Outsourced General Counsel for Australian Businesses

Who This Is Built For

Outsourced GC fits businesses that are ready to consolidate their legal spend. Typical starting points:

• You use three or more different law firms for different matters and none of them has a full picture
• You have considered hiring an in-house GC but the business case is not there yet — or the right candidate is not available
• Your legal spend is $50k–$200k a year across ad-hoc engagements and it is unpredictable
• The board or PE sponsor wants a single accountable owner of legal risk

Replacing a Full-Time GC Hire

A full-time General Counsel in Australia costs $200k–$350k in base, plus super, leave, recruitment fees and the risk of a mis-hire. An outsourced model removes the fixed cost, gives you continuity if someone leaves, and is easy to scale up or down as the business changes shape. When the business genuinely outgrows outsourced GC — usually around 200+ employees — the exit is clean: we help you scope the role, hire the person and hand over.

Replacing a Panel of Law Firms

Most growing businesses accumulate law firm relationships by accident — one for employment, another for a capital raise, a third for the property lease. None of them talks to the others, and every matter starts with a briefing session you pay for. Outsourced GC replaces the accumulation with a single relationship. Specialist advice still comes from specialists — we coordinate it and manage the spend.

What Sits Inside the Retainer

• All ordinary-course contract review, drafting and negotiation
• Employment law advice — offers, performance, exits, restructures
• Compliance — privacy, consumer law, unfair contract terms, industry regulation
• Board and leadership legal input on strategic decisions
• Template library and policy set — kept current, not left to rot
• Vendor and counterparty management — you route everything through us

What Sits Outside (Priced Separately, Usually Fixed Fee)

• Large M&A transactions — buy-side or sell-side
• Complex capital raises
• Litigation and disputes past the pre-action stage
• Tax and structuring work requiring a specialist

Pricing

Outsourced GC retainers run from $2,500 + GST per month at the entry tier to $9,500 + GST per month for larger, contract-heavy businesses. See the pricing table on our Fractional General Counsel service page.

Related

• Fractional General Counsel — the same model, different framing
• What is a Fractional General Counsel? — plain-English guide
• Part-Time General Counsel
• Fractional Legal Counsel