Frequently asked questions.

A fractional General Counsel is a senior commercial lawyer who performs the role of an in-house General Counsel for multiple companies on a part-time, retainer basis. Unlike external law firms, a fractional GC is embedded in the business. Unlike a full-time hire, they work across several clients and cost a fraction of a full GC salary.

A law firm typically bills hourly, works reactively on specific matters, and rarely sees the whole of a client's business. A fractional General Counsel is embedded in the business, works proactively, owns the legal function end-to-end, and bills on a fixed retainer. The commercial incentives are fundamentally different: law firms profit from more hours; a fractional GC profits from retention, which means preventing problems rather than billing them.

"Part-time," "interim," and "fractional" are often used interchangeably, but there are practical distinctions. Interim GCs typically backfill a departed GC for a defined period. Part-time GCs are usually employed by one company on reduced hours. Fractional GCs serve multiple clients on ongoing retainers and are structured as an independent practice rather than an employment arrangement.

Most European scale-ups begin to need a General Counsel function around Series B, when the contract stack gets larger and more complex, the company expands into additional jurisdictions, and commercial deals start to involve material legal risk. A full-time GC typically makes financial sense from Series C or around €30–50M revenue, though this varies by sector and complexity. Before that point, a fractional GC is usually the better economic and practical fit.

Fractional General Counsel retainers in Europe typically range from €3,000 per month for lighter engagements (a few hours per week) to €20,000 per month for embedded two- to three-day-a-week engagements. The cost is significantly lower than a full-time GC (typically €200,000+ all-in) and typically delivers better outcomes than reactive hourly-billed external counsel at the same or lower total spend.

A full-time European General Counsel for a scale-up typically costs €180,000–300,000 per year in total compensation, plus equity, benefits, recruitment fees (often 25–30% of first-year salary), and onboarding time. The full loaded cost in year one is frequently above €300,000. Senior GCs in London, Zurich, Amsterdam, and Stockholm tend to the upper end of the range.

Retainers are billed monthly in advance. Projects are fixed-fee against defined deliverables. We do not bill hourly.

Typical activities include reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts, advising leadership on deals in progress, managing external counsel relationships, building and maintaining contract templates and legal playbooks, advising on employment and contractor matters, tracking contract obligations, preparing for funding rounds or M&A, and briefing the board on legal risk.

No commercial lawyer is admitted in every European jurisdiction, and anyone who claims to be isn't being straight. Every PivotGC General Counsel holds top academic credentials, is admitted in their home jurisdiction, and has practised across at least three European countries, with 5+ years of experience advising C-level executives on material commercial matters. Across other European jurisdictions, we operate as in-house counsel for our clients and instruct locally admitted lawyers when a matter specifically requires it. This is how every multinational in-house legal function works — we simply do it for companies that do not yet have the infrastructure to do it themselves.

No. PivotGC is a fractional General Counsel practice. We provide the in-house legal function for our clients — the same role an employed GC would play — on a fractional basis. For matters requiring court representation or locally admitted advice, we instruct specialist external counsel, which we manage on the client's behalf.

We regularly operate across the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany. For matters in other European jurisdictions, we instruct from a vetted network of specialists.

European B2B scale-ups, typically Series B to Series D or €10–100M in revenue, operating across at least two jurisdictions. Most common sectors: SaaS, fintech, industrial technology, marketplaces, and healthtech.

Contentious litigation. Criminal defence. Personal legal matters. Tax advice. High-volume junior work better suited to a paralegal. We refer these elsewhere.

Typically two to three weeks from a signed engagement letter. Faster for urgent projects with defined scope.

That is usually the goal. Where an engagement is explicitly scoped as a bridge to a full-time hire, we help write the role, screen candidates, support onboarding, and hand over the function cleanly. Several of our engagements are structured this way from day one.

Yes. We carry professional indemnity cover appropriate to the scale of our engagements. Details available on request.

Yes. Most of our clients have existing external counsel relationships that we then manage. In practice, we often reduce overall external spend by scoping work more tightly and challenging fee arrangements.

Yes. Fundraising documentation, diligence management, and M&A support are core to the Embedded GC service. For larger transactions, we instruct specialist transaction counsel and manage the process.