Why Should My Florida Business Seek Outsourced General Counsel?

If you are a business owner, you likely try to avoid getting involved in legal proceedings at all costs. Not only do legal battles take up a lot of your time and money, but it can also be difficult to find an attorney who understands your company and can easily defend you in court. If you are a growing company, you may run into your fair share of legal conflict, and it is best to be prepared for when the time comes. Some companies will go so far as hiring in-house counsel to have by their side at all times, while others may opt for outsourced general counsel for the times when they need it most.

What Is Outsourced General Counsel?

Before you feel the need to have full-time, in-house counsel, it may be best to work with a particular attorney whenever a legal conflict arises. Outsourced general counsel involves working with an external attorney who can handle and manage the routine legal needs of your business on a part-time basis. This can include a number of responsibilities, such as contract drafting and negotiations, human resource issues and documentation, customer agreements, Board of Directors matters, and corporate governance. Depending on the size of your company, you may need help in some or all of these areas.

Benefits of Outsourcing

There are a number of benefits that outsourced general counsel can provide to businesses of all sizes, including the following:

1. More Efficient Spending: Hiring full-time legal counsel is an expensive undertaking. Just like any other employee, they will require a salary, health insurance, and any other employee benefits that you offer your full-time staff. The outsourced general counsel is a more cost-effective way to have consistent and reliable legal counsel. You will only be required to pay the attorney when they provide you with legal assistance, and depending on the volume of legal dealings that your company has, this may be very minimal and infrequent.
2. Building a Strategic Partnership: The reason that many businesses decide to hire in-house counsel is to ensure that their legal advice is coming from someone who fully understands the inner-workings of their business. However, if you outsource your legal counsel with the same attorney on a consistent basis, this individual will quickly become familiar with your business and its employees. The relationship that you build over the years or decades that you work together can be invaluable in your legal proceedings.
3. Allowing Your Other Employees to Do Their Jobs: If you do not have general legal counsel to help you with the inner-workings of your business, these responsibilities will need to be taken on by someone else who works for you. Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Operating Officers (COOs) may be tasked with reviewing contracts, assisting with corporate transactions, and handling human resource duties, but without the legal background that an attorney can provide, these tasks may be done inefficiently or incorrectly. It is always advisable to leave these legally detailed tasks to the professionals.

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Source: https://www.sdcba.org/index.cfm?pg=BusinessandCorporateArticles9-21-15