Every business has legal issues it needs to address. From employment matters to intellectual property, GDPR to outsourcing, supply chain agreements to compliance, the legal implications of managing a company are wide-ranging and varied. And to make matters more complicated, these needs change as a business grows.
The very diversity of requirements means businesses must often rely on more than one law firm, repeatedly explaining their business requirements to different (often junior) lawyers as the frustrations and legal expenses mount. The alterative arrangement has traditionally been to employ an in-house lawyer but for businesses that don’t have the workload or the budget to justify a full-time legal post, this is not a viable option.
So, if it’s your responsibility to ensure your business’s legal needs are met, what options do you have? Whatever your scenario, The Legal Director and TLD Recruit are the perfect ingredients in a successful team!
“We want to bring our legal work in-house but only have the budget for a junior lawyer. We’re concerned that this person will need a lot of our time which is in short supply. What are our options?”
Ingredients
- One Junior Lawyer sourced by TLD Recruit
- One TLD Senior Client Legal Director engaged on a part-time basis
Method
Recruitment Manager, Georgie Rylance, will work in partnership with you to find the perfect candidate for your business. She has access to a wealth of high-quality legal professionals for every in-house legal role, all of whom she has personally vetted.
If this is your first legal appointment, you may be unfamiliar with the skills and expertise that make a good lawyer. Georgie is a non-practising solicitor who specialises in legal recruitment, so is perfectly placed to guide you through the process, helping you to filter applications and select only relevant, quality candidates.
To support this appointment, The Legal Director can place a highly qualified senior lawyer in your team on a part-time, flexible basis. This person can act as a mentor to your junior lawyer, advising them on best practice, answering their questions and ensuring they are learning from someone who has vast experience as a General Counsel.
Client Legal Director, Amanda Fogg, has performed this role at various companies to great success. She says:
“The TLD model works particularly well where the Client Legal Director acts as General Counsel supported by a full-time junior lawyer employed by the client. This enables the client to have a full-time face of the legal function with senior level support either fully remote or on a hybrid basis. The junior lawyer can be a paralegal but can also be a trainee solicitor as we can provide supervision and assistance with SRA registration. This enables the client to recruit ambitious, high quality junior talent, who are highly motivated and loyal to the business.”
– Amanda Fogg, Client Legal Director, The Legal Director
Having this senior support on hand will not only free up your time, but will also be invaluable for your junior lawyer, who will benefit from the support and counsel of a lawyer of at least 10 years PQE. And you only pay for this resource as long as you need it.
“Our business has grown considerably. We now need a permanent full-time lawyer. Can you help?”
Ingredients
- One experienced General Counsel supplied by TLD Recruit
- Short-term cover if needed from a TLD Client Legal Director
Method
If your business has reached the size where it makes sense to bring in a permanent full-time General Counsel, TLD Recruit can help. With an exclusive focus on the in-house market, we have the clients, the candidates and the connections to ensure we find the best match for your business and your Board.
Georgie can work exclusively with you, so you do not have to manage several different recruitment agencies, something which Darrell Boxall, Group CFO of Jonas Software really appreciated: “Working on an exclusive basis gave me the confidence that TLD Recruit and Jonas were aligned in an efficient and pragmatic process, without the noise and distraction of trying to service multiple agencies.”
She can help you at every stage of the process from advertising to interviewing and will work tirelessly to match your business with the right person.
And, if you currently have no in-house legal support in place and require a short-term solution whilst you’re recruiting, TLD can introduce you to a senior Client Legal Director that can hit the ground running and manage your business’s legal affairs until you get a permanent solution in place. They can even create a plan of work for the upcoming year so the incoming lawyer can start contributing to the business straightaway.
Whatever stage of growth your business is in, whatever legal experience you need, no matter what the right recipe is, the combination of TLD and its sister company TLD Recruit are the perfect ingredients to meet your needs. There’s no need to look elsewhere.
As COO of Poloworks, Paul Wooldridge testifies, “Georgie fully understood what we were looking for, gave honest feedback and was tenacious in finding the right person.”
So, if you’d like to discuss what legal resource would be best for your business, contact Georgie on georgina.rylance@thelegaldirector.co.uk or 020 3056 8538.