On-Demand Adjuncts to Existing Legal Departments
There are not enough hours in the workday.
I wish I could clone myself.
If you’ve ever had these thoughts as a General Counsel, we’ve been there ourselves and we are here to help. Experienced GCs use us either as part-time extensions of their existing workforce or as project-based temporary resources. In either case, we are able to fill-in seamlessly and efficiently as part-time additions to an existing in-house legal department.
As adjuncts to an existing legal department, our attorneys remain independent contractors employed by Biotech Law Center, using our technology and tools, with the full resources of our firm supporting them. In a part-time adjunct role, our hours can flex with our client’s workload demands. So, whether it is helping you get through a particularly busy quarter or providing coverage for a temporary absence on your team, we’ve got you covered!
On-Demand Workforce Extension
We help our clients handle overflow and peak-period work on demand. It may be as little as reviewing two or three contracts per month, but by offloading work to us, we help relieve bottlenecks and free up time for in-house lawyers to focus on high-value projects and reduce the chance of burn-out. We are available when and as needed. And because we don’t require a retainer, there are no up-front costs to create an option to use us when workload crunches hit.
EXAMPLE –
Covering for a Leave of Absence or Attorney Departure
In addition to relieving stress on a legal department during periods of peak demand, we are able to fill in when an in-house lawyer resigns or takes a leave of absence. One of our clients, a laboratory instrument manufacturer, asked us to fill in on an interim basis when their GC took a position with another company. Within one week of being engaged, we were working seamlessly with other management team members and the attorneys and paralegals in the client’s legal department. One of our attorneys served as an interim GC on a half-time basis until he handed the reins to the client’s new GC several months later.
Project-Based Temporary Resources
Sometimes in-house workloads are exacerbated by a specific project that has a defined endpoint. GCs may be reluctant to hire a full-time employee to address workload demands generated by a project that may only last a few months. In those cases, Biotech Law Center can provide a project-based, temporary resource. This can help GCs allocate legal costs to the project (rather than absorbing such costs as part of the legal department’s budget). Engaging Biotech Law Center for project-based work can help a GC better manage the rest of her department, while ensuring the project will be expertly handled.
EXAMPLE – Clinical Trials
We are often used as a part-time resource to assist with clinical trials. We will usually be brought in before site enrollment begins in order to work with the GC and clinical team to establish negotiation guidelines for the study’s CRO. When site enrollment begins, we will handle all escalations of Clinical Trial Agreements and Letters of Indemnification from the CRO, and law-related edits to Informed Consent Forms from the site’s IRB. We remain involved until all sites are enrolled.