part-time legal support for the work your team needs to get done.