Scaling a start-up without legal support is risky, but choosing the wrong solution can also be costly.

So, when’s the right time to bring in legal expertise, and what’s the smartest way to do it?

As an early-stage start-up, operating without legal support is far from ideal and potentially harmful to your business. Beyond the obvious risk of falling afoul of laws and regulations, you’re leaving yourself open to developing a product and underlying operations that may require significant course correction down the line.

So, what’s the solution?

Simply put, you should get legal support as soon as you can. But this is where it gets tricky.

Until now, you have probably been using a law firm from the panel suggested by your investors. While that might seem to be a logical first step, external law firms tend to be (often prohibitively) expensive which leads to one of two things: a) an accumulation of eye-watering legal fees or b) a propensity to only use them when absolutely necessary, at a moment in time when you really should be getting all the legal help you can get.

So, do you appoint a GC?

A real GC (i.e. one with genuine experience of implementing the generalist legal support needed by growing companies) is a significant appointment that usually comes with a high salary and an expectation of equity. In time, this appointment is inevitable but it’s not likely to be required until much later in your evolution.

What about a junior lawyer?

Hiring a junior lawyer will certainly keep the costs down but, no matter how skilled or capable they may be, they simply won’t have the experience needed to make crucial decisions. Put a different way, they won’t know what they don’t know.   

To be clear, every one of these options is perfectly viable at key times in a company’s lifetime, but not at the earlier stages of its development.

This is where the fractional model comes in.

A fractional counsel gives you access to senior legal expertise without the commitment of a full-time hire. You get the strategic guidance needed to navigate contracts, regulatory risks, and operational issues at a fraction of the cost of a permanent GC. And, unlike law firms, a fractional counsel works as an extension of your team, providing practical, business-focused legal support when you need it.

In short, it’s the best of both worlds: the experience of an in-house lawyer, the flexibility of an external consultant, and a cost structure that scales with your business.

For many start-ups, this approach provides the right legal foundation, ensuring that when the time comes to hire a full-time GC, they inherit a well-structured, legally sound operation rather than a mess to clean up.

If you’re a founder, COO, or CFO of an early-stage start-up and want to explore how fractional legal support can help you scale, let’s connect. I’m happy to share insights on navigating this crucial stage, even if we don’t end up working together.