chief legal office
Growing companies eventually hit an awkward stage: Larger
customer contracts, Procurement questionnaires, Investor diligence requests, Hiring risk, Security reviews, "Can Legal look at this real quick?" becoming a full-time job.
Hiring a full-time General Counsel can easily cost $300,000 to
$500,000+ annually. Once you add salary, bonus, benefits, payroll taxes, equity, and support costs, the number climbs fast.
That math does not work for most emerging companies. So
founders are left choosing between expensive full-time hires,
disconnected outside counsel, or fractional GC models where one expensive senior lawyer is still doing everything.
We built Unified differently.
examples
Imagine three SaaS companies, each doing roughly $15M ARR, each growing
quickly, each negotiating enterprise contracts, and each realizing legal is
starting to affect operations. They solve the problem three different ways.
Company A
Traditional Outside Counsel
They send everything to a BigLaw firm. $900/hour associate rates. No internal project management. "Legal" is a series of separate invoices, not a strategy. The CEO is still the one reviewing the final redlines.
Result: High costs, low context, and constant founder involvement.
Company B
Solo Fractional General Counsel
They hire a solo practitioner for 10 hours/week. Better context, but when a big deal or an HR crisis hits, the solo GC is at capacity. There is no team to delegate to. The GC is doing $500/hour administrative work.
Result: Scalability issues and inefficient use of senior expertise.
Company C
Unified's Chief Legal Office
They have a dedicated General Counsel managing strategy and executive-level decisions. Below them, a team of specialized AGCs handles contracts, privacy, and operations. The technology stack is integrated. One predictable fee.
Result: A fully functional legal department that scales with revenue.
Sophisticated companies do not use their most senior executives for work that should be delegated. Legal
should not be different.
Law firms think: "This is my part of the matter." We think: "This is our business." Unified is not a traditional outside law firm selling isolated legal projects. We operate like an embedded in-house legal department built for scaling companies.
legal support backbone
This is not a solo practitioner with a contractor on standby. It is a functioning legal department. Your Unified General Counsel is supported by:
Named General Counsel
A dedicated executive-level strategic partner who understands your business goals.
Broader Specialized Team
Access to specialized experts in IP, employment, privacy, and regulatory matters.
Legal Technology Stack
Integrated contract management, document automation, and spend tracking from day one.
Our attorneys are former in-house executives and senior government leaders. We don’t just provide legal options; we provide business recommendations.
"Our GCs and AGCs have sat in your seat. They have managed budgets, briefed boards, and negotiated through rapid scale. We know that 'perfect' is the enemy of 'shipped'." Amy Natasha Osteen
fractional GC Roles
Day 1
Support Founders & Board
Sit in on leadership meetings, prep board materials, and translate legal posture into business language.
Day 2
Oversee Legal Strategy
Maintain the playbook across employment, IP, privacy, and corporate matters as the company evolves.
Day 3
Sales Velocity
Negotiate customer paper, MSAs, DPAs, and procurement questionnaires without slowing the pipeline.
Day 4
Manage Outside Counsel
Brief, direct, and budget specialist firms so spend stays predictable and outcomes stay aligned.
Day 5
Compliance & Operations
Run the cadence — policy reviews, vendor diligence, recordkeeping — so audits never come as a surprise.
Day 6
High-Stakes Negotiation
Step in on partnership, financing, and dispute negotiations where senior judgment changes the outcome.
fractional strategy
When your legal files look clean, your contracts are strategic, and your GC is sharp,fast, and seasoned, it shows in the data room, the investor meeting, and on the term sheet.
Organization & Process
Cap table, equity plans, and corporate records audit-ready
Board governance and committee cadence
Policies that match the stage you are at
Contracts & Deals
MSAs, DPAs, NDAs templated and version-controlled
Negotiation playbooks for sales, hiring, and vendors
Closing checklists that survive diligence
Risk & Compliance
Privacy, security, and regulatory posture documented
Incident response and disclosure protocols
Litigation and dispute readiness without panic
Built for growth
Many Unified Chief Legal Office engagements begin around 10 hours per week. This provides enough surface area to deeply understand the business while keeping costs highly efficient. We scale as you scale, adding AGC-level support as the volume of work increases.
Your GC works on your systems, uses your company email address,and is available in your Slack. We don't just "process" legal work; we own the outcomes. This level of accountability and judgment is what separates Unified from traditional outside counsel.
Schedule a consultation with our leadership team to map
your scaling needs.
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