Outside General Counsel & Legal Support
Your business makes legal decisions every day. We help you identify them and make them with confidence and strategy, before you need to build an in-house legal team.
Schedule a Consultation➔The Legal Support Growing Businesses Actually Need
Hiring a full-time general counsel, in-house paralegal, contract manager or legal operations employee only makes sense when your company has enough legal volume to justify a full-time legal hire. For most growing businesses, that threshold is years away. In the meantime, handling legal work internally without the right support, or calling an outside attorney only when something breaks, is an expensive and reactive way to manage legal risk.
EntrePartner's Outside Legal Support program gives you ongoing access to experienced business attorneys at predictable pricing. We help fill the gap to work as an extension of your leadership team, not a firm you call in emergencies.
What Outside General Counsel Actually Looks Like
Most businesses that don't have an in-house legal team are making legal decisions without realizing it. Every vendor agreement you sign, every employee you hire, every partnership you structure, every new market you enter carries legal implications. The question isn't whether you need legal input on those decisions. It's whether you're getting it.
With EntrePartner as your outside legal team, you have attorneys who already know your business, and understand your industry, your contracts and your goals. When a contract lands in your inbox, you forward it. When a vendor asks for revisions, we help you respond. When an internal team member needs guidance on legal process, we help create the workflow. When a larger business decision carries legal implications, you run it by us before moving forward. When a partner situation gets complicated, you call. When you're about to make a significant operational or financial decision, you run it by us first.
That's the difference between legal counsel as a reactive expense and legal counsel as a competitive advantage.
What We Handle as Your Outside General Counsel and Legal Team
Contract Review, Drafting and Management
Vendor agreements, client contracts, partnership deals, licensing terms, SaaS agreements, NDAs, amendments, renewal tracking and commercial documents. We review, draft, revise, negotiate, and help track and manage contracts so your team is not handling legal paperwork without support.
Legal Workflow and Document Support
Legal work is not limited to high-level legal advice. Growing businesses also need help organizing contract workflows, managing templates, tracking renewals, coordinating signatures, maintaining records, and responding to recurring legal requests. We can provide the kind of practical legal support that might otherwise fall to an in-house paralegal, legal operations employee, or contract administrator.
Employment and HR Counsel
Offer letters, employment agreements, independent contractor classifications, restrictive covenants, termination procedures, separation agreements, and employee handbook policies. We help your team manage recurring employment documentation and identify when employment issues need attorney-level review.
Compliance Programs and Entity Maintenance
Compliance obligations vary by industry, entity structure, and growth stage. We help with practical compliance support, including entity maintenance, annual filings, ownership records, governance documents, regulatory questions, and internal processes that help keep the business organized as it grows.
Equity and Financing Support
Cap table questions, equity grants, debt instruments, and investor due diligence all require legal support. We help keep your documents organized and your structure ready for financing, diligence, or future transactions.
Franchise and IP Guidance
For businesses operating in or adjacent to franchising, we provide ongoing counsel on franchise compliance, trademark management, licensing, and system-wide legal issues as they arise.
Strategic Risk Management
The most valuable legal work happens before a problem develops. We review business decisions, flag legal exposure, and help you structure transactions, processes and relationships in ways that reduce risk from the start.
Outside General Counsel Services
Flexible Legal Support That Fits Your Business
Most growing businesses are not ready to hire a full in-house legal team, but they still need reliable legal support. Contracts need to move. Internal teams need a place to send legal questions. Corporate records need to stay organized. Business decisions need legal input before they become problems.
EntrePartner offers flexible legal support arrangements based on the needs of the business. For some clients, that may mean flat-fee projects. For others, it may mean a recurring monthly arrangement, membership-style support model, or another alternative billing structure that provides more predictability than traditional hourly billing.
The right structure depends on the volume, complexity, and type of legal support your business needs. We work with you to define the scope, identify what should be included, and create a practical arrangement that gives your team access to legal support without prematurely hiring a dedicated in-house legal employee.
The Value of an Attorney Who Knows Your Business
The first time you engage any law firm, they spend time learning your company before they can give you useful advice. Over time, that changes. They already know your ownership structure, your key contracts, your risk tolerance, and your goals. That institutional knowledge makes every interaction faster and more useful.
EntrePartner clients who work with us on an ongoing basis get sharper, faster counsel than they would from a firm they call episodically. We invest our time up-front in understanding the current state of our business, your goals, and identifying your key legal projects. From there, we know what's in your operating agreement. We know who your key vendors are. We know what's coming up in your business. We know what issues come up repeatedly and what issues are priorities. That context matters.
How We Work With Ongoing Legal Support Clients
Start With a Business and Legal Operations Review
We begin by working with you to understand and document your business, ownership structure, existing contracts, legal workflows, corporate records, recurring legal needs, and the issues your team is currently navigating. That baseline helps us identify where attorney-level advice is needed and where practical legal support can make the business run more smoothly.
We then organize that information into a legal function review that identifies the major areas of legal support your business needs.
Build a Prioritized Legal Roadmap
After reviewing your documents and legal structure, we provide a spreadsheet that organizes each key area of legal function and identifies the projects that need attention. Some issues may require immediate action. Others may be important but better handled over time.
The goal is to give your leadership team a clear picture of what needs to be fixed, updated, created, or monitored and in what order.
Set Up a Consistent Rhythm
Once the priorities are identified, we set up a working rhythm that fits your business. That may include regular check-in calls, a standing contract review process, a recurring legal task list, or a legal intake workflow for your internal team.
This gives your business a consistent place to send legal questions, contracts, and recurring legal needs instead of handling them ad hoc or waiting until something becomes urgent.
Support the Day-To-Day Legal Function
After the legal roadmap is in place, we help execute against it. That may include reviewing contracts, updating templates, preparing governing documents, managing entity records, supporting employment documentation, coordinating signatures, answering recurring legal questions, and helping your team identify when a matter needs attorney-level review or outside specialist support.
Grow With You
As your business grows, your legal needs evolve. We update priorities as new contracts, employees, locations, financing activity, franchise issues, licensing opportunities, or operational risks arise. For some clients, we act as outside general counsel. For others, we supplement or help replace the need for an in-house paralegal, contract manager, legal operations employee, or other dedicated legal hire.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is outside general counsel?
Outside general counsel is ongoing legal support for a business that needs regular legal guidance but is not ready to build a full in-house legal department. An OGC may help with day-to-day legal questions, contract review, risk management, business transactions, employment documents, compliance, corporate records, and coordination with specialized counsel when needed.
At EntrePartner, the process begins with understanding your existing legal structure, reviewing your key documents, and building a prioritized legal roadmap so ongoing support is organized around the actual needs of the business.
How is outside general counsel different from hiring an attorney when I need one?
The primary difference is continuity and organization. A law firm you call only when a problem arises has to get up to speed each time. Outside general counsel maintains ongoing knowledge of your company, your documents, your risk profile, and your legal priorities.
EntrePartner's process starts by reviewing your legal structure and key contracts, then identifying immediate and long-term legal projects. That gives both your team and our attorneys a clear roadmap, instead of treating every legal issue as a one-off project.
What size business is outside general counsel right for?
Outside general counsel is often a good fit for businesses that have some recurring legal needs but are not ready to hire a full in-house legal team. That may include companies with regular contracts, employment documents, vendor relationships, franchise issues, licensing needs, financing activity, entity maintenance, or internal teams that need a consistent place to send legal questions.
Can outside general counsel replace an in-house paralegal or legal operations hire?
In many cases, yes. EntrePartner can support recurring legal work that might otherwise require an in-house paralegal, contract manager, legal operations employee, or other dedicated legal hire.
That may include organizing contracts, maintaining legal records, tracking recurring legal needs, managing legal project lists, supporting document workflows, reviewing routine agreements, coordinating signatures, and helping your team manage day-to-day legal requests.
Can outside general counsel handle specialized matters?
Yes. Part of the role is knowing when to handle a matter directly and when to involve a specialist. EntrePartner has experience in business transactions, franchising, intellectual property, real estate, employment-adjacent business matters, and general business matters.
When a matter requires specialized support outside our core practice areas, we help coordinate with trusted outside counsel and keep the work aligned with your broader legal priorities.
How is Outside General Counsel and Legal Support priced?
EntrePartner offers flexible billing arrangements based on the scope, volume, and complexity of the legal support your business needs. Depending on the engagement, that may include flat-fee projects, recurring monthly support, membership-style arrangements, hourly work, or a hybrid structure.
We discuss scope and pricing at the outset so you understand what is included, what may fall outside the arrangement, and how legal support fits into your operating budget.
Legal Counsel That Keeps Pace With Your Business
The right outside general counsel doesn't wait to be called. They're already thinking about your business, flagging risks before they become problems, and giving you the kind of advice that only comes from knowing your company well. If you're ready for legal support that keeps pace with your growth, give us a call.
Schedule a Consultation