How the check reaches an answer
Seven questions on one axis: how much ongoing legal work your business actually generates, and how much of it needs somebody senior in the room rather than on the end of a line.
That single measure decides it, which is why there are three answers rather than a verdict. None of the three is better than the others. They are the right arrangements at different sizes, and businesses move through all of them as they grow.
You have grown into an in-house hire.
The volume is continuous, the work needs somebody in your meetings rather than reacting to what comes out of them, and the spend is approaching what a permanent lawyer costs. That is the point at which hiring wins, and no external arrangement matches having someone who knows the business and sees problems forming. Worth doing the fully loaded sum first - salary, employer NICs, pension, holiday, recruitment and software put an experienced commercial solicitor into six figures.
A retainer is the shape which fits.
Enough arrives to make paying per matter expensive and disruptive, but not enough to justify a permanent hire - and most of it does not need somebody sitting in your meetings. A fixed monthly fee removes the reason not to ask, which is where most of the value actually sits. This is where the majority of growing businesses land, and where they stay for years.
Keep paying per matter. A retainer would not earn its fee yet.
Legal work arrives in occasional lumps rather than a rhythm. Paying for each piece as it comes is cheaper than a monthly fee you would underuse, and we would rather say that than sell you one. Worth revisiting when questions start arriving most weeks, or when you find yourself guessing at answers to avoid an invoice.
What the answers point to
Listed in the order the check prioritises them.
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You need someone in the room
This is the strongest single argument for hiring, and the one no external arrangement fully answers. A lawyer who attends your leadership and board meetings hears the problem forming rather than being told about it afterwards. If that is genuinely what you need, a retainer is a compromise rather than a solution.
Before you hire an in-house lawyer -
Your spend is approaching a salary
Above about seventy-five thousand a year, the comparison stops being retainer against hourly and becomes retainer against a hire. Do the fully loaded sum rather than the salary alone - NICs, pension, holiday cover, recruitment and software add roughly half again.
A legal retainer, and how to make it pay -
Questions are getting parked
The expensive part of hourly billing is not the rate. It is the five-minute question nobody asks because an email starts a bill, and the small proportion of those guesses which turn out to be wrong. A fixed fee removes the reason not to ask, and that is most of what it is buying.
Why retainers fail through underuse -
The work needs senior judgement
Strategic and high-stakes work is not the same purchase as volume. A fractional general counsel buys seniority a few days a month; an outsourced team buys capacity. Paying general counsel rates for contract review is the most common expensive mistake here.
Fractional, interim, outsourced, or just part-time -
The work is mostly routine
Contracts, terms and standard questions are exactly what a retainer is priced for, and exactly what you should not be paying a senior hourly rate for. Unlimited contract review at a fixed monthly fee is usually the cheapest way to buy this.
What a retainer covers -
Your current spend is low
Under five thousand a year, a monthly retainer would probably cost more than what you are doing now. That is worth saying plainly. Come back to it when the frequency picks up rather than when the spend does, because frequency moves first.
Day-to-day legal support
Frequently asked questions
When should a business hire its first in-house lawyer?
When legal work is continuous rather than periodic, and when it needs somebody present in internal decisions rather than responding to them. Headcount and contract volume are decent proxies, but the honest test is whether an external adviser keeps being told things after the decision was taken. Below that threshold a retainer usually delivers more for less.
How much does an in-house lawyer actually cost?
Considerably more than the salary. Employer National Insurance, pension, holiday and sick cover, recruitment fees, a practising certificate, research subscriptions and software all sit on top, and the work still arrives during the months between deciding to hire and someone starting. For an experienced commercial solicitor the fully loaded figure is comfortably into six figures.
Is a legal retainer cheaper than paying hourly?
It depends entirely on frequency. In a year with two discrete matters, per-matter is cheaper. Where something arrives most weeks, a retainer is usually cheaper and always more predictable. The hidden cost of hourly billing is the question nobody asks because they do not want to start the clock, and that only becomes visible once something has gone wrong.
What if the check tells me to hire rather than retain you?
Then that is the answer, and it is a good outcome rather than a lost sale. A business at that scale still needs the role scoped properly, the shortlist sanity-checked, and cover during the months it takes to recruit - all of which is work we are happy to do. A retainer ending because the client grew is the arrangement working.
Rather talk it through?
The sum is easier to do out loud, especially the fully loaded cost of a hire, which almost everyone underestimates. A short conversation costs nothing and we will give you the honest comparison including the one where you do not need us.