Fractional general counsel for growing companies
Senior legal leadership without adding a full-time GC role. Scalar's lawyers bring former GC, CLO, and senior in-house experience to recurring corporate legal needs — principal-led engagements with a defined scope and a fixed monthly fee.
A Utah professional limited liability company · serving clients nationwide where permitted
When companies bring us in
Fractional GC fits when legal work recurs — when the queue, the context, and the decisions repeat week over week. The common triggers:
Recurring contracts
Customer, vendor, and partner agreements arriving faster than anyone can own them.
A priced financing
A round on the calendar — with diligence, board consents, and closing mechanics attached.
Board & governance load
Consents, minutes, equity grants, and corporate housekeeping that keep slipping.
Rapid hiring
Offers, equity, policies — and the employment questions that follow headcount.
A transaction ahead
An LOI, an acquisition conversation, or exit preparation on the horizon.
Executive distraction
A founder or CFO routing legal work instead of running the business.
Fractional GC isn't the right model for everyone. Discrete, one-time matters usually fit project counsel better — and companies with little recurring legal work rarely need a monthly relationship.
Project counsel instead→A defined scope, stated up front
Each engagement covers an agreed monthly scope — a senior point of contact for your legal queue, sized to your actual legal load. What's inside the scope is clear, and so is what isn't.
The recurring queue
- A senior point of contact for in-scope legal matters
- Contract review pipeline and standard forms
- Governance cadence — consents, minutes, housekeeping
- Strategic corporate advice as decisions are made
- Coordination of specialty and local counsel
The exceptions
- Major financings and M&A transactions
- Litigation and disputes
- Exceptional-volume projects
- Matters requiring local counsel in other jurisdictions
Anything outside the defined scope is identified — and priced — before work begins.
A defined aperture: the engagement states what's in scope — and what's separately scoped — before work begins.
The first 30 days
Onboarding is structured, not improvised — by the end of the first month you have a working legal function and a 90-day map.
Map & conflicts
Conflicts clearance, engagement agreement, and a map of active legal matters and their owners.
Systems & cadence
A request-and-priority system, communication channels, and an executive check-in cadence.
Pipeline & priorities
Contract pipeline review; governance, equity, employment, and transaction priorities identified.
90-day legal map
A prioritized action plan — and a recommendation on the right ongoing scope, or a project-only path.
Principal-led, every engagement
The lawyers you meet are the lawyers who do the work — with former GC, CLO, and senior in-house experience between them.
Fractional GC, project counsel, or a full-time hire
Three ways to staff the legal function. Each is right for a different shape of legal load — this is how to tell them apart.
| Spec | Fractional GC | Project counsel | Full-time GC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best when | Legal work recurs but doesn't fill a full-time role | A discrete matter with a defined end | Legal load fills a senior calendar year-round |
| Structure | Embedded, principal-led, defined monthly scope | Scope-defined engagement · no retainer | Employee — salary, equity, benefits |
| Cost basis | Fixed monthly fee for the agreed scope | Hourly or project fee, estimated up front | Full-time compensation package |
| Cadence | Continuous — weekly rhythm, board cadence | Matter-driven | Daily |
| Transition | Exit on notice per the engagement agreement | Ends at matter close | Hiring and severance cycle |
Descriptions reflect how each model is typically structured; specific commitments are defined in each engagement agreement.
The details that decide it
What does a fit call cover?
How is pricing set?
What about conflicts?
Which jurisdictions do you cover?
What if a big transaction comes up?
How do engagements end?
See if fractional GC fits
A short form, a conflicts check, then a 20-minute fit call with a principal. No matter details needed — just enough to route the conversation.
What happens next
- 01
- We run a conflicts check on your inquiry.
- 02
- A principal replies with a scheduling link.
- 03
- A 20-minute fit call: a clear fit decision, not legal advice.
- hello@scalarlaw.com
- Based in
- Utah · serving clients nationwide where permitted