Practice areas/Fractional General Counsel
Fractional General Counsel
A senior commercial lawyer embedded in your business on a fixed monthly retainer — the in-house GC experience, without the $250k+ hire.
Fixed fee. Senior lawyer.
Every engagement is quoted upfront and led by a senior lawyer — never a paralegal-first pipeline.
- hello@envisionlegal.com.au
- Sydney · Melbourne · National
How we help
What we handle for you.
Concrete deliverables — not a general "advice" retainer. Each item can be scoped as a one-off fixed-fee package or bundled into a monthly counsel arrangement.
01
Contracts on your paper
Reviewing, negotiating and closing customer, supplier and partner contracts — and keeping your template library current.
02
Employment & people
Employment agreements, contractor terms, performance and termination decisions, restraints and redundancy.
03
Board & governance
Attending leadership or board meetings where legal input is needed, drafting policies, board charters and governance frameworks.
04
Compliance oversight
Privacy Act, AML/CTF, ACL, industry-specific regulation, WHS — proactive rather than reactive.
05
Transaction support
Capital raises, bolt-on acquisitions and significant commercial deals — with specialists coordinated where needed.
06
Dispute triage
Early intervention when things go sideways — most issues never need to become litigation if caught early.
Who this is for
Clients we work best with.
- Scale-ups with a growing enterprise sales motion and increasing contract volume
- Founder-led businesses where the CEO is spending too many hours on legal admin
- Regulated businesses — fintech, financial services, health, professional services
- Companies preparing for a raise, acquisition or exit that need the legal house tidied first
How we work
No surprises. Ever.
Fixed fees quoted upfront. Senior lawyer on every file. Clear next steps at every stage.
01 — Discovery call
A 15-minute call to understand your business, current legal spend and where the friction sits.
02 — Health check
A structured review of your contracts, employment, IP and compliance posture — surfacing what needs fixing first.
03 — Embed
Within two weeks we're in your leadership rhythms, working through your queue and building the template library.
FAQs
Common questions.
- What is a Fractional General Counsel?
- A Fractional General Counsel is a senior commercial lawyer engaged on a part-time retainer to act as your business's in-house lawyer. You get the strategic benefits of an in-house GC — someone who knows your business, your team and your risk appetite — without the $250,000+ per year cost of a full-time hire.
- How is a Fractional GC different from using a law firm?
- Traditional firms bill by the hour and treat each matter in isolation. A Fractional GC works on a fixed monthly retainer, sits inside your business, attends your leadership meetings and gives you proactive advice. The relationship is continuous, so there is no re-briefing tax every time something comes up.
- What size business is a Fractional GC right for?
- The sweet spot is businesses with 10 to 200 employees, revenue between $2m and $50m, or a growing contract volume that has outgrown ad-hoc law-firm engagements. Founders raising capital, scale-ups building enterprise sales pipelines, and established SMEs facing regulatory complexity are all common fits.
- How much does a Fractional General Counsel cost in Australia?
- Our retainers start from $2,500 + GST per month for a defined scope of hours and coverage. Larger businesses with heavier contract flow typically sit in the $5,000–$10,000 + GST per month range. Compare that to a full-time GC at $200,000–$350,000 per year in salary plus super, leave and recruitment costs.
- What is included in the retainer?
- A defined number of hours each month; priority turnaround on contracts and queries; attendance at board or leadership meetings where legal input is valuable; template maintenance; proactive risk reviews. Specialist work outside the retainer scope (litigation, large M&A, tax) is scoped and priced separately, usually on a fixed fee.
- What happens if we go over the monthly hours?
- We flag it early. Overflow work is either billed at a pre-agreed hourly rate or, if it's a discrete piece of work, quoted as a separate fixed fee. We review the retainer scope every quarter so the plan tracks how your business is actually using us.
- Can we cancel the retainer?
- Yes. Retainers roll month-to-month with 30 days' notice. We do not lock clients into long-term contracts because we want you to keep us because we are useful, not because you are stuck.
Talk to us
Legal built for fractional general counsel.
Send us a note about what you're working on. We'll respond within one business day and, if we're a fit, book a free 15-minute consultation with a senior lawyer.