Fractional General Counsel
I've built legal departments from zero — three times. Let me build yours.
Your business has outgrown its formation attorney but doesn't need a $300,000 full-time hire. You need a GC who has sat in the chair, knows the playbook, and shows up when it matters — without the overhead.
The gap most growing businesses are stuck in
BigLaw
$800+ per hour. Your work gets delegated to associates you didn't hire. The partner you met at the pitch meeting bills two hours a quarter. You're a small file in a big system.
Local Generalist
Good for formation docs and basic contracts. But when the deal gets sophisticated — a capital raise, a governance dispute, a cross-border transaction — the depth isn't there. You outgrew this relationship two years ago.
You're stuck between two bad options. Overpay for a firm that treats you as overhead, or stay with an attorney who doesn't have the range for what your business is becoming.
There's a third option.
What a fractional GC engagement looks like
When I serve as your fractional General Counsel, I become a working member of your leadership team. Not a vendor you call when something goes wrong — a strategic partner who knows your business, your contracts, your risks, and your goals.
Contracts & Commercial Support
Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating the agreements that drive your business — vendor contracts, customer agreements, partnership terms, licensing deals. I build contract systems that protect you without slowing you down.
Board Governance & Compliance
Meeting preparation, board materials, minutes, fiduciary duty guidance, and the ongoing governance infrastructure that keeps your company defensible. I've prepared board packages for publicly traded companies. I bring that discipline to every engagement.
Strategic Counsel
The decisions that don't have a clear legal answer — whether to take on an investor, how to structure an acquisition, when to walk away from a deal. This is where a GC earns their place. I've made these calls under pressure, at the C-suite level, for over a decade.
Risk Management
Business risk audits, insurance review, regulatory exposure assessment, and the proactive identification of problems before they become crises. The cheapest legal crisis is the one you prevented.
Capital Raises & Structuring
Equity and debt financing, entity structuring and restructuring, investor agreements, and the SEC and state securities compliance that comes with raising money. I've guided companies through capital raises on both sides of the border.
Cross-Border Support
For businesses with U.S.–Canada exposure, I provide dual-jurisdiction counsel without the cost of engaging two separate firms. Dual-licensed. One attorney. Both sides of the border.
The Scale bridge: When you need IP counsel, a litigator, employment advice, or real estate support, I bring in a colleague from Scale LLP. You don't find another firm. You don't start over. The expertise expands. The relationship stays.
You're not getting a lawyer playing GC. You're getting a GC who chose to practice law.
I've built legal departments from the ground up.
Not inherited a team. Not stepped into an existing structure. Started with nothing and built the contracts, the compliance systems, the board governance framework, and the team to run it — three times.
I've managed 30+ people across three departments.
The GC role isn't just legal. It's management, politics, budget, and judgment under pressure. When I advise your company, I'm drawing on a decade of operating at the executive level — not extrapolating from outside practice.
I've navigated public company disclosure obligations.
SEC filings, continuous disclosure, material event reporting, insider trading policies. If your company is public or considering a listing, I've been in the chair that manages those obligations.
I've operated across two countries.
Dual-licensed in the U.S. and Canada. I've managed governance frameworks that satisfy both Canadian securities regulators and the SEC simultaneously. If your business has cross-border exposure, you won't find many fractional GCs with this depth.
I didn't leave the GC chair because I couldn't handle it.
I left because I wanted to bring that experience to more companies — particularly the ones outside major metros that deserve the same caliber of counsel but don't have access to it.
Client Testimonial
Chuck Kraus brings a lifetime of wise counsel, built in some of the most challenging business arenas in the world, to every relationship with a small town charm. You don't have to go to Dallas or a big city for the best — but you're getting it in humility and grace.Mike Williams Google Review · ★★★★★
How we start
A 15-minute call.
No obligation. We talk about your business — what you're working on, what's keeping you up at night, and what kind of legal support would actually move the needle.
A scoping conversation.
If there's a fit, we go deeper. I learn your contracts, your governance structure, your regulatory landscape, and your growth plans. By the end of this conversation, we'll both know what the engagement looks like.
A clear engagement letter.
Monthly retainer, defined scope, predictable cost. You know exactly what you're getting and what it costs. No surprise invoices. No scope creep without a conversation first.
Frequently asked questions
A traditional retainer buys you access to a firm. Fractional GC buys you a relationship with one attorney who knows your business as deeply as a full-time hire would. I'm not waiting for you to call with a problem — I'm proactively identifying issues, attending key meetings, and staying current on your business between calls.
Typically, companies doing $2M–$50M in revenue that have recurring legal needs but aren't ready to hire a full-time general counsel at $250,000–$400,000 per year. If you're signing contracts regularly, managing employees, navigating regulatory requirements, or planning a significant transaction, you're probably ready.
It varies by need. Some clients need 5–10 hours per month. Others need 20+. We scope it during our initial conversations and adjust as the business evolves. The retainer structure means you're not penalized for picking up the phone.
Absolutely. Many of my clients have a local attorney for real estate or estate planning and use me for corporate, governance, and transactional work. I coordinate rather than compete. And through Scale LLP, I can supplement with specialists in IP, litigation, employment, and more.
That's the advantage of the Scale LLP platform. If your business enters a period of intense legal activity — an acquisition, a capital raise, litigation — I bring in additional Scale attorneys to handle the volume. You don't have to find a new firm during a crisis.
Has your lawyer actually
done this before?
If the answer isn't a confident yes, let's have a conversation about what a real GC relationship looks like.