Any SaaS, AI, data or tech business that doesn’t have an inhouse legal team, or which has an inhouse legal team that’s not working properly.

It’s particularly suitable for businesses experiencing these symptoms:

• Your business is repeatedly hit by ad hoc legal problems. Responding to them is soaking up management time, but there doesn’t seem to be an overall plan or an approach to preventing the problems occurring in the first place. There is no strategic or systemic view of your business’ legal issues.

• Every time you ask a legal question, you get an answer that is unclear, hedged (on the one hand, on the other hand), and not pragmatic.

• Your company’s contracts aren’t being properly addressed. Money is being left on the table, your risks are being properly mitigated, and there’s too much friction involved in getting the contracts to closure.

• Your spend on external lawyers is out of control. The money is going out, but you just don’t feel you are getting money’s worth in return.

• You have the uncomfortable feeling that your business’ legal issues are not being properly addressed and that, at some point in the future, this is going to come back and bite you.

More or less like it sounds. You get access to a top a quality lawyer at a fraction of the price you would pay for an equivalent FTE.

But to make the relationship work - and for me to add real value to your business - we need to have a closer working relationship than you have with most external lawyers. I will need to function as a quasi-member of your senior team. I will meet with you (remotely or in person) weekly or fortnightly to keep in sync, and for me to report back on the work that is being done and understand any upcoming issues.

The first thing is to have a call to make sure that there is a good mutual fit. I only want to work with companies where I can add real value. If I don’t feel that I can add real value, I will tell you right off the bat. And if you feel that I’m not the right fit for your business, then you should let me know too.

Assuming that we both agree that there is a good fit, the next step is to decide what needs to be looked at. Is there a burning platform that needs to be addressed, or is a general legal MOT the best first option? Whichever is the right approach for your company, we will agree on the deliverables for the next 90 days. At the end of the 90 days (or earlier, if appropriate), you will get a report from me setting out analysis, diagnosis, recommendations, work undertaken so far, and work left to be done.

The service comes in two parts.

• Part 1 - Diagnose. Review the current SCP of the business, and create a short report on what’s working, what’s not working, where the real problems are, and what can be done to fix things.

• Part 2 - Fix. Implement the recommendations of the report, and fix the problems. This usually includes creating new contract templates.

• I am a specialist tech-sector lawyer. I know this sector and how it works. You don’t pay for someone else’s learning curve, and you get someone that knows what’s market standard (so you avoid unnecessary friction into the contracting process).

• I’ve worked in law firms, but most of my working life has been in-house. That’s significant. In-house lawyers look at the world differently to law firm lawyers. They understand how Pricing, Service and Sales need to come together to produce successful contracts. And they have, from lived experience, a much better understanding of the gap between theory and practice.

• I’ve got a process-mentality. I’m not here to ride in at the last minute and save the day (trumpets), I’m here to make sure the problem doesn’t happen in the first place.

• I have negotiated contracts – buy-side and sales-side - with some of the toughest negotiators in the world: Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Investec, Prudential, Blackstone, BAE Systems, Unisys, GenPac, Microsoft, Mambu, Marqeta. I also know the most efficient way to get around difficult procurement departments.

• I’ve run legal departments, and I’ve been brought in to fix broken ones.

Do Nothing. Always an option, but doesn’t move the problem forward.

DIY. Always an option too, but if you are reading this you probably already tried it and it hasn’t worked, or it’s consumed too much of your time.

Use an external. If you can find an external with the right expertise and the right mindset, then this is a good option. The trouble is, it’s really hard to find the right people for this kind of work (see next).

Part 1 - Diagnose. Fixed price, based on scope and the nature of the business.

Part 2 - Fix. Fixed price, based on scope and the desired to-be (ie. the output of the Diagnostic). Ideally, we will adopt a subscription model. You pay a fixed monthly price, and for that price I will take on whatever work comes up in the defined scope. You get a fixed price, and the ability to budget easily. I’m incentivised (not that I wasn’t before) to organise your business’ legal affairs so they are as efficient and smooth as possible. It’s a win-win.

High.

The main advantages of this service are:

Reduced costs. The right input, at the right time, reduces costs. Compared to using a law firm, compared to hiring an FTE, and compared to doing nothing, I will reduce your costs.

Problems prevented. Riding in to save the day at the last moment isn’t the smartest approach. I work to prevent problems before they arise.

Scale up/Scale down. If a subscription model is not going to work, we can adopt a scaling model. I can scale up when the business needs it and scale down when it doesn’t. Costs match usage.

Solution focused. I get to know your business and your market. I go beyond advice and get the solution implemented in the business. I provide workable solutions, not just analysis.

External lawyers. Even if you use external lawyers for specialist areas, the total of my charges + the external lawyers’ charges will be less than the costs of the external lawyers on their own. My expertise and focus will result in an overall reduction of your legal costs – plus you get increased reach and quality.