Fractional General Counsel Services

The founding partners of CMX have significant experience acting as “in-house general counsel” to corporations in various industries including resources, technology, food and beverage, publishing, film media, merchant banks, investment funds and brokers dealers. We combine legal and corporate development expertise to provide detailed advice to owner-operators and founders in coordination with outside counsel and advisors. We work in close conjunction with senior management, their boards of directors and key constituents to have an in-depth understanding of all aspects our client's business to better meet its corporate goals and initiatives.

In start-up, early-stage or expansion stage operating companies or pooled investment funds  in particular, general counsel services could include hourly legal advice provided in the initial corporate constituent documents, board and governance advice to more in-depth assistance in planning, managing and advising on capitalization table management, including providing advice relating to the required terms and conditions of successive financing rounds and any related offering document or other corporate, securities law and tax considerations.  We assist, negotiate and draft key agreements from sales and other strategic contracts to form the revenue foundation of the business. This stage of corporate development also typically involves a comprehensive planning of initial employment, founder relationships with the company, and third-party contractor and option plan advice.

Many clients could benefit from or desire this in-house advice but are in a transition stage where they are managing budgets to make such a role prohibitive, or not yet in need of a full time in-house general counsel role.

Building on this expertise and experience across its practice groups, CMX can offer many of its applicable practice area services on a “fractional general counsel basis” to companies in a growth cycle and or expansion stage or who are going through special situations such as a merger, acquisition, or industry roll-up program, cross border expansion issues, or a specific financing program transition stage to a potential in-house counsel role.

The compensation, terms and duration of the CMX’s fractional general counsel arrangements are flexible, depending on the applicable client situation and needs and can expand from an hourly-rate basis to include monthly or quarterly arrangements and can include partially-success based or partially option/equity-based compensation.

Paul Crath heads our Fractional GC Services Practice Group.