The in-house counsel usually plays a vital role in each company, requiring some excellent and significant compensation. Hiring the outside general counsel may be well outside your company’s financial capabilities. If this is the case, then employing the general counsel can be efficient and cost-effective for your company. There are only two possible avenues through which you can hire outside the general counsel. The article below will give you some insights when hiring a general counsel for your company.
What Are The Skills Required Of The General Counsel?
The primary role of the general counsel is that of being a legal advisor, and the role must be able to spot some legal issues before they arise. To accomplish this, you must have a broad knowledge of and understanding of the laws. The council must be able to do some thorough research to identify the legal nuances that apply to any operational situation. The general counsel must also be able to communicate the legal principles effectively to the non-professionals. Below are some of the areas of legal competency:
Corporate governance: every company must comply with all the state governance requirements, which should be strictly followed. In addition, most corporate governance requires public disclosures based on the tax and public status of the company. The general counsel should always advise on such processes to ensure some compliance.
Customer privacy: Any business dealing with customer or client information must always comply with the customer privacy rule.
The intellectual property: the companies that create their property rights must be secure to protect the rights.
What Are The Legal Services To Be Outsourced?
The cost and level of expertise are the advantages of working with outside counselors. However, you must note that not all company legal issues are best suited for legal outsourcing. Some of the matters that are often outsourced successfully include:
Administrative work: here, there is the discovery document review, the claims, and collection services.
Contract work: general drafting of the contract and the review, normally outsourced to the general counsel.
Legal research and analysis: always determine the legal standards by searching the case law in the legal industry.
What Work Will The General Counsel Perform?
An outside general counsel might serve different roles depending on the company’s nature. Below are some of the primary roles:
Legal advisor: the general counsel is the company’s and its employees’ legal advisor. The responsibility includes spotting legal issues, researching them, and guiding the executives and employees who must comply.
Service provider: The council also provides numerous legal services to the company. Such include the contract drafting and review and employment law disclosures.
Representative: it also serves as a primary contact for all the company’s legal issues. It only means they can work closely with the outside counsel on matters such as significant business transactions.
Have you now understood why you need a general counsel for your business? Are you ready to upgrade to their services as you know what to look for? And hope, you get solutions from above mentioned points.