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Outside General Counsel

A legal department for a company that cannot hire one.

One attorney on a monthly retainer, handling the contracts, the trademark deadlines, the annual audit, and the governance that pile up while you are trying to run a small or mid-sized company. Same lawyer every time, and no meter running on the email.

Who This Is For

Who we do this for

The Common Case

Legal questions arrive weekly and none of them are big

None of them justify calling a firm and starting a new matter, so they pile up unanswered until one of them turns out to have mattered.

Growing

You are too big for ad hoc and too small to hire

A full-time lawyer is a salary, benefits and a hiring process. The work is real but it is not a whole job yet.

Getting Ready

Something is coming and the file is not ready

A raise, a sale, a bank, a big customer’s security review. All of them read the paperwork, and none of them give you much notice.

What We Do

What the retainer covers

Ongoing Contract Review

MSAs, statements of work, client terms, vendor deals, and NDAs — reviewed and redlined as they come in, not batched until they are urgent.

Annual Legal Audit

Once a year, a full pass over the contracts, the brand assets, and the corporate record, delivered as a written report with the fixes ranked.

Trademark & IP Monitoring

Registration deadlines tracked, Section 8 and renewal filings made on time, and new marks cleared before the business starts using them.

Governance & Compliance

Operating agreements and consents kept current, annual reports and registered agent status maintained, plus privacy policies and terms of service.

Employment Matters

Offer letters, contractor agreements, handbooks, non-competes, and separations — always on the company’s side of the table.

Strategic Counsel

A sounding board for decisions with legal consequences, including financing rounds and getting the company ready to sell. Sometimes all it takes is a quick call.

$50

30-min consult, credited

200+

Contracts negotiated

3 states

CT, MA & NY

Written Quotes

Scope before work begins

How Engagement Works

How the work runs

A retainer is a standing relationship rather than a series of matters. Here is what that looks like month to month.

01

A $50 consultation

Thirty minutes on what the company does and what keeps coming up. Credited toward any engagement.

02

Scope the retainer

What is covered, what falls outside it, and the monthly figure — agreed in writing before anything starts.

03

Work the month

Contracts as they arrive, employment questions as they come up, filings when they are due. Most of it happens in writing.

04

The annual pass

Once a year the whole file gets read at once — contracts, brand assets, corporate record — as a business legal audit.

The Cost Comparison

A predictable retainer, next to the alternatives

Turley Law OGC Hourly Law Firm Full-Time In-House
Cost Monthly retainer, no ramp-up The meter runs on every email Salary, benefits, and overhead
Predictability Same fee every month, agreed in advance Bill size depends on how bad the month was Fixed cost whether or not there's legal work to do
Ramp-up time None — same attorney, already knows your business Starts over with each new matter or associate Weeks to hire, onboard, and get up to speed

Related Reading

More on this

What the Month Looks Like

What actually lands on the desk

  • A contract arrives with a deadline attached. A customer, a vendor or a platform sends paper and wants it back this week. On a retainer this is a same-week answer rather than a new engagement, a conflict check and a scoping call.
  • Someone is being hired, or is leaving. Offer letters, classification questions, a separation that needs to close properly. These arrive with no notice and they are the ones most often handled badly because there was nobody obvious to ask.
  • A customer sends a security questionnaire. It asks about data terms you may not have, subprocessors you may not have listed, and policies you may not have written. It usually arrives late in a sales cycle.
  • A filing is due and nobody was watching. An annual report, a registered agent renewal, a trademark maintenance window. None of them are difficult. All of them are quietly expensive to miss.
  • A decision needs a second opinion, not a memo. Most of what an in-house lawyer does is answer questions in a paragraph. That is the majority of this work, and it is the part hourly billing makes people avoid.

Common Questions

Outside GC FAQ

How is Outside GC different from hiring a law firm?

With a law firm, engagement is typically for specific projects — starting fresh each time. With outside GC, there's ongoing access to an attorney who already knows the business: the contracts, risk tolerance, and growth stage.

What's included in a retainer?

Retainers are customized but typically include contract review and negotiation, employment documents, corporate governance, compliance guidance, and strategic counsel. Scope is defined clearly upfront; work outside the scope is quoted separately.

How quickly are urgent matters addressed?

OGC clients get a direct line — phone and email, no ticketing system. We aim to respond promptly, and urgent matters go to the front of the line.

Can the attorney attend board meetings?

Yes. Many OGC clients have counsel attend board meetings — in person or virtually — to provide legal guidance or be available for questions. Typically included in comprehensive retainers, or quoted separately.

What about specialized needs outside general practice areas?

For litigation, IP protection, immigration, and tax, we coordinate with trusted specialists as needed. Data privacy and regulatory compliance are handled directly.

What is not covered by the retainer?

Litigation, and any single project large enough to be its own engagement — an acquisition, a financing round, a trademark portfolio built from nothing. Those get scoped separately so the monthly figure stays predictable.

Can we start and stop?

Yes. The point of the model is that it costs less than a hire and carries none of a hire’s commitment. What you should not do is stop the month before the thing you were getting ready for.

How quickly do you answer?

Same or next business day for anything routine, and immediately when something is genuinely on fire. Most of it happens in writing, which is faster than scheduling a call and leaves you with a record you can forward to whoever needs it.

Bring your legal work under one roof.

Tell us what's landing on your desk. We'll show you what a monthly retainer would cover — and what it would cost.

Related: Business & Corporate Law · Employment Law · Litigation & Disputes