Outsourced in-house counsel.

In-house legal departments are often under resourced, with responsibility for an ever increasing and demanding workload.  Despite this, it can be very difficult for in-house counsel to increase headcount.

Support from traditional law firms for day-to-day in-house needs can be expensive.  Also, it’s not always easy to find business savvy corporate counsel who can support the legal department easily, quickly and at times, with minimal supervision.  

I know first-hand the challenges in-house legal departments face in trying to “do more with less”.  I’ve been there, think like an in-house lawyer, speak the same language as in-house counsel and work collaboratively.  I bring multi-faceted experience and innate risk management thinking to business issues and challenges, understanding the balancing of commercial pressures and goals with long term business strategy and legal thoughtfulness.

For companies without in-house counsel I can help with establishing an internal legal department for the first time, bringing all the legal affairs of the company under centralised control, “triaging” legal issues as they arise and setting up legal process and compliance systems.

I’ve been a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel (and its predecessor the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association) since 2008.