Business law capability
Fractional general counsel for growing companies
Fractional general counsel: a senior, part-time GC function with scheduled capacity, embedded with your leadership team. Serving companies nationwide.
Fractional General Counsel
How Kohler Law Group helps
Fractional general counsel is a senior attorney who serves as a company’s part-time general counsel on an ongoing, scheduled basis. Instead of calling a lawyer only when a problem appears, the company reserves regular capacity, and the attorney works alongside the CEO, CFO and leadership team on contracts, hiring, governance, investment documents and risk. At Kohler Law Group, every attorney has at least 25 years of experience, and you work directly with the attorney doing the work.
A fractional GC fits a company that has steady legal work but is not ready to hire a full-time general counsel. The role combines legal judgment with legal operations: setting contract approval rules, building templates, tracking open issues and deciding when other counsel is needed. Kohler Law Group is a fully virtual firm founded in 2002 by Robert Kohler, and it supports technology companies, startups and growing businesses nationwide, sometimes alongside an existing in-house counsel or a large firm.
What is fractional general counsel?
Fractional general counsel is a part-time general counsel function provided by a senior outside attorney under a recurring engagement. The attorney learns the business, joins leadership conversations and handles day-to-day legal needs with the continuity of an in-house GC, without the commitment of a full-time hire.
- Recurring, scheduled capacity rather than one-off matters
- Ongoing knowledge of your contracts, team and priorities
- One senior point of contact for legal questions
- Coordination with securities, tax, patent or litigation counsel
How is fractional GC different from ad hoc outside counsel?
The difference is commitment and integration. Ad hoc counsel is engaged matter by matter and responds when called. A fractional GC holds reserved time each month, attends key meetings, tracks open legal issues and helps set priorities, so legal input arrives before decisions are made rather than after.
- Ad hoc counsel: engaged per matter, mostly reactive
- Fractional GC: reserved hours and proactive planning
- Fractional GC: embedded with the executive team
- Fractional GC: owns legal operations and templates
What does a fractional general counsel do day to day?
A fractional GC reviews and negotiates commercial contracts, answers questions from sales, finance and HR, prepares board and investor materials, and maintains the systems that keep legal work moving. The aim is fewer surprises: consistent terms, clear approval paths and early warning on issues that need more attention.
- Sales, vendor, SaaS and partnership agreements
- Board and executive meeting support
- Employment, contractor and consulting agreements
- Contract intake, playbooks and template libraries
- Investment documents and diligence preparation
How much does fractional general counsel cost?
Fractional general counsel cost depends on the capacity reserved, the volume and complexity of the work, and how much outside counsel the company needs. Structures usually center on a monthly allocation or a defined scope of recurring work. Because the firm runs with lower overhead, it often delivers comparable outcomes at about half the cost of a large firm.
- Monthly reserved capacity
- A defined scope of recurring work
- Separate terms for large one-time projects
- Everything confirmed in a written engagement letter
How we help
What can a fractional general counsel handle?
- 01Scheduled general counsel hours each month
- 02Participation in leadership and board meetings
- 03Commercial contract review and negotiation
- 04Contract playbooks, templates and approval rules
- 05Employment, contractor and HR legal support
- 06IP, licensing and data issue spotting
- 07Investment documents and transaction preparation
- 08Coordination of securities, tax, patent and litigation counsel
- 09Legal priority planning and budgeting
Fractional General Counsel questions
What do companies ask about fractional general counsel?
01When should a company hire a fractional general counsel?
A company should consider fractional general counsel when legal work becomes weekly rather than occasional: steady contract flow, growing headcount, investor reporting or demanding enterprise customers. If leadership is spending its own time on legal questions, or decisions are waiting on counsel, reserved senior capacity usually helps more than calling a lawyer case by case.
02Is a fractional GC the same as a part-time in-house lawyer?
Not quite. A fractional GC works as outside counsel through a law firm engagement, not as an employee. The company gets in-house style continuity and involvement, while the firm carries its own overhead and can draw on other senior attorneys at the firm when a matter calls for different experience.
03Can a fractional general counsel work with our existing lawyers?
Yes. A fractional GC can complement an in-house counsel who needs more capacity, or work alongside a large firm that handles financings, litigation or other matters. The fractional GC keeps day-to-day work moving and helps coordinate the other lawyers so the company receives consistent advice instead of separate opinions.
04How does a fractional GC engagement start at Kohler Law Group?
It starts with a discovery call with Robert Kohler, the firm’s founder. He learns about the company, its contract volume and its priorities, then matches the company with an attorney suited to the work. Scope, scheduled capacity and fees are confirmed in a written engagement letter before work begins.
05What does a fractional general counsel need from us to be effective?
Access and context. Useful starting points include current customer and vendor templates, the cap table and investment documents, key employment and contractor agreements, a list of open legal issues, and a standing meeting with the CEO or CFO. Regular check-ins let the fractional GC raise issues while they are still small.
Fractional General Counsel guides
Related reading for this work.
Practical guides from Kohler Law Group on the contracts, decisions, and risks that come up in this area.
What a general counsel does and when you need one
How to manage growing contract volume
Outside counsel or an in-house lawyer?
What a company AI use policy should cover
The Kohler model
Why companies bring this work to Kohler.
Senior attorneys only
Every attorney has at least 25 years of experience. The person advising your business is the person doing the work.
Matched to the matter
Founder Robert Kohler learns what the business needs, then pairs the client with an attorney whose experience fits the work.
Built for operating speed
The firm handles the contracts, employment issues, intellectual-property questions, and commercial matters that cannot wait.