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Interim General Counsel for Australian Businesses
A senior GC in the seat within weeks — for a gap, a leave, or a transition, on a defined-term engagement.
Interim General Counsel is a senior in-house lawyer engaged for a defined period to fill the GC seat — while you recruit, while your GC is on leave, or while the business decides what shape the role should take permanently. The angle here is speed and stability: a real GC in the chair within weeks, not months.
Common Trigger Events
- The GC has resigned and the search will take four to six months
- Extended parental or medical leave
- A capital event (raise, sale, listing) is coming and the business needs GC-level oversight now
- Post-acquisition — the acquired entity has legal work and no lawyer
- Restructure — the legal function is being redesigned
What "Interim" Means in Practice
- Full GC scope — board reporting, contracts, employment, compliance, disputes coordination
- Defined start and end date, with a review point built in
- Day rate or fixed monthly fee — no six-minute units
- Available three days a week minimum; usually more
- On-site in Sydney or Melbourne where the business needs it; remote otherwise
The First 30 Days
Week one is discovery — reading the register, meeting the leadership team, understanding the live matters. Week two is triage — sorting urgent from important, catching anything that has been dropped. Weeks three and four are stabilisation — the business starts routing legal work through the interim GC as it would with a permanent hire. By day 30, the seat feels filled.
Interim vs Fractional vs Secondment
- Interim GC — filling a specific role for a defined term, full scope, near-full-time
- Fractional GC — ongoing partnership at a fraction of a full-time load
- Secondment — a lawyer embedded in an existing team, not necessarily as the GC
Related
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