Introduction
Eagle-eyed reader may have noticed a certain overlap between the various services we offer. You would be kind of right but what you are actually seeing is the lifecycle of legal services for a growing business.
Using the example of one particular client who is a small one-man digital marketing business with plans to grow:
Stage One – Ad Hoc
Initially all they need is Ad Hoc Service to review and update their core terms of business, any website terms, privacy policy.
Stage Two – Sam Retainer
Once they have updated their terms and conditions then they will need some initial on-going support when these are presented to their clients and their suppliers. From time to time they may want to check any contracts presented by their clients or suppliers as they will be expected to enter into those rather than use their own terms.
At this point, they could continue to use Ad Hoc but if it is small and regular then the Sam Retainer is a better option in terms of budgeting and knowing there is somebody on hand to do quick things without a process of requesting an estimate, agreeing fees etc.
Stage Three – In House Retainer
Both Stages One and Two can be over a period of years but as the business grows especially as more clients come in, that one-man band now needs to recruit an employee or a contractor on a semi-permanent basis. More clients come in and that one-man is spending more and more time just getting work in. Probably at this point more hours are being added to the Sam Retainer until it gets to the point that it is better and more effective to commission the In House Service.
Stage Four – Recruitment
The growing digital marketing agency is needing the In House Service more and more. They are acquiring more and more clients, meaning more contracts, more and more subcontractors and other suppliers, more employees, the website has gone from being a marketing website to a functional website with login and services being accessed online. The number of days under the In House Service goes from one to two days a month to double figures where it then becomes more cost effective and more efficient to recruit an employee, even if it is part-time.
Getting to Stage Four can take years and some businesses will never get there because if they are any good, they get bought out by a bigger fish. But if they do then Stage Five is when their own in house lawyer needs support. This would of course include Ad Hoc, but may need some regular hours via the Sam Retainer or the In House Service.
Wait, what about Safe Hands?
Legal teams are expensive so adding head count is often the last resort, and those that are sole legal counsel, will know how last that “last resort” actually is! Their biggest hurdle is often the peak and trough nature of the workload. This is where the Safe Hands Service can help – to help with those peaks and troughs.
