Frequently Asked Questions About Outsource Counsel

How Does This Work?

Outsource Counsel provides in-house legal services on demand. If you don’t have in-house counsel, and you have a customer who is asking for extensive changes to your standard contract provisions, Outsource Counsel can review their requests. Then Outsource Counsel can work with you and the customer to redline the contract, negotiate the terms with counsel for the customer, and finalize the agreement so that the contract works for both sides.

If you are a small technology start up and you need help drafting a contract template, Outsource Counsel can put together a basic suite of contract templates for your team to work with (and can help you with negotiations with larger clients who require you to work off of their contract templates).

If you are in-house counsel for a company and you are stretched too thin to be able to review and negotiate your technology vendor contracts, Outsource Counsel can take that off your plate. Outsource Counsel will work directly with your business team to negotiate the terms, and keep you in the loop so that you know about any showstopper issues that may arise.

In short, Outsource Counsel can make your contract negotiations process easier, cheaper, and faster.

If you’d prefer, your Outsource Counsel attorney can have an in-house phone number and email address, so that he or she is truly integrated into your business team, and can work with your team on a regular basis, functioning as a true in-house counsel. Or we can just supply ad-hoc legal services as needed, during your busiest times of year, for particularly complex deals, or if you just need some legal questions answered quickly and correctly. We can work remotely or onsite, depending on client preference.

How Much Does It Cost?

Less than you would think. Outsource Counsel rates are generally less than a third of those of large law firms, significantly lower than even small law firms, and much less than adding a full time in-house attorney. We can bill hourly or can work out a flat fee arrangement for a particular project. Our attorneys are experienced and responsive, and the Outsource Counsel model allows you to receive high quality legal services at a very reasonable rate.

Is This Like Working With a Law Firm?

No. We approach all of our work from the perspective of in-house counsel. We understand that you have a business to run and that you need your contracts negotiated quickly and efficiently. We concentrate on minimizing risk where we can, eliminating showstopper issues, and coming to a reasonable resolution of common problem areas like limitations of liability, data protection and indemnity provisions. We run our business with the goal of helping you to run your business.

Do You Only Provide Services to Start Ups and Tech Companies?

No. Although Outsource Counsel does provide much-needed resources for start ups and other smaller technology companies, we also provide services to larger companies. Even those who have in-house counsel may find they simply don't have the time to review and negotiate the terms of their technology vendor agreements.

These days, every company is a tech company: every company purchases technology on a near-constant basis to help them run their business, whatever that business may be. In a lot of instances, these contracts, which contain boilerplate terms that are often not very customer-friendly, are just not getting reviewed by legal at all. Outsource Counsel can take these contracts off the plate of your legal or procurement team, give them the quick review and turnaround that they need, and negotiate any terms that carry major risk with them. For companies that are simply flying blind on a lot of their technology contracts, Outsource Counsel is a lifesaver.