Business Services · Outside General Counsel

Texas Outside General Counsel

Continuum Counsel by Pratt Law Group, PLLC serves as the outside general counsel for closely-held Texas businesses that need day-to-day legal partnership without the cost of an in-house lawyer. Under a monthly retainer, contracts, HR questions, dispute triage, compliance planning, and strategic decisions are answered promptly — with the added lens of a dually licensed Attorney and CPA.

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We serveGrowing businesses that need day-to-day counsel without hiring in-house

ServingFrisco · Prosper · Plano · McKinney · Dallas · all of Texas

The gap our OGC engagement fills.

Between the sole-practitioner attorney billed hourly on every phone call and the full-time in-house General Counsel who costs $250,000+ per year, there is a large middle where most Texas businesses live. They need someone to review a contract this week, sign off on a hire, resolve a customer dispute, evaluate a new state to expand into, and think alongside the CEO about the next 18 months. They don't need — and can't justify — either extreme. Outside General Counsel is that middle. A monthly retainer, direct access to Darryl, no-surprise billing, and a lawyer who already knows the company well enough to be useful in the first ten minutes of the call.

What the engagement covers.

Every OGC engagement is scoped to the specific business. The core categories we routinely cover:

›Contract review, drafting, and negotiation — customer agreements, vendor agreements, NDAs, master services agreements, employment and independent contractor agreements
›Human resources counsel — hiring, discipline, termination, handbook maintenance, offer letters, separation agreements, non-competes and non-solicits, and Texas-specific wage and hour issues
›Corporate housekeeping — annual minutes, resolutions, cap-table maintenance, franchise-tax filings, registered-agent coordination, BOI reporting
›Dispute triage — early evaluation of demand letters, customer disputes, vendor conflicts, and pre-litigation strategy; referral to litigation counsel when warranted
›Regulatory and compliance planning — sales tax, licensing, professional-services regulation, and industry-specific compliance
›Board and governance support — meeting preparation, minutes, resolutions, shareholder communications
›Strategic counsel — reviewing new lines of business, expansion states, hiring executives, and preparing for eventual M&A or succession

How the retainer is structured.

OGC engagements are priced as a flat monthly retainer sized to the anticipated scope. There are no surprise invoices for routine calls, no per-email billing, and no minimum-hour billing. Complex projects that fall outside the ordinary scope (a full M&A transaction, major litigation, a multi-jurisdiction expansion) are quoted separately as fixed-fee or agreed-scope engagements. The result is a legal budget the CFO can plan against and a lawyer the CEO actually calls.

Why an Attorney + CPA matters as OGC.

Most legal decisions have a tax or accounting shadow. Hiring an employee vs. an independent contractor is an employment-law decision and a payroll-tax decision. Structuring a customer contract as a subscription vs. a project has GAAP revenue-recognition consequences. Buying a piece of equipment vs. leasing it has Section 179 and depreciation implications. When your outside general counsel is also a Certified Public Accountant, the tax question is answered in the same conversation as the legal question — not raised as a separate meeting with a separate advisor two weeks later.

The businesses we serve.

Our OGC clients are typically closely-held Texas companies with annual revenue between $2M and $50M, employee counts between 5 and 150, and a founder or CEO who wants a legal partner rather than a legal vendor. Common industries include professional services (medical, dental, veterinary, architecture, engineering, consulting), specialty manufacturing and distribution, construction and specialty trades, technology and technology-enabled services, and real estate operating companies. Our principal office is in Frisco; we serve OGC clients across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex and greater Texas.

Frequently Asked

Direct answers.

What is outside general counsel?

Outside general counsel — sometimes called 'fractional general counsel' or 'outsourced general counsel' — is a legal engagement model where a business retains an outside law firm on a monthly retainer to act as the company's general counsel. The outside lawyer handles the same categories of work that an in-house general counsel would handle — contracts, HR, disputes, compliance, board matters, strategic counsel — without the company having to hire, salary, insure, and benefit a full-time lawyer.

When should a Texas business consider outside general counsel?

The typical inflection point is when the founder or CEO finds themselves calling their attorney more than once every two or three months, and each call feels like it's costing more than it should because it's billed hourly with meter running. That signals the business has grown into a level of legal complexity where a retainer relationship is more economical — and, more importantly, produces better legal outcomes because the lawyer already knows the business.

How is outside general counsel different from hiring a lawyer hourly?

The hourly model is transactional — each matter is scoped, billed, and closed. The OGC model is relational — the lawyer knows the business's cap table, contracts, key employees, and strategic priorities. Response times are faster (usually same-day or next-day), advice is context-aware, and pricing is predictable. Hourly billing still applies for defined outside-scope projects (M&A, major litigation), but the ordinary 'quick question' calls flow inside the retainer without a fresh billing conversation each time.

How much does outside general counsel cost in Texas?

OGC retainers vary widely based on the size of the company, the volume of anticipated work, and the industry's legal intensity. As a rough range, closely-held Texas businesses typically pay between $2,500 and $15,000 per month for a well-scoped OGC arrangement — a fraction of the $200,000-$400,000 all-in cost of a comparable in-house general counsel. We provide a written proposal with the specific scope and monthly retainer after a discovery conversation.

Does outside general counsel replace my company's litigation attorney?

No. OGC is a transactional and advisory role. Active litigation is a specialty and is typically handled by litigation counsel we can help you retain and coordinate with. Our OGC role includes early dispute triage — evaluating a demand letter, calibrating settlement posture, and preparing the file — before referring the matter to litigation counsel if it escalates. We remain involved as strategic counsel throughout.

Can I retain Continuum Counsel as OGC without a long-term commitment?

Yes. Our OGC engagements are month-to-month with 30 days' notice from either side. There is no annual commitment or long-term contract. That structure keeps both sides accountable — the client stays because the value is real, not because they're locked in.

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