An acquaintance has asked me to be the general counsel of his company. There are about 40 employees, so it should be manageable. However, I don’t know exactly what things a general counsel handles versus ships out to other lawyers. And because I’m the first lawyer this company will hire, I’m not sure what exactly their expectations are (or if they even know). For anyone who has become their company’s first lawyer, what advice do you have?

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Focus on the business and being a trusted partner. Realize that not everything requires a “legal” decision. Advise on risks and mitigation methods, and move on if needed.

In your first 3 months, priority 1 is building trust and relationships. Spend your time getting to know everyone, asking questions, figuring out where they see gaps that need legal. I told everyone early on that my job is not to say “no.” My job is to work with them to find the best “yes” possible.

As to your question re what you do versus ship outside: you do everything. Unless it’s too far outside your expertise (for example, don’t do ERISA if you’re not an ERISA attorney) or requires litigation counsel (but I still heavily manage discovery to keep costs down) or you are so swamped with other higher priority items that you can’t phy

In my experience, nobody wants to hire their first attorney and still spend a lot on outside legal.

I highly recommend you subscribe to Practical Law. I use it very frequently, and it pays for itself in my outside legal savings.

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Establish what your expectations will be for legal work, and what, if any, your outside counsel budget is.

One of our clients which has about the same headcount is hiring for a GC role now, and they are thinking about it as an attorney that is going to come in and work 1800-2000 hours a year to save them money on outside counsel spend.

This is not a “traditional” GC role, but may be required to show your value at a small company or startup.

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That’s a dope gig. Good luck.

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This is how general counsel of Airbnb got her gig. She’s now a millionaire lol. Good luck

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You do all the legal work. Outsource what you need to that’s outside your wheelhouse. We’re a real estate investment firm (which I cofounded) so I do all the commercial leases, PSAs, due diligence, even going to court for certain issues. (I was a bankruptcy litigator in a former life.) Also managing your own team is also key. I don’t see it as much different from being outside counsel really, except you’re always there and need to deal with stuff as it arises. But I also wear two hats—a business person and a lawyer. So that creates an added layer. But I think the main point is that you’re essentially your company’s full-time lawyer. That’s how I think of it at least. Do what you can and hire outside counsel when you need to. For me, I never hire outside counsel unless absolutely necessary.

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Thank you for the awesome feedback, everyone. There’s not much data out there about salary for a GC role at a small company, and those talks start tomorrow. I’m open to any advice!

How’d this go for you? I’m in the same boat now - slightly bigger company but same goal of reducing spend.

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