Fractional General Counsel for Growing UK Businesses
The senior lawyer your business needs, without the cost of a full-time hire
Fractional General Counsel (Fractional GC) for scale-ups and high-growth businesses. Fractional counsel support for in-house teams who need more senior capacity, without more headcount.
What Is a Fractional General Counsel?
A senior lawyer inside your business, not just one matter at a time.
A general counsel is the senior lawyer who sits inside a business rather than outside it, advising on everything legal rather than one matter at a time. Fractional means you get that person part of the time, not a full-time headcount.
I'm the general counsel a growing business needs but can't yet justify hiring full time. I know the business, I make the calls, and I cost a fraction of a law firm or a permanent hire.
For founders and leadership teams
Full fractional General Counsel cover, built around your stage and your risk.
For in-house legal teams
Senior fractional counsel alongside your own team, covering gaps, spikes or a specialist need, without the mark-up an agency adds.
Why Now
Too much to ignore, not enough to hire for.
Legal work rarely comes at a steady pace. Some months are quiet. Then a handful of contracts, a dispute and a funding round all land in the same fortnight. It is not steady enough to justify a full-time general counsel, yet it is more than a founder or finance lead should be carrying alone, and it only grows in frequency and complexity as the business does.
Often you do not need a document drafted at all. You need someone experienced to think a problem through with, on the commercial side as much as the legal one, before you decide which way to go.
That is what CHORD Legal provides: senior legal judgement you can draw on when the work demands it, without carrying a full-time hire for the quieter spells in between.
Comparison
Fractional GC, a Full-Time Hire, a Law Firm or an ALSP?
| Compared on | Fractional GC (CHORD) | Full-Time In-House Hire | Law Firm | Resourcing Platform (ALSP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Fixed monthly fee or fixed-fee project | Salary, benefits and recruitment fees | Usually by the hour | A day rate, marked up by the platform |
| Typical cost | ££££ | ££££ | ££££ | ££££ |
| Matches your workload | As required, flexing up or down | A full salary, whatever the workload | Only what you use | Flexes by assignment |
| Knows your business | Yes, and more so with every month | Yes | Matter by matter | Little, and resets each assignment |
| Time to start | Once scope is agreed | Months of recruitment, plus notice periods | Quickly, one matter at a time | Quickly |
| Who does the work | Me, every time | Your hire | Whoever is available | Whoever is free, via an account manager |
| Commitment | A 3, 6 or 12-month term, or a single project | Permanent | Per matter | Rolling or per assignment |
Fractional GC (CHORD)
Full-Time In-House Hire
Law Firm
Resourcing Platform (ALSP)
£ is a general guide to typical cost, not a quote.
Meet Cam
I'm Cam.
I trained and qualified at a leading commercial law firm, then spent years in the in-house legal teams of major international companies, before setting up my own practice.
I founded CHORD Legal because none of the usual options is built to put cost or client care first. Traditional firms, alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) and consultancy platforms are each set up in a way that works against it, whether you are a startup, a scale-up, or a larger business extending its own team. So now there is just me: no bench of associates, no one to hand your file to, no meter running.
More about Cam and the CHORD story → Connect on LinkedInThe Three Pillars
Three notes, struck together
A chord is several notes played together, in harmony. CHORD Legal brings three things into alignment for your business.
Authority
Pragmatic, commercial judgement applied to your business, from fifteen years of senior in-house experience across enterprise tech, financial services, energy and media, including FTSE 100 and NASDAQ-listed environments.
Synthesis
Fractional expertise delivered on a fixed fee or subscription basis. No meter running, no hidden costs, no surprises at the end of the month. An integral part of your business without the costs of employing someone.
Leverage
AI handles the research, drafting and admin that used to need a team of junior associates, so your spend goes on judgement and skill, not overheads. You can see exactly how on the AI Governance and Legal Risk page.
What CHORD Does
Four ways CHORD supports your business.
What Clients Say
Trusted by senior legal and marketing leaders.
"We worked with Cam over a 2-year period and he helped with all types of commercial contracting, on both vendor and client side. He's commercial, pragmatic, quick and a great team player."
"It was an absolute joy working with Cam for the past 3 years on our venue contracts and partnership letters for our client events. Incredibly diligent, found solutions to problems, caught vital things and was extremely pragmatic and responsive. We couldn't have done it without him."
"I worked with Cam on a long-term basis when he was an external advisor helping our internal legal team. He was invaluable to the team in managing a heavy workload, and was always professional and approachable, both in his interactions with the legal team and with our stakeholders. He was unflappable, efficient, and nothing ever seemed to be too much bother. He often received great feedback from satisfied stakeholders around his ability to make complex legal positions clear and his quick turnaround time."
"Cam is always available and responsive. His approach is collaborative, but he doesn't shy away from an assertive stance when this is needed. He has represented us in several negotiations with clients and their legal counsel, and by being pragmatic, achieved a timely outcome for us, which is sometimes as important as comprehensive protection, in compliance with group legal policies. He has the attention to detail you'd expect from any lawyer, but also a reassuring and pleasant demeanour."
How It Starts
A short call, a fixed price, then straight to work.
A short call
A short call to understand what's going on. Usually that's over video, sometimes in person if it's useful to get a proper feel for the business early on.
A fixed price
A clear scope and a fixed price, agreed before anything starts.
Straight to work
No lengthy onboarding, no account manager sitting between you and the advice.
If what you need is smaller than an ongoing retainer, that's fine too. Fixed-fee project work is exactly how most CHORD relationships begin.
Full details on How We Work →Get in Touch
Ready to stop being your own general counsel?
Based in Warwickshire, working with clients nationally.
Call: +44 7783 534486 · Email: cam@chord.legal · Connect on LinkedIn →
“CHORD” and “Chord Legal” are trading names of CHORD Legal Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 14820174. Registered office: 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. Cam Gow is a solicitor regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (“SRA”) (SRA ID 453794). CHORD Legal Limited is not authorised or regulated by the SRA. This is a structure the SRA's rules expressly permit.
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