Outside General Counsel

Operating your business without legal advice can be a very risky proposition. To help alleviate some of this risk, KLFGN offers efficient and affordable “outside general counsel” services to its small-and medium-sized business clients who do not want or simply don’t have the resources to have in-house legal departments. This gives clients the opportunity to have an attorney available on an as-needed basis, just like having an in-house attorney (and the practical legal advice and peace of mind that comes along with it), without incurring the expense of employing one. The services provided may vary on a case-by- case basis but in all cases will allow our client’s management teams to be proactive in identifying, understanding, and managing the legal issues and risks that they face on a daily basis. This will allow them to minimize the need to be reactive, which often leads to damaged relationships with vendors and clients or, even worse, expensive conflicts that may end up in court.

If you choose to enter into this type of engagement with KLFGN for these services, you will have access to our experienced business attorneys on an “on-call” basis to have your legal questions answered. By engaging us in this capacity, we get to know your business much more intimately than we would in a project-by-project engagement relationship, allowing for your attorney to take on a more strategic role than he or she could on project-by- project basis. Getting to know your business will provide our attorneys the opportunity to help identify daily legal exposures that your management team may otherwise have never become aware of. Depending on the engagement, our attorneys may even be able to be onsite for agreed upon periods of time to learn the ins and outs of your business.

Through our years of experience as in-house counsel, attorneys in private practice, and business-owners, we have developed strengths in many areas of law including, without limitation, the following:

  • Contract Drafting and Negotiation

  • Entity Formation, Maintenance and Dissolution

  • Corporate Governance

  • Mergers & Acquisitions

  • Succession Planning

  • Real Estate Transactions and Leasing

  • General Risk Management

  • Management of Outside Counsel*

*Just like in-house counsel, we have individual skills applicable to many aspects of our clients’ businesses. However, some niche areas of the law require some very specialized expertise. To that end, we have developed trusting relationships with qualified specialty law firms and specialists around Wisconsin who can assist with those “specialty areas” that would normally be outsourced by in-house counsel. The firms we have developed relationships with have expertise in the following areas:

  • Intellectual Property (patents, trademarks, etc…)

  • Employment Law

  • Tax Law

  • Securities Law

  • Healthcare Regulatory Law

  • Privacy Law

While KLFGN has litigators on staff to assist you with your needs in this regard, KLFGN’s outside general counsel relationships specifically exclude litigation services, given the wide range of unknowns involved in such matters. This arrangement may not be for every client, but for those with whom it is a good fit, it can result in a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. KLFGN’s outside general counsel relationships are flexible, as are the fees we charge for them. Options for fee structure may include fixed monthly retainers, per-service fixed fees (ex. Individual contract review), blended hourly rates and standard hourly billing. Please contact Attorney Nelson to discuss this offering.