transaction coming up and I think my in-house counsel could use some support. I don’t want to hire another permanent in-house counsel and I’m wary of using external counsel due to excessive fees and a previous bad experience with them. Is there any other way I can get temporary in-house legal support?
Lawyer Answers (1): Answers from lawyers are general preliminary responses. They are not formal legal advice and cannot taken account of all your circumstances. They do not create a lawyer–client relationship.
Answer by Marie Sacco, Sydney 2000 NSW
- A company may want extra in-house legal support for a number of reasons including:
- a need to reduce their external legal spend;
- a spike in the legal workload;
- a need for a lawyer to cover their in-house counsel’s leave; or
- requiring specialist expertise for a project or transaction.
- In such circumstances apart from employing an extra in-house lawyer there are other ways of bringing in an in-house legal resource.
- A law firm may be prepared to second one of its lawyers to the company for a period of time. During a secondment arrangement the lawyer from the law firm becomes the company’s in-house counsel. There will also need to be an arrangement in place for how the company pays the law firm for this resource.
- There are also companies that are different to law firms in that they do not generally provide legal advice but are able to provide one or more of their lawyers to a company for a fixed period.