Fractional & Outside General Counsel for Growing Companies

What a fractional general counsel actually does

A fractional GC is not a document mill. The role is to sit close enough to the business to anticipate problems — the customer agreement that quietly shifts liability, the contractor who should have been classified as an employee, the co-founder arrangement that was never papered. Ingrid Rainey has served as general counsel and as a business executive, and brings that operator's lens to the legal work.

• Draft, review, and negotiate customer, vendor, and partnership agreements
• Day-to-day employment advice: hiring, classification, discipline, separations
• Employee handbooks, offer letters, NDAs, and contractor agreements
• Corporate governance: entity formation, minutes, board and member consents
• Trade secret, IP assignment, and confidentiality protection
• Demand letters, pre-litigation strategy, and outside-counsel management

Fractional GC vs. hiring in-house vs. hourly outside counsel

Hiring in-house means a full salary, benefits, and a single skill set. Sending every question to hourly outside counsel means the questions stop getting asked — which is how small issues become lawsuits. A fractional arrangement sits in between: a defined monthly scope, a known point of contact, and litigation capability behind it if a matter escalates.

• Predictable monthly cost instead of unpredictable hourly invoices
• One relationship that already knows your contracts, people, and history
• Trial-experienced counsel already in place if a dispute is filed
• Scales up during financings, audits, and M&A; scales back afterward

Who this fits

• Startups and founder-led companies past their first employees or first enterprise contracts
• Mid-market companies whose HR or finance lead is absorbing legal questions
• Companies expanding into California from another state, or into the U.S. from abroad
• Nonprofits and boards needing governance and compliance support
• Companies with in-house counsel who need employment or litigation depth

How an engagement starts

We begin with a confidential consultation to map what is actually in front of you: existing contracts, employment exposure, open disputes, and what the next twelve months look like. From there we scope a monthly engagement — or, when the need is narrower, a defined project. There is no obligation to convert a consultation into a retainer.

San Diego companies with employees in multiple cities

A San Diego County employer may have staff inside the City of San Diego and in separate cities such as Carlsbad, Escondido, and Poway. Statewide requirements are not always the whole picture: municipal wage and paid-leave rules can depend on where work is performed. We review the locations, employee classifications, handbooks, and contract terms together rather than assuming a single policy covers every worksite.

• Evaluate wage, sick-leave, and timekeeping rules across work locations
• Review hiring and termination paperwork before decisions are implemented
• Align vendor, contractor, confidentiality, and IP terms with actual operations
• Create an escalation plan for agency letters, demands, and threatened litigation