Legal advice shouldn’t come with a stopwatch
Why growing businesses are ditching one-off legal help for a team that already knows the drill.
The uncomfortable truth about hitting middle age (as a business)
Growing up in business is a bit like hitting middle age. You’re no longer sprinting on caffeine. You’ve got structure, systems, serious revenue and just a little more fat around the middle.
You’re not quite as nimble as you once were. Things take longer. Risk sits heavier. Suddenly, that quick legal favour you used to outsource once a year no longer cuts it.
You’re dealing with external contract work tied to multi-year agreements, complex relationships between principal contractors and end clients.
Internal pressures only get messier as your team grows. If you’ve got employees, you’ve got employment issues.
From tricky HR matters and expanding warehouse leases to dealing with new obligations on unfamiliar property, it’s all part of the growth game. Suddenly, you're no longer just signing contracts, you’re managing risk, liability, and process in ways you weren’t two years ago.
Is it time to hire in-house or is there a smarter way?
At a certain point, every growing business hits the same question: “Should we just hire an in-house lawyer?”
For many clients, that moment comes when they realise they’re talking to lawyers more than they used to. Legal support has gone from occasional to ongoing. The risks are real. The stakes are high. So they ask: do we bring someone in full-time?
But hiring in-house isn’t a small step. It’s expensive. You’re creating a role that didn’t exist before. You don’t know who you’ll get. And once you’ve committed, you’ve committed.
A subscription model bridges that gap.
It gives you:
Ongoing access to a team of lawyers
Context and continuity without headcount
A cost-effective, low-risk alternative to in-house
And because we’re already working with you regularly, we’re not guessing. We already know how to help.
As Richard Southall puts it: “If you’re seeing lawyers more than you used to, and all signs point to needing regular advice, put something in place that lets you get the most out of it.”
What most companies do? They wait.
Most companies call a lawyer after the pipe bursts. (Yes, we’ve seen the actual skyscraper flood.)
They forward the contract after the payment clause has already cost them six figures.
They worry about a dispute only when a letter with a logo shows up in the mail.
Because calling a lawyer often feels like setting fire to your budget.
That’s why we built the General Counsel subscription.
Your legal team without the headcount.
Why communication makes or breaks legal support
Most business leaders don’t realise how you communicate with your legal team is just as important as the advice they give.
Traditional legal advice often shows up as a 10-page memo or a long-winded email. But that doesn’t work in fast-moving businesses. When you need a quick answer, what you really need is a lawyer who already understands your context and can deliver advice in a way that fits how your team actually works.
That’s why communication is a big part of the General Counsel subscription.
It often goes something like this…
You’re two days out from a tender deadline. You text your lawyer: “Hey, can you give this a once-over?” You get a reply within the hour. Not a request for a meeting. Not a 3 paragraph email. Just: “Already had a look. Watch out for clause 14. We’ve seen that one before.”
There’s no retelling your business story from scratch. No explaining your commercial model to someone who doesn’t know your industry.
As Richard Southall puts it: “It’s just a text or a quick call. They know us. We know them. We know what they do, the risks they face, and how to help them work through it, fast.”
We tailor how we communicate to suit the person we’re speaking to. Some clients prefer a phone call. Others want dot-point emails. Some get step-by-step instructions they can forward straight to their team. We’ve even drafted template documents ready for them to fill in.
Legal support across your business
This isn’t just support for the C-suite.
We’re talking HR calling for employment clause clarity. Marketing looping us in on a trademark issue. Ops needing advice on subcontractor T&Cs.
Take the HR manager who called us about a team member on a temporary work visa. They wanted to keep them on but had no idea where to start. One quick call later, they had the right forms, the right process, and even a longer-term option mapped out.
Or the client who got a claim from someone chasing a warranty. The manufacturer had gone bust, and they were being asked to step in. One five-minute call with us confirmed they had no liability and they could walk away confidently without engaging further.
These aren't huge legal matters. They’re just everyday moments where having the right answer saves hours of uncertainty.
Why legal advice should come with perspective not politics
Internal dynamics don’t stop when a legal issue arises, they often intensify it. Different teams have different priorities, and that can complicate decision-making.
That’s where independent legal advice makes a difference.
The benefit of a General Counsel subscription isn’t just familiarity, it’s also neutrality. We’re close enough to know your business inside out, but far enough removed to stay objective. That allows us to:
Offer clear, unbiased advice when teams disagree
Spot internal patterns that might otherwise get ignored
Help leadership cut through politics and focus on what’s right for the business
When decisions need to be made fast, or when internal priorities compete, having that external yet embedded legal partner means you’re not navigating alone.
Seeing the bigger picture, preventing the bigger problems
In one-off legal engagements, the focus is narrow. But when the relationship is ongoing, the lens widens.
Over time, we build knowledge of your contracts, your operating model, your leadership dynamics, your pressure points. That bigger picture lets us do more than answer the question in front of us, it helps us anticipate the next one.
One GC client, for example, used to struggle with slow-paying customers and rising disputes. After working with us to update their terms and internal processes, those disputes didn’t just stop, they never started.
Here’s what clients love most:
“Can I just ask a quick question?” → Yes. It doesn’t trigger a billing cycle.
“Can you review this by Friday?” → Already done. We saw it coming.
“Can my ops lead talk to you directly?” → Please. That’s the point.
You’ve grown out of ‘just wing it’ legal.
If your contracts are getting longer, your risk is getting bigger, and your time is getting tighter, it’s time for a change.
You don’t need another lawyer. You need legal support that moves with your business.
Want to see what it’s like to never worry about calling your lawyer again?
Take us for a test drive here.