Fractional General Counsel for Growing BC Businesses
You already have an accountant. You may have a financial officer, insurance broker, operations team, sales team, and other professionals helping you build the business.
Now add legal to your team.
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Outside General Counsel for BC Businesses
For $2,500 per month, Cunningham & Co. provides ongoing outside General Counsel support to help you navigate contracts, corporate matters, negotiations, disputes, risk, and the complex legal decisions that come with running a business.
Level Up Your Business With A Lawyer In Your Corner
You’re negotiating a deal, signing a contract, hiring, taking on a partner, or trying to settle a dispute before it becomes a lawsuit. The legal side is in all of it.
Most lawyers only get called after something happens. It goes something like this: You call a lawyer. You spend the first hour explaining your business and pay for every minute of it. They fix the one issue in front of them and close the file. Next time you start from scratch and pay to explain it all over again. Meanwhile, the lawyer who might have caught the problem six months ago never knew it existed.
Outside General Counsel works differently. We learn how your business makes money, who your key people are, and where your risks tend to show up. So when you call, you’re not starting from zero.
What’s Included
An Outside General Counsel provides ongoing legal advice to a business without the cost and commitment of hiring a full-time in-house lawyer. Think of it as adding legal expertise to your team on an ongoing basis.
We develop a deep understanding of your business, your biggest concerns, and what you’re trying to accomplish.
For $2,500 per month, you get:
Direct and ongoing access to legal counsel
You have a lawyer who you can turn to as issues arise. Call or email us with legal questions both big and small and get a response from your lawyer within 1 business day. No wondering whether a question is “big enough” to call about and no starting over with a new lawyer every time.
Contract review and negotiation
Ask us to review and negotiate your customer contracts, service agreements, employment agreements, independent contractor agreements, etc. We can assist you with amendments and renewals and help you identify and negotiate problematic provisions, as well as advise you on your contractual rights and obligations.
Corporate and shareholder advice
We provide general corporate advice as your business ownership, operations, and relationships evolve. Get legal support for your corporate governance matters, shareholder matters, and share issuances and transfers.
Early input on deals and decisions
Usually, the most valuable legal advice comes before a decision is made. Get our input and assistance with your commercial leases, due diligence, financing, commercial acquisitions, and new hires while you can still shape the terms.
Dispute assessment and risk management
Involve us early to help you assess your litigation risks and come up with a legal strategy. We can draft and send demand and warning letters on your behalf and assist with settlements.
Day-to-day legal advice
Sometimes you just want to be able to ask your lawyer: “Can we do this?”, “Should I sign this?”, “What happens if they don't perform?”, “How exposed are we?”, “What are our options?”, “What should I say to them?” Those questions are exactly why having ongoing legal counsel can be so valuable.
A regular check-in
We'll give you a call every month to review what’s coming up. The more we know about your business, the more useful our advice becomes.
Is This “Unlimited Legal Services”?
No. And that’s intentional. Your monthly fee of $2,500 covers ongoing access to legal counsel and routine legal work for your business. Certain matters may require separate fees, including substantial litigation, complex business transactions, extensive drafting projects, specialized legal work, or matters requiring significant additional resources. These are scoped and priced separately.
If something falls outside the scope of your monthly service, we’ll tell you before doing the additional work.
Is This Right For You?
- A founder-led company
- A family-owned business
- A construction, trades, or development company
- A professional practice
- A technology or service business
- A company with multiple employees or contractors
- A business with multiple shareholders or heading into an expansion
You may not need a full-time in-house lawyer. But you may have reached the point where not having ongoing legal support is becoming a disadvantage.
If you only need the occasional contract or a one-time incorporation, our fixed-fee packages are likely a better fit.
General Counsel Without the Full-Time Overhead
Hiring a full-time in-house lawyer can be difficult to justify for many privately owned businesses. A full-time in-house lawyer typically costs at least $125,000 per year in salary, not including payroll taxes and employee benefits.
On the other hand, our Outside General Counsel model gives your business access to ongoing legal counsel without the salary, benefits, office costs and overhead associated with building a full-time in-house legal department.
It’s a smart and flexible way to add legal capability as your business grows.
Why not just hire a lawyer by the hour?
The difference is clear:
Traditional Hourly Lawyer
- You call when there’s a problem
- Each matter starts from scratch
- You may hesitate to call because of costs billed in 6-minute increments
- The lawyer only focuses on the immediate issue
Outside General Counsel
- Your lawyer is already on the team
- Ongoing relationship and context
- Predictable monthly access
- Your lawyer focuses on the bigger business picture
The difference isn’t simply how much legal work gets done. It’s the relationship. You aren’t just hiring a lawyer for an isolated task. You’re adding legal to your team.
Why Cunningham & Co.?
At Cunningham & Co., we have experience working with business owners across corporate, commercial, contracts, disputes, and related areas of business law. We understand that business owners don’t need lawyers who simply identify problems. They need lawyers who can understand their business, explain the implications of important decisions, and help them decide what to do next. Our approach is practical, strategic, and business-minded.
After witnessing one too many legal horror stories because we were involved too late in the process, we carefully designed this service for business owners because we firmly believe that small and mid-sized businesses should have access to top-tier legal counsel at a price they can plan around.
Frequently Asked Questions
Outside General Counsel is an ongoing legal relationship where a lawyer provides legal advice and support to a business without being employed as a full-time in-house lawyer.
It gives businesses access to ongoing legal counsel while maintaining the flexibility of an external law firm.
The monthly fee covers ongoing legal advice and support within the scope of the service. Substantial or specialized matters are scoped separately, and we’ll always tell you first.
Of course. That’s one of the biggest benefits. You’ll feel peace of mind knowing that not every question will need a conflict search or new engagement letter.
It includes preliminary dispute assessment, strategy, legal correspondence, and advice concerning disputes.
Substantial litigation and formal court proceedings are generally scoped separately because of the time and resources they can require.
Yes. Cunningham & Co. provides legal services to businesses throughout British Columbia and can work with clients remotely.
The General Counsel Service is designed for businesses that want an ongoing legal relationship—not a one-time project.
Your initial engagement is for three months, after which the service continues month-to-month.
The monthly fee provides ongoing access to legal counsel and covers legal services within the scope of the Outside General Counsel relationship. It is not a prepaid block of legal hours, and unusually large, complex or specialized matters may be separately scoped.
Your Business Has a Team. Add Legal.
Your business deserves better than calling a lawyer only when something goes wrong. You have people looking after your finances. Your operations. Your sales. Your people. Now add legal. Let’s talk about whether we’re the right fit.