Are you relying solely on traditional outside law firms to deal with all of your company’s legal issues?  If so, are you paying a lot more than you need to, for less benefit and service than you should expect to receive?  By having the Company Counsel Network provide you with a Company Counsel Network Attorney, you will realize several immediate and significant benefits.

HIGHER VALUE

Regular on-site availability of a Company Counsel Network Attorney adds extraordinary value in at least three ways:

•  More Experience Working for You.  Your Company Counsel Network Attorney will have 15 - 20+ years of transactional experience (business, corporate, securities, venture capital, real estate and commercial matters) in private practice, and company-side with in-house, general counsel and/or management experience.
   
•  Additional Depth to Your Management Team.   A Company Counsel Network Attorney becomes part of your management team, understands your company and gets on top of important issues in your industry. . . all of which adds the legal perspective to key management decisions and enables your Company Counsel Network Attorney to proactively address issues that traditional outside counsel might not become aware of until after a problem has surfaced.
   
• Improved Management of Your Company’s Legal Business.  It’s much more convenient and efficient for management to delegate and supervise legal matters when an Company Counsel Network Attorney is involved.  When new legal matters surface, instead of your having to schedule (and reschedule) appointments and sometimes phone calls with an outside lawyer, a short instruction to your Company Counsel Network Attorney can be enough to commence a project or get a status report.

LOWER COST

Matters handled directly by the Company Counsel Network Attorney will generally cost significantly less than if referred to an outside traditional hourly-rate law firm, for three reasons:  

• Lower, Cost-Effective Rates.   First, the rates charged for a senior-level Company Counsel Network Attorney (which , although they may vary depending upon the particular Company counsel Network Attorney and other factors, are usually in the range of $600 - $800 per 4-hour half-day, which is approximately  $2,600 - $3,500 per month of 4.3 weeks, or $150 - $200/hour) are the same as, or less than,  those charged by major and mid-size law firms for their most junior and inexperienced associates.  Apart from any substantive difference in the quality, any given work product should be generated by an experienced Company Counsel Network Attorney (i)  faster and thus less-expensively than by a relatively inexperienced traditional law firm junior associate, or (ii)  equally fast, but at a much lower cost than if provided high-hourly-rate senior-level partner in a traditional law firm.
   
• No “Pyramid” Billing.  Second, when your Company Counsel Network Attorney works on a matter, only one lawyer is involved.  Services from outside traditional law firms often involve multiple lawyers working on the same matter or different aspects of the same matter.  Whenever those lawyers communicate with one another, as they must often do, the client is usually charged for each and all of the attorneys involved!  Hence, the term "pyramid billing."
   
• No Extra Charge for Short Remote Communications.  Third, when your Company Counsel Network Attorney is not working on-site and you want to contact him or her, you’re never charged extra for short remote communications.  This encourages your keeping the Company Counsel Network Attorney “in the loop” by involving him or her on an “FYI basis” with short letters, emails and telephone calls to/from senior management.  This information significantly helps the Company Counsel Network Attorney identify early and address current and potential legal issues.

The combined effect of the foregoing cost factors on the overall cost of legal services is substantial.  In “geek-speak,” the Company Counsel Network Attorney Network replaces the typical high-overhead, vertically concentrated (pyramid) management structure of a traditional law firm with a more efficient “flat peer-to-peer network” of “high-level knowledge workers.”  The cost reductions here, as in certain other information-based industries, where new technology is enabling alternative and more efficient ways of transferring knowledge, are monumental.  By providing senior-level transactional attorneys with practiclal business experience at rates that are the same as, or less than, those charged by traditional major and mid-size law firms for their most junior associates, the Company Counsel Network ensures that small-to-mid-size companies will maximize the effectiveness of their expenditures for law-related matters.

Economic Benchmark Comparisons

Major and Mid-Size Law Firm Associates and Partners vs. Company Counsel Network Attorney

 

^[1] Estimated as typical for major and mid-size law firms in Southern California. May differ in specific instances.

^[2] Rates, which may vary depending upon the particular Company Counsel Network Attorney and other factors, are usually in the range of $600-$800 per 4-hour half-day (which is approximately $2,600 - $3,500 per month of 4.3 weeks, or $150 - $200 per hour) of actual on-site services pursuant to a monthly contract, plus the same low hourly rate for additional actual on-site services and virtual on-site services as required to complement contracted on-site services (other than non-chargeable short off-site letters, email and telephone communications to/from management).

^[3] Whenever multiple lawyers who are working on the same matter, or on different aspects of the same matter, communicate with one another about the matter, as they must often do, the client is usually charged for the time of each and all of the attorneys involved!

^[4] No additional charge by Company Counsel Network Attorney for short off-site letters, emails and telephone communications to/from senior management.