Virtual General Counsel

Although Spilman lawyers are comfortable serving clients in a variety of ways to best advance the client’s needs and interests, one of our sweet spots is in serving as “Virtual General Counsel.” We serve as an extension of the client’s management team, working to prevent problems and providing careful, efficient guidance on legal issues.

Spilman lawyers are familiar with the risks, concerns and types of decisions our clients face on a daily basis. Besides our direct client experience, more than a dozen of our attorneys served as in-house counsel for energy, banking, governmental or other institutions, including Fortune 500 companies and small start-ups, before joining Spilman. True to the firm’s entrepreneurial spirit, others have launched their own businesses. We carry the insights gleaned from those experiences with us into the way we approach our relationships with clients: as a partner to make their lives easier.

Because “easier” means something different for each client, we sit down with clients at the beginning of a new relationship to jointly determine legal needs, communication preferences and ideal outcomes. From there, we develop a strategy and plan for execution. Whether this means placing an attorney inside their facility several days a week, a weekly team conference call and status update, or some other arrangement, we are flexible. And as needs change, we readily update the arrangement.

With attorneys versed in a wide variety of legal practice areas—including taxation, employment, regulatory, real estate, finance and more—we can provide a breadth of services and depth of knowledge at a fraction of the cost of staffing an in-house lawyer.

Engaging Spilman as a virtual general counsel can do the following for clients:

• Provide accessible guidance and leadership on business solutions and strategies–not just highlighting problems–from an experienced in-house counsel perspective, at a rate much lower than national firms
• Give the experience of former U.S. attorneys and assistant U.S. attorneys, as well as a former governor and state attorney general, a former FBI agent, former in-house counsel, and business executives
• Assist with contract reviews, including nondisclosure agreements and commercial contracts, providing the appropriate level of risk management without holding up the transaction
• Manage disputes with local governments
• Help manage risk and lessen the impact of complex regulatory regimes on transactions and day-to-day operations
• Handling financing, securities reporting, and acquisitions and sales of businesses or business divisions
• Guide clients as to what to expect when interfacing with the federal government
• Advise as to applicable government regulations and compliance how-tos
• Audit compliance practices for potential government red flags
• Assist with important due diligence in contracts and transactions
• Serve as an extension of the client’s sales team, assisting with contract negotiations and providing quick turnarounds on contract edits that won’t kill the deal
• If desired, help manage outside counsel

Some areas of compliance we assist with include

• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA);
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC), including antitrust laws;
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC);
• Government contracting, including defense contracts; and
• Export/import rules and regulations.

Email us for more information or to find out if a virtual general counsel scenario is right for your business needs.