Outside General Counsel Services

Many privately owned companies go through a growth phase when their business explodes, but they don’t have the infrastructure to handle the myriad of legal issues that arise with their success. Publicly traded companies have in-house legal departments with dozens of lawyers to handle a broad range of legal issues, but that may be out of reach for companies still coming into their value. Having a General Counsel or full-time lawyer too early can prove prohibitively expensive and jeopardize future growth. As your business scales, hiring an unvetted lawyer without experience in your industry, or using cheap online form services can lead to costly mistakes at the worst possible time. The Ether Law Firm seeks to fill this gap by providing Outside General Counsel services to small and medium-sized businesses on a contract and flat fee basis.

“After litigating disputes for 17 years, it is clear to me that too many clients end up in horrific lawsuits because they did not obtain legal counsel for the negotiation of important contracts given cost considerations. While most entrepreneurs cannot afford to retain big firm lawyers, The Ether Law Firm provides the same experience at a fixed and reasonable cost, so our clients can realize their full potential.” -- Daniel Norris

Providing General Counsel Services to Growing Businesses

Mr. Norris has worked with small and medium sized clients to:

• Draft contracts and operating agreements
• Negotiate deals
• Provide legal structure to business operations
• Negotiate commercial leases
• Address trademark issues
• Negotiate vendor contracts
• Draft confidentiality agreements
• Evaluate and strategically reduce risk in commercial transactions
• Resolve disputes prior to litigation
• Handle ordinance variance hearings
• Draft and implement new policies and procedures
• Protect their intellectual property,
• Provide general business advice

When unique or specialty needs arise, Mr. Norris also has extensive contacts in the industry and can provide you with referrals to attorneys and other professionals with subject matter expertise outside his own experience.

On-Call Legal Advice for a Flat Monthly Fee

When you retain The Ether Law Firm to act as your Outside General Counsel, Mr. Norris will work with you to evaluate your specific needs and the volume of your anticipated work. We will provide you with a flat-fee quote which, if accepted, gives you on-call access to The Ether Law Firm throughout the initial month. Based on the work done for you during the trial month, we will adjust the flat fee for each of the next two months, and then move to quarterly quotes from that point forward. If the actual work performed exceeds the forecasted workload, the fixed fee for each period will remain unchanged.

This recurring flat-fee structure allows entrepreneurs and small to mid-sized business owners to predict their legal expenses on a month-to-month, and quarter-to-quarter basis. Our flat fee retainers give growing businesses access to experienced legal counsel and services at any time, without the uncertainty of hourly billing arrangements, so you can get answers to your legal questions before they grow into costly legal disputes.

To meet with Mr. Norris and receive an initial quote for your business’s Outside General Counsel Services, contact The Ether Law Firm today.