Your legal department, without the overhead.
Focus on growing your business and leave the legal worries to Eight. Ongoing strategic advice on financing, liability, client contracts, and the day-to-day legal issues you face — the on-call access of an in-house hire, without the full-time salary.
Services within Outside General Counsel.
Each page covers what's included, when to call, and how the work is billed.
Outside General Counsel, item by item.
Every engagement is scoped to what you actually need. These are the matters Eight Law handles most often in this area.
Day-to-day counsel
A legal sounding board when questions come up.
- On-call advice by email, phone, and video
- Quick reads on documents you've been asked to sign
- Guidance before decisions, not just after
- Risk and liability check-ins as the business changes
Contracts that keep moving
Routine agreements handled without slowing the business down.
- Client and customer agreements
- Vendor, supplier, and services agreements
- Templates you can reuse with confidence
- Non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements
People & hiring
The documents that come with building a team.
- Employment agreements and offer letters
- Independent contractor and consulting agreements
- Confidentiality and invention assignment agreements
- Advisor agreements and equity grants
Governance & growth
Keeping the company clean for the next round or the eventual exit.
- Board and shareholder consents and minutes
- Cap table and equity records
- Financing strategy and investor communications
- Coordinating specialists when a matter needs one
Signs it's time to call.
How it's billed
Outside general counsel is typically a monthly retainer scoped to your stage and volume of work, so you can ask questions without watching the clock. Larger one-off projects — a financing or an acquisition — can be quoted separately as flat-fee or hourly work. The retainer can be adjusted as your needs change.
- Legal questions come up every week, but a full-time GC isn't justified yet
- You're signing more contracts than you can review on your own
- You're hiring and want employment documents done right
- You want the company organized before investors or buyers look
- You'd rather call before a decision than clean up after it
What working together looks like.
Direct access to your attorney at every step — no hand-offs, and scope and fees agreed in writing before work begins.
- 01
Discovery call
How the business runs today and where legal questions come from.
- 02
Legal health check
A review of your formation, contracts, and records to spot gaps.
- 03
Scope & retainer
A monthly scope that fits your stage, agreed in writing.
- 04
Ongoing partnership
Questions answered, documents handled, and regular check-ins as you grow.
What's the difference between outside general counsel and a regular law firm?
Is outside general counsel cheaper than hiring in-house?
What if something comes up that's outside the retainer?
Can I pause or change the retainer?
Read before you call.
Independent Contractor vs. Employee in California: The ABC Test
How California's ABC test (AB 5, Labor Code § 2775) decides worker classification, the main exemptions, penalties for willful misclassification, and practical steps.
Read the guide Contracts10 Contract Clauses to Read Before You Sign
The contract terms that decide who carries the risk — liability caps, indemnities, IP, termination, non-competes, attorney's fees — with California-specific notes.
Read the guideRelated services.
Let's build something that lasts.
Tell us where your business is headed. We'll tell you what it takes, legally, to get there.