Fractional General Counsel for Growing Companies
Contact Us Today For Your Legal Needs, Call (917) 768-0166
Senior legal counsel that grows with your business… without another full-time hire.
As companies grow, legal work stops arriving in neat categories.
A customer contract raises a privacy issue. A new hire creates questions about equity and intellectual property. A funding round affects governance and investor rights. A new AI feature raises questions about data use, licensing and customer terms. Leadership needs an answer before the issue becomes a project.
At that point, what you need isn’t simply a lawyer you can call.
You need a lawyer who already knows the business.
Uncommon Counsel provides Fractional General Counsel services for growing companies that need experienced, ongoing legal support without adding another full-time attorney.
We work across the legal issues that arise as companies operate, sell, hire, build products, protect intellectual property, raise capital and grow.
For companies that already have an in-house legal team, we can also serve as experienced fractional or overflow counsel when internal capacity is stretched or additional support is needed.
Ongoing legal context. Reserved senior capacity. Practical advice built around the business.
More Than Outside Counsel
Traditional outside counsel is often engaged matter by matter.
Fractional General Counsel works differently.
We develop an ongoing understanding of your:
- Business model
- Products and services
- Customers
- Commercial agreements
- Investors and financing structure
- Employees and contractors
- Intellectual property
- Data practices
- Risk tolerance
- Internal decision-making
- Business priorities
That context allows us to help with legal questions that don’t necessarily justify starting a new engagement every time they arise.
Sometimes the answer involves a contract.
Sometimes it involves employment, equity, privacy, intellectual property or corporate strategy.
And sometimes the most useful legal advice is simply helping leadership understand what matters, what doesn’t and what to do next.
What We Cover
Our Fractional General Counsel practice is designed to support the legal issues that arise as companies operate, sell, hire, build products, raise capital and grow.
Fractional General Counsel
We serve as an ongoing legal partner across the day-to-day issues that don’t always fit neatly into one practice area.
Representative matters include:
- Ongoing legal and strategic guidance for founders, executives and leadership teams
- Identifying legal risks before they become larger problems
- Advising on business decisions with legal implications
- Guidance for Sales, Product, Operations and other internal teams
- Developing legal processes, policies and escalation points
- Helping determine when specialist counsel is necessary
- Coordinating legal matters that touch multiple practice areas
- Working alongside accountants, investors and other professional advisers
- Helping companies build a more scalable internal legal function over time
- Serving as a primary legal point of contact for companies without in-house counsel
- Providing additional senior capacity for companies with existing legal teams
Commercial Contracts & Technology Transactions
Commercial contracting remains a core part of our practice.
Representative matters include:
- SaaS and cloud services agreements
- Master Services Agreements
- Statements of Work
- Customer and enterprise agreements
- Vendor and procurement agreements
- Professional services agreements
- NDAs and confidentiality agreements
- Partnership and strategic alliance agreements
- Marketing and advertising agreements
- Software licensing agreements
- Data and content licensing agreements
- API and technology integration agreements
- Platform agreements
- Other technology-driven commercial arrangements
We can work directly with Sales, Procurement, Product and other business stakeholders to help transactions move forward without losing sight of legal risk.
Artificial Intelligence
Companies using, buying and building with AI increasingly face legal questions that cut across contracts, privacy, intellectual property and product risk.
Representative matters include:
- AI vendor agreements
- Generative AI contract provisions
- Customer AI terms
- AI-related intellectual property issues
- Training-data rights
- Ownership and use of AI outputs
- Confidentiality and data-use issues
- AI product terms
- Vendor diligence and contracting
- Commercial allocation of AI-related risk
- Internal AI policies
- Practical AI governance questions
Privacy & Data
Privacy and data issues increasingly touch nearly every part of a modern business.
Representative matters include:
- Data Processing Agreements
- Controller and processor provisions
- Data-use and sharing terms
- Vendor privacy issues
- Commercial privacy provisions
- Cross-border data transfers
- Product privacy questions
- Privacy policies and notices
- Existing privacy-documentation updates
- GDPR counseling
- CCPA/CPRA counseling
- U.S. state privacy-law issues
- Privacy considerations in commercial transactions and product development
Intellectual Property
We advise on non-patent intellectual property matters.
Representative matters include:
- Copyright
- Trademarks
- Intellectual property ownership
- Work-made-for-hire issues
- Employee and contractor IP assignment
- Software licensing
- Data licensing
- Content licensing
- Brand and content issues
- IP provisions in commercial agreements
- Technology licensing
- Product-related IP questions
- General intellectual property counseling
Patent prosecution and patent litigation are outside our practice.
Built for In-House Legal Teams
Already have a General Counsel or legal department?
You don’t need to replace them.
Fractional counsel can add experienced capacity when:
- Contract volume exceeds internal bandwidth
- Your commercial queue is backing up
- Your team needs technology-transactions support
- Privacy, AI or IP issues require additional expertise
- A lawyer leaves or goes on leave
- Headcount is delayed
- Your team needs senior counsel who can work independently
- A temporary increase in legal volume doesn’t justify another permanent hire
Your internal legal team remains in control.
We step in where additional capacity is useful.
Built for Growing Companies, Too
Fractional General Counsel may be a good fit if:
- Legal questions are coming up every week rather than every few months
- Founders or executives are still managing legal issues themselves
- You regularly negotiate customer or vendor agreements
- You’re hiring employees and contractors
- You’re raising capital or managing increasingly complex equity issues
- Privacy, data or AI questions are becoming part of everyday operations
- Your business has outgrown purely ad hoc legal support
- You want one lawyer who can see how different legal issues connect
- You need senior legal judgment but aren’t ready for another full-time hire
Choose the Level of Support You Need
Strategic
$5,000/month
Includes up to 10 hours of reserved attorney capacity each month.
Designed for companies with recurring legal needs that want ongoing access to senior counsel without a significant monthly legal queue.
Support may include:
- Day-to-day General Counsel questions
- Commercial contract review and negotiation
- Routine funding and equity questions
- Transactional employment counseling
- Privacy and data advice
- Intellectual property counseling
- AI-related advice
- One monthly strategy or working session
- Priority scheduling
- Ongoing familiarity with your business and legal positions
Best for: growing companies that need an experienced lawyer involved regularly but don’t yet need substantial embedded legal capacity.
Integrated
$10,000/month
Includes up to 20 hours of reserved attorney capacity each month.
Designed for growing and midsize companies that want meaningful ongoing legal support across the business.
Support may include:
- Ongoing General Counsel advice
- Commercial contract review and negotiation
- Technology transactions
- Funding and equity support
- Transactional employment matters
- Intellectual property counseling
- Privacy and data matters
- AI counseling
- Direct interaction with designated internal stakeholders
- Regular leadership or working sessions
- Priority turnaround for routine matters
- Development and refinement of existing templates, policies and legal playbooks
Coordination with specialist counsel when necessary
Best for: companies that want an experienced lawyer functioning as a meaningful part of the business without hiring another full-time attorney.
Embedded
Starting at $15,000/month
For companies that need senior legal counsel deeply integrated into the day-to-day business.
Engagements generally begin with approximately 30 hours of reserved monthly capacity and are customized based on anticipated volume, complexity and level of integration.
Support may include:
- Ongoing executive and leadership counseling
- Higher-volume commercial contracting
- Direct Sales, Product, Procurement and Operations support
- Funding and equity matters
- Employment counseling
- IP strategy and counseling
- Privacy, data and AI matters
- Regular leadership and business-team meetings
- Contracting and legal-process development
- Policy and playbook maintenance
- Management of outside specialist counsel
- Coordination across the company’s legal matters
- Strategic legal planning as the business grows
Best for: companies that need a senior lawyer operating as part of the business but do not need — or do not want — another full-time legal executive.
What Is Included in Monthly Counsel?
The subscription is designed primarily around availability, advice, review, revision, negotiation and ongoing legal support.
Substantive work performed within the scope of the relationship counts toward your reserved monthly capacity, including:
- Contract review and redlining
- Negotiations
- Legal analysis
- Substantive email advice
- Calls and meetings
- Employment counseling
- Privacy, AI and IP counseling
- Internal stakeholder support
Routine administrative communications such as scheduling, basic status updates and file transfers do not count toward included capacity.
What Is Not Included in Monthly Counsel?
Initial Drafting of New Foundational Documents
The initial creation of substantial new commercial or foundational legal documents is generally handled separately as a flat-fee project rather than through monthly capacity.
Examples include creating a new:
- SaaS Agreement
- Master Services Agreement
- Terms of Service
- Privacy Policy
- Data Processing Agreement
- Licensing agreement
- Customer or vendor template
- Employment-document suite
- Other significant foundational agreement or policy set
Once those documents exist, however, ongoing revisions, negotiations, implementation questions and related counseling can generally be handled through your monthly plan.
Large or Unusually Complex Projects
Some matters may be better handled outside the subscription because they would consume a disproportionate amount of monthly capacity.
Examples may include:
- Significant financing transactions
- Major enterprise transactions
- Large-scale corporate restructurings
- Extensive privacy or AI compliance projects
- Major template overhauls
- Complex investigations
- Other unusually intensive projects
Where appropriate, we’ll recommend a separate flat-fee or hourly scope before proceeding.
What We Don't Handle
Fractional General Counsel does not mean pretending one lawyer should personally handle every specialty.
Our practice generally does not include:
- Litigation or courtroom representation
- Employment litigation
- Patent prosecution
- Patent litigation
- Tax advice
- Immigration matters
- Real estate matters
- Highly specialized securities matters outside the scope of our practice
- Specialized regulatory matters requiring dedicated subject-matter counsel
When a matter requires another specialist, we can work alongside that lawyer and remain involved as your Fractional General Counsel.
Part of being effective General Counsel is knowing when to handle a matter directly and when to bring in specialized expertise.
How Monthly Capacity Works
Your monthly fee reserves attorney capacity.
Your plan reserves a defined portion of senior legal capacity for your company each month.
Unused capacity does not roll over.
Unused hours do not accumulate for future months.
The monthly fee reserves availability during that particular month.
Additional work remains available.
If your needs exceed your included capacity, additional work can generally be performed at the firm’s then-current hourly rate or through a separately scoped flat-fee engagement where appropriate.
We tell you when another structure makes more sense.
If a project is better suited to flat-fee, hourly or specialist counsel, we’ll discuss that with you before proceeding.
The goal is not to force every legal issue into the subscription.
It’s to use the engagement structure that makes sense for the work.
A Three-Month Starting Point
Fractional General Counsel engagements begin with a three-month initial term.
That gives us enough time to learn your business, understand your agreements and corporate structure, become familiar with your team and develop the institutional knowledge that makes the relationship valuable.
There is no separate onboarding fee.
After the initial term, engagements continue month-to-month.
Fractional General Counsel Is Not Unlimited Legal
It IS:
- Reserved senior legal capacity
- Ongoing access to counsel
- Predictable monthly spend
- Priority access
- Institutional knowledge
- Practical business-oriented legal guidance
- Continuity across legal issues
- A lawyer who understands how the different pieces of your business fit together
It is NOT:
- Unlimited legal work
- Unlimited contract negotiations
- Unlimited drafting
- Unlimited availability
- A bank of hours that accumulates indefinitely
- A substitute for every legal specialty
- A deeply discounted block of attorney time
Why Fractional General Counsel?
Legal Advice With Context
The best legal advice doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
The answer to “Can we agree to this?” depends on the company, the customer, the deal, the risk, the economics and what you’ve agreed to before.
An ongoing relationship gives counsel the context to answer those questions better.
One Legal Partner Across the Business
Legal issues overlap.
Commercial agreements touch privacy. Employment touches IP and equity. Product decisions touch data, AI and customer obligations.
Fractional General Counsel helps connect those issues rather than treating each one as an isolated project.
Senior Counsel Does the Work
Your matters are handled by experienced counsel.
You aren’t paying for layers of staffing or junior attorneys learning your business while the clock runs.
Predictable, Without Being Unlimited
You know your core monthly legal spend while maintaining clearly defined capacity and scope.
Legal That Helps the Business Move
Our job isn’t simply to identify every conceivable risk.
It’s to help you understand what matters, make informed decisions and move the business forward.
Other Ways to Work With Uncommon Counsel
A Fractional General Counsel relationship isn't necessary for every legal need.
Flat-Fee Projects
Starting at $7,500*
Flat-fee engagements are available for clearly defined work where the scope can be established in advance.
This model is particularly well suited to the initial drafting of new commercial and foundational documents.
Startup Legal Foundation
For startups that need the core legal infrastructure to launch and grow.
A package may include:
- Terms of Service or Terms of Use
- Privacy Policy
- Core customer agreement, such as a SaaS Agreement or Master Services Agreement
- Statement of Work template, where appropriate
- Employment or independent contractor documentation, depending on the company’s needs
- Foundational intellectual property assignment documentation
- AI-specific provisions where applicable
- Two hours of live consulting, or more as needed
Starting at $7,500, with final pricing based on the company’s business model, product, data practices, workforce and complexity.
Additional corporate, funding or equity work can be scoped separately based on the company’s needs.
Hourly Counsel
$550/hour
Hourly engagements remain available for matters where traditional hourly billing makes the most sense, including:
- Discrete legal questions
- Individual contract negotiations
- Commercial counseling
- Technology transactions
- Funding and equity matters
- Employment counseling
- Intellectual property matters
- Privacy and data issues
- AI-related matters
- Unpredictable projects
- Work outside the scope or capacity of a monthly plan
There is no requirement to subscribe in order to work with Uncommon Counsel.
Which Model Is Right for You?
Need an ongoing legal partner who knows the business?
Fractional General Counsel may be the right fit.
Need new foundational documents created?
A flat-fee project may make more sense.
Need help with one transaction or legal issue?
Hourly counsel may be the better fit.
You don’t need to decide before contacting us.
We’ll help determine which structure makes sense for the work.
Senior Legal Counsel, Without Another Full-Time Hire
You don’t necessarily need a larger legal department.
You may need an experienced lawyer who can become part of the way your company operates.
Let’s talk about what Fractional General Counsel could look like for your business.