As a company grows, the volume and variety of routine legal questions — contract reviews, compliance checks, HR issues — often reach a point where an internal legal function becomes more efficient than routing everything through external counsel.
This doesn't mean external counsel becomes unnecessary — a well-designed in-house function typically works alongside outside counsel for specialized or high-stakes matters, while handling routine work internally.
This includes advising on the right structure and scope for an initial legal function, drafting foundational policies and templates the team will use, and guidance on the profile of legal talent to hire for the company's specific needs. Where the department will own regulatory obligations, we also draw on our corporate governance & compliance practice to set up reporting lines that actually hold up.
The goal is a legal function that's genuinely useful from day one, not an underspecified role that ends up needing external help to actually function.
The single most consequential decision in building an in-house function is often the very first hire, and getting the seniority level wrong in either direction creates a real problem — too junior, and the person can't handle the company's actual matters independently and ends up needing constant external support anyway; too senior and specialized for what the role initially requires, and the company overpays for capability that sits underutilized relative to its actual current needs.
We help companies scope this first hire honestly against the real volume and variety of legal work the business currently generates, rather than against an aspirational picture of what the function might eventually need to become once the company has grown considerably further.
Bringing legal work in-house doesn't mean abruptly cutting off the external counsel who has handled the company's matters up to that point — a well-managed transition generally involves the incoming in-house function inheriting institutional knowledge, active matters, and existing templates and precedents gradually, rather than starting entirely from scratch and inevitably repeating work or losing context that already exists.
We help structure this handover deliberately, working with a company's existing external counsel where appropriate to make sure the new in-house function starts with real continuity rather than an information gap that takes months of avoidable rediscovery to close. Specialist questions that exceed the new team's bench — a formal position on a novel regulation, for instance — can still be routed to our legal opinions & research desk as needed.
It varies by industry and the volume of routine legal work involved, more than a fixed employee count. We can assess whether your specific situation warrants it.
No — a well-designed in-house function typically works alongside outside counsel for specialized matters, while handling day-to-day work internally.
Yes — this is a core part of the service, giving your new function a working foundation rather than starting from nothing.
We help you assess this against the real volume and variety of your current legal matters, rather than an aspirational future need, so the hire matches what the role actually requires today.
A well-managed transition involves the in-house function inheriting institutional knowledge and active matters gradually — we help structure this handover so continuity isn't lost.
Yes — part of designing the function well is identifying which specialized or high-stakes matters should continue routing to outside counsel rather than being handled entirely internally.
Expert Riyadh