How Fractional General Counsels Run Legal for Several Companies
The real challenge is not the law
A fractional general counsel running legal for several companies needs two layers: a strictly separate setup for each client, so contracts, positions and confidential information never mix, and a personal layer across all clients, so deadlines, requests and time do not fall between them. Most of the problems in fractional work come from one of those two layers being missing.
The legal work itself is familiar to anyone who has been in-house. What is new is doing it for three, four or five businesses at once, each with its own contracts, people, risk appetite and sense of urgency, in the time each one pays for. This guide is a practical operating system for that.
Layer one: keep every client separate
Separation is a confidentiality duty first and an efficiency habit second. It also makes each client feel like they have their own general counsel rather than a share of one.
Where possible, work inside each client's own systems rather than your own copy of their documents. The contracts then stay with the company, which is what the client expects, and there is nothing to hand back when the engagement ends.
The one-page client brief
Switching between clients costs time mostly because you have to remember who they are before you can think. A one-page brief per client cuts that down. Keep it at the top of each client's workspace and refresh it every quarter.
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| The business | What they sell, to whom, and on which side |
| Entities | Legal entities that sign, with registration numbers |
| People | Who asks, who decides, who signs |
| Risk appetite | What the founders or board worry about |
| Standard positions | Link to the client's playbook |
| Open matters | Negotiations and questions in progress |
| Key dates | The next three deadlines that matter |
Five minutes with the brief before a client day is usually enough to pick up where you left off, even after a week away.
Layer two: your personal operating system
The personal layer runs across all clients. It holds only what you need to plan your time, not the clients' confidential material.
One deadline register for everything. Every date that could hurt a client if missed: renewal notice dates, contract end dates, filings, promised replies. The dangerous ones are notice dates on contracts that renew automatically, because nothing announces them. Record the date when the contract is signed, not when someone remembers it. See contract renewal management and evergreen contracts for why these slip.
A weekly queue. At the start of each week, list the open requests from every client in one view, with deadlines. It shows at once whether a week is realistic and which client needs to hear that something will wait.
Fixed time per client. Give each client recognisable days or half-days. Clients learn when you are theirs, and fewer requests are marked urgent when people know the next contact day is close. Keep a small buffer for genuine emergencies.
Batch similar work. Reviewing three NDAs from three clients in one sitting is faster than switching between an NDA, a board paper and a data protection question. Batch by task type inside your fixed client time where you can.
- Monday: check the deadline register
- Monday: build the week's queue
- Client days: brief, then work
- Friday: update briefs and notes
- Month end: send each client a short report
Reuse your work without mixing clients
The biggest time saving in fractional work is not doing the same thinking five times. The line to hold is between your structure, which travels, and a client's material, which does not.
The same setup also helps the client. A contract playbook and a review checklist built in your first month let the business handle routine negotiations inside your positions, so your paid days go to the work that needs a senior lawyer.
Make your value visible
Fractional work is easy to underestimate from the client's side, because much of it prevents problems that never happen. A short monthly note fixes that.
It takes fifteen minutes per client, and it turns the retainer from a cost line into a visible function. It also creates a record that makes a handover easy if you ever need a colleague to cover.
How to do this in Bind
In Bind, each client can have its own organisation with its own contracts, templates and playbooks, and a lawyer who belongs to several organisations switches between them from the sidebar. Nothing is shared across organisations.
The steps, with the names you will see in Bind:
- Work inside each client's organisation. The client invites you in Organization settings → Users. To move between clients, click your name at the bottom of the sidebar and pick the other organisation.
- Give each client its templates and playbooks. Upload them under Templates and Playbooks in that client's organisation, so drafting and reviews follow that client's positions only.
- Record the dates. In a space, add fields such as End date and notice period, or let Bind fill them in from the contracts.
- Let Bind watch the deadlines. An automation can notify the contract's owner or mark it for review a set number of days before the end date. Automations are in Beta and not yet switched on for every organisation.
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Frequently asked questions
- How does a fractional general counsel manage several clients?
- By treating each client as a separate legal function with its own space for contracts, templates, positions and requests, and running a personal layer on top: one deadline register across all clients, a weekly planning routine and fixed time blocks per client. The separation protects confidentiality; the personal layer stops deadlines and requests from falling between clients.
- How do fractional lawyers avoid missing deadlines across clients?
- Keep one register of every date that matters across all clients: renewal notice dates, contract end dates, filings and promised replies. Record the date when the contract is signed, not when it becomes urgent, and review the register at the start of every week. Notice dates on automatically renewing contracts are the most common miss, because nothing reminds anyone until the renewal has already happened.
- Can a fractional general counsel reuse work between clients?
- Reuse your structure and knowledge, never a client's confidential material. A checklist, a playbook format or your own general-purpose clause drafting can move between clients. A client's negotiated contracts, positions and business information stay with that client. When in doubt, start from your own clean precedent rather than another client's document.
- How should a fractional general counsel report to clients?
- A short monthly note works best: what was done, what is open, what risks you see, and what is coming up in the next month, such as renewals or a planned negotiation. It keeps the client informed between contact days and makes the value of the retainer visible, which matters when the budget is reviewed.
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