An interim general counsel works full-time inside one company for a defined period. A fractional general counsel works a set number of hours each month for several companies. Both are experienced in-house lawyers, and many lawyers move between the two models.
When an interim GC fits
Interims fit when a legal department needs a full-time leader now. The GC is on parental leave for six months. The GC resigned and the company has a legal team of three that needs direction. An acquisition or a major financing will take four months of daily legal work. A regulatory investigation needs a senior lawyer in the building coordinating outside counsel every day. Interims are often placed through legal staffing firms or law firm secondment programs, where a firm lends one of its lawyers to a client. Pricing is full-time: roughly $15,000 to $35,000 a month, depending on seniority and how the placement is structured.
When a fractional GC fits
A fractional fits a company that has legal work every week but not 40 hours of it. That describes most companies between $2M and $50M in revenue without a legal team: contract review, employment documents, corporate records, the occasional dispute and preparation for financings. Fractional GCs typically work 10 to 40 hours a month for $3,000 to $15,000.
Comparing cost
Four months of an interim at $25,000 a month costs $100,000. A year of a fractional at $6,000 costs $72,000. For a company with no lawyer, the fractional is almost always the first step. For a company with a legal team, an interim protects continuity in a way a fractional cannot.
The private equity case
PE acquisitions create a wave of legal work. Before closing, the buyer’s counsel runs diligence and the target often scrambles to fix its records. After closing, contracts may need assignment or consent, employment agreements and incentive plans are rewritten, a compliance program is set up and add-on acquisitions start. Larger portfolio companies may hire an interim or a full-time GC. Smaller ones often use a fractional GC who works with the fund’s law firm, sometimes shared across the portfolio.
The exit case
Legal diligence is where many sales slow down. Buyers look for change-of-control and assignment clauses in customer contracts, IP that was never properly assigned by founders or contractors, gaps in board and shareholder approvals, option grants without proper records, open disputes and employment issues. A fractional GC brought in 18 to 24 months before a sale can find these and fix them while the fixes are simple, such as getting missing IP assignments signed by people who are still friendly. An interim during the sale helps manage the volume but cannot recover documents nobody signed.
Choosing
Ask whether the company already has a legal function. If it does and has lost its leader, consider an interim. If it does not, and the work is a steady stream of contracts and questions, hire a fractional. Some companies use a fractional GC for steady work and bring in interim help or a law firm for a single large transaction.