General Counsel Services (GCS)

Practical guidance from former GCs and in-house counsel to help your company grow and scale

Start the Conversation

Overview

Drawing on our deep experience as clients and founders, we offer general counsel services tailored to meet the specific legal and business needs of each company we serve. Our team - former GCs and in-house attorneys - is uniquely positioned to fill this role, leveraging a trained approach to legal issues that starts with understanding a company’s operational needs and risk profile. This experience allows us to plug-in quickly and provide high-value, efficient advice to founders and their leadership teams.

Our fractional GCs are experienced problem-solvers who understand the issues facing startups as they scale their businesses. They regularly handle a wide range of day-to-day legal issues, including entity formation / governance, commercial transactions, employment, privacy, and intellectual property, as well as more complex strategic transactions (M&A, partnerships, financing) and litigation with support from Scale’s deep bench of legal talent.

Our Approach

In-house attorneys are trained to approach legal issues differently - by working to first understand a client’s operational needs, risk profile, and strategic objectives and leveraging these insights to deliver advice that aligns with the business. We pride ourselves in providing practical and efficient guidance and are mindful of keeping costs aligned with the objectives of our clients. We know that quick responses are important and that legal cannot be the holdup. Many of our happy clients come to us after working with Big Law and are pleasantly surprised at the enhanced value we can provide.

Areas of Practice

Tailored legal solutions

Our fractional GC attorneys can help with specific legal needs as they arise, including:

  • negotiate high-priority commercial and strategic transactions (customer contracts, financing transactions, and industry partnerships)
  • advise on legal issues, such as employment or data privacy needs
  • manage disputes relating to customers or employees 
  • handle all of a company’s day-to-day legal work

Fractional support for legal teams

In-house attorneys appreciate that our fractional GC attorneys understand the needs of the business and can partner with the existing legal function in a variety of seamless ways:

  • Interim leadership 
  • Leave of absence coverage
  • Subject-matter expertise 
  • Adding bench strength
  • Transitional support while conducting hiring search
  • Leadership and direction for new and/or junior in-house attorneys

What Sets us Apart

Former GCs and In-House Counsel

Each member of our General Counsel Services (GCS) team has considerable in-house legal experience at both private and public companies, including with the following industry leading companies:

24 Hour Fitness Affirm America Online American Express Apollo Scheduling
BDO Blend Bread Financial Breeze-Eastern Corporation Brightloom
Buc-ee’s, Ltd. Caesars Entertainment Clarivate Corefino Covestro
Credit Suisse Crescendo Bioscience, Inc. (now a Myriad company) CSRA LLC DIRTT Environmental Solutions Environmental Tectonics Corporation
G2 Investment Group/Forbes Private Capital Group Guaranteed Rate Happy Money Industrial Human Capital, Inc. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Keller Williams Realty, Inc. Kiavi (formerly known as LendingHome) LendingClub Lone Pine Resources Lone Star College System
MetroMile Morgan Stanley Motivate Venture Capital Natera, Inc. Nissan North America, Inc.
Opendoor Panasonic of North America Payactiv Prosper Marketplace Pyrotek Incorporated
Qualia Labs, Inc. Remine Inc. Roche Diagnostics (a division of Roche) Roofstock Safeco Corporation
ShiftPixy, Inc. The Climate Corporation The Northern Trust Company TwinStrand Biosciences Unison
Upstart Network, Inc. (Nasdaq: UPST) USA Dawgs, Inc. Wachovia Bank Capital Markets World Class Capital Group, LLC Y2X

Scale’s Firm Structure

The unique and non-traditional structure of our firm really benefits our clients. Our attorneys have full control over their practices which makes them a joy to work with, and as a virtual firm, our lower overhead allows us to provide competitive rates for high caliber services.

Process Improvements

We find that providing fractional GC services often lends itself to making business and process improvements that greatly benefit our clients. Rather than handling legal issues in a vacuum, we will work with you to identify and fix internal roadblocks, such as weak contract templates or inadequate customer-facing processes, in support of your overall efforts to scale.

Meet The Team

Full Attorney List

Playbooks

Ethical Considerations in Litigation & Government Investigations

In-house counsel must manage a range of practical and ethical responsibilities in the context of litigation and government investigations, from assessing risk to ensuring compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct. What’s the best approach?

Read More

Being a GC in Uncertain Times

General Counsel are expected to help their companies steer through the ups and downs of a typical business cycle and handle all the challenges that come with it. Inevitably though, GCs will encounter new situations for which they may be under-prepared. So how does one navigate through these situations?

Read More

Tactical Approach To Intellectual Property

In-house lawyers play an important role in protecting a company’s intellectual property, and they succeed when IP is approached strategically and proactively. So what does this approach look like?

Read More