I run a mid-sized company. I use standard contracts that I found on the internet and adapted for my company’s purposes. I’ve had some disputes recently with some suppliers and do not know whether I should just hire an external counsel to deal with these issues or engage a full-time or part-time in-house counsel to prevent future issues.
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
- There are a number of factors which may contribute to a company deciding to hire their first in-house counsel:
- some companies decide to hire their first in-house counsel when they recognise that there is a sufficient volume of work for a full time or part time lawyer to be engaged;
- a company may be involved in a dispute and recognise that things may have turned out differently if a lawyer with knowledge of the business was involved from the start;
- the company wishes to reduce its spend on external lawyers; or
- the company’s practices have been investigated by a regulator which has identified issues with the company’s processes and procedures.
- If you believe these issues may continue to arise you may want to hire an in-house counsel in order to re-write your contracts and sort out the present disputes.
- Depending on the work-load you can hire an in-house lawyer on a part-time or full-time basis.