Private General Counsel
The access of an in-house general counsel, without the cost of one. Ongoing judgment for executives, entrepreneurs, professionals and family businesses.
Private General Counsel, Legal Crisis Management & Advisory Client Services
What a private general counsel does
Private General Counsel typically refers to legal services provided by a law firm or an attorney to a business or individual client on an ongoing basis, similar to an in-house general counsel role. This arrangement allows the client to have access to legal advice and services as needed, without the cost of hiring a full-time in-house general counsel. The private general counsel can assist with a wide range of legal matters, such as contract review, employment issues, compliance, and general business advice.
In a crisis the role changes shape. It stops being about any single legal question and becomes about who is holding the whole situation together.
The problem this role exists to solve
A serious matter produces advisors quickly. Within weeks a client can have criminal defense counsel, civil litigators, an accountant, a tax lawyer, a communications adviser and often a therapist. What the client rarely has is anyone whose job is the relationship between all of that advice.
Jeff Grant has written that this is precisely the gap a private general counsel fills. The role is a quarterback rather than a replacement for any of those specialists, and it exists because a criminal defense lawyer, however good, is retained to handle a criminal case and not to manage its consequences for a marriage, a payroll, a licence or a balance sheet.
He describes the posture as a consigliere: a strategic advisor whose function is to help someone make sound decisions at the moment when decisions are worst to make.
Turning legal advice into decisions
Legal advice arrives as options and risks. It does not arrive as what to tell your business partner on Monday, whether to sell the house, or what the children should be told and when. A great deal of this work is that translation.
It also means keeping the family inside the process rather than outside it. An investigation reaches everyone in a household whether or not they are named in it, and Jeff has written about transparent communication with families as part of the work rather than a courtesy at the edge of it.
How GrantLaw works
We help clients identify risks, evaluate options, coordinate the right team of legal and business professionals, and guide complex matters from strategy through resolution. Sometimes we serve as lead counsel; other times we work alongside existing attorneys as a confidential strategic advisor.
GrantLaw, PLLC maintains a nationwide network of leading attorneys, investigators, forensic accountants, communications professionals, compliance specialists, and other experts, assembling the right team for each client’s unique circumstances while providing a single point of strategic leadership.
GrantLaw serves executives, business owners, licensed professionals, families and individuals: in white collar prosecutions, regulatory inquiries, complex transactions, business and personal crises, reputational matters, and the long work of rebuilding afterwards.
What clients bring first
Jeffrey D. Grant advises clients through high-stakes decisions involving government investigations, business disputes, regulatory matters, governance, internal investigations, crisis management, and other situations where experienced judgment, strategic thinking, and unwavering discretion are essential. For many clients, he becomes the first call long before litigation begins.
Jeff Grant on this subject
- Why White Collar Defendants Need a Private General Counsel: The GrantLaw ApproachWhy a criminal defense lawyer, however good, is not the person managing what the case does to a marriage, a payroll or a balance sheet.
- Private General Counsel Services for Complex Situations and TransactionsThe consigliere model, and the specialists a serious matter reaches: tax, bankruptcy, family law, mental health.
Other practice areas
- White Collar LawMatters involving financial crimes, fraud and investigations by the SEC, the Department of Justice and the IRS, before charges and after them.
- Closely-Held & Family BusinessesWhere the business, the balance sheet and the family are the same conversation. Counsel for owners facing legal, business, family and reputational questions at once.
- Dispute Prevention & ResolutionIdentifying risk before it becomes litigation, intervening while a matter can still be shaped, and guiding it from strategy through resolution.
- Second Opinions & Case ReviewA confidential read on where a matter actually stands, delivered alongside your existing attorneys and not in place of them.
- Nationwide with Local Co-CounselA nationwide network of attorneys, investigators, forensic accountants and compliance specialists, assembled per matter, with a single point of strategic leadership.