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Last Rev. 03/15/19 07:402am

As Your In-House Counsel - Shared, Low-Cost, Parttime, No Withholding

Buying groups are the way that small and medium size businesses have been able to join forces to purchase goods and services at a lower price than a member of the group could purchase the same goods or services when acting alone. In many cases, the use of a buying group is designed to offset the illegal pricing of a major manufacturer which favors major retail chains with very low prices, including prices below the manufacturer's cost, because of the unwillingness of the present government during the past 30 years to enforce the nation's antitrust laws as vigorously as it did before newly-elected President Richard M. Nixon took office in 1973.

Major corporations without exception, I believe, have one or more "in-house" lawyers often called "General Counsel", "Legal Division", or sometimes with the name of a law firm, as in the case of Uniroyal, Inc., when I worked for Uniroyal's in-house counsel many years ago. The cost of maintaining in-house counsel can be considerable, running into many millions of dollars for each of many large corporations, but the savings seem to be well worth the expense. There is no need to hire outside counsel to handle each and every "legal" issue that arises. An expertise can be developed "in-house" to handle many legal issues quickly and efficiently. The largest corporation in the world, located in New York, had its own in-house counsel handling the defense of antitrust actions against the corporation successfully, AND AT NO ADDITIONAL COST in many cases.

You could even view the "in-house" counsel as an "attorney general" for the business or corporation, and I would now like to call the top "in-house counsel" for a corporation its "Corporate Attorney General", because of the range of matters that such lawyer or his/her subordinates can be called upon to handle, including antitrust, civil rights, securities law compliance, potential criminal activities, and other matters routinely handled by the Attorney General of any state.

The typical in-house counsel for a corporation, under any name, often is someone fully capable of becoming an attorney general of any state, or even of the United States. The cost of hiring, training and retaining a lawyer with such qualifications can be somewhere between $200,000 and $1,000,000 per year, not including the value of the services (such as office space, telephones, computers and other equipment, software and maintenance specialists, office personnel, files, databases, backup systems) and of course a complement of associate attorneys, paralegals, legal secretaries and others needed in any law office, whether as "outside counsel" or "in-house counsel".

A small business could use part of an in-house counsel, but cannot afford to hire, train or retain 100% of an in-house counsel. However, based on buying group practices, there would seem to be a market for sharing an in-house counsel (or "corporate attorney general", as I am now going to refer to a highly qualified in-house counselor).

I am available as a shared in-house attorney or "corporate attorney general" for retention by a limited number of small businesses, corporations, partnerships, even non-governmental organizations (NGO's), to perform the duties of an in-house attorney for them, in accordance with the terms of an agreement to be reached that describes the legal activities to be performed, the limitations, and other material terms. Litigation (as described in the agreement) is included as part of the covered activities.

The work will be performed, as much as possible, in my own law office, thereby reducing the client's need to provide the facilities normally required of an in-house counsel located in the headquarters of the client. The relationship would be that of an independent contractor, so that no withholding would take place, and I would not be an employee of the client for any purpose (such as workmen's compensation insurance, disability insurance, or any of the myriad reports required when someone is an "employee" as distinguished from a legitimate "independent contractor".

The fee would start at $1,000 per month, and be increased or decreased according to experience and mutual agreement. The relationship would be terminable upon short notice, as negotiated in the letter agreement.

If you would like to talk about the possibility of retaining me as your shared in-house attorney [or shared "corporate attorney general"], please communicate with me by telephone to my office at 212-307-4444; or call me on my cell telephone, 917-453-9376, send me a fax - 212-307-0247; or email your message to me at carlpers@ix.netcom.com.