Ten senior hours a month — without the hire.

1 · WHERE DOES THE FUNCTION SIT?

• The UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Malta, Gibraltar, New Zealand or Hong Kong → yes — delivered directly by the founder, on a monthly retainer. Running an in-house legal and compliance function isn’t reserved to the regulated legal profession in these markets, which is why you can have a senior one at a fraction of a hire — lawfully, and in the open.
• Somewhere else → tell us the country in the enquiry. Several others work on the same basis; some reserve standing legal advice to admitted lawyers, and a retainer is the wrong shape for a market that does. We confirm within one business day, before any charge.

2 · WHAT THE FUNCTION COVERS

• The commercial engine — the contract function end to end: playbooks, fallback positions, live negotiation, MSAs and order forms, DPAs, NDAs, partner and reseller terms, procurement review, renewal and escalation strategy.
• The compliance stack — GDPR and AI Act programmes, statutory appointments, policy architecture, vendor and sub-processor governance, the risk register, and what actually goes to the board.
• External counsel — briefing, scoping, budget control, and pushing back on the firms you already pay. Instructing lawyers is procurement, not legal practice, and it’s usually where the fastest money is saved.
• Being in the room — fundraise and diligence support, buyer security reviews, commercial strategy, and the standing “can we do this” call that founders otherwise take from nobody.

3 · WHERE THE LINE SITS

• The title → we don’t use “General Counsel”, “counsel” or “lawyer”. Several of the markets above protect those titles even where the work itself is open, so we describe the role by function. The mandate is identical; the label isn’t worth the risk to either of us.
• Reserved work → representation before a court, tribunal or regulator; conducting litigation; filings made on your behalf; notarial acts; work tied to the sale of a business where local rules reserve it. That’s an admitted lawyer. We identify it early, brief them properly and manage the spend — introduced and coordinated by us, contracted by you directly, so there’s no fee-sharing and no doubt about who is advising on what.
• Privilege → advice from us is not covered by legal professional privilege, which generally attaches to admitted lawyers and, in some EU proceedings, not even to in-house ones. For most commercial work that’s irrelevant. For anything with litigation, investigation or competition exposure it isn’t, and we’ll tell you when a workstream needs to move to a privileged channel rather than letting you discover it later.
• Status → engaged under a services contract, not employed by you. Some markets exempt an employed in-house adviser from rules a contracted one can’t claim, so the scope above is drawn to sit outside those rules rather than lean on an exemption that wouldn’t apply.

We are not a law firm and don’t hold ourselves out as one. No court work, no filings, no regulated titles, no privilege. Tell us where you’re based and what’s currently unowned — scope and fit are confirmed within one business day, and you’re never charged before they are.