Startup Legal Retainer · Fractional General Counsel · Global
A lawyer on call for your startup, every month, for a fixed fee. Contracts, fundraising, IP, employment, compliance, and disputes, the capability of a general counsel at a fraction of the cost of hiring one. Across India, the US, the UK, the UAE, and APAC.
Share your stage, your team size, and the legal workload you are dealing with or anticipating. A lawyer from our team will recommend the right level of coverage and send a clear monthly proposal, no long-term lock-in, cancel anytime.
Not sure how much legal support you need? That is exactly the conversation to have. Most founders are either paying too much for ad-hoc hourly work or going without coverage they should have.
Most startups hit the same wall. The volume of legal work, contracts, hires, fundraising, IP, compliance, becomes too much to handle ad hoc, but not enough to justify a full-time general counsel whose salary would run well into six figures. The result is usually one of two mistakes: paying premium hourly rates for piecemeal work with unpredictable invoices, or going without legal coverage and accumulating risk that surfaces at the worst possible moment, during diligence, a dispute, or a raise.
A startup legal retainer solves both. For a fixed monthly fee, you get a lawyer who knows your business on call: drafting and reviewing contracts, supporting fundraising, protecting IP, handling employment and compliance, and managing the disputes that arise as you grow. It is the capability of a fractional general counsel, the predictability of a subscription, and a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
My Legal Pal provides startup legal retainers across India, the US, the UK, the UAE, and APAC, scaled to your stage from pre-seed through growth. One legal team that understands your whole business and your whole footprint, instead of a different firm for every problem.
The three ways a startup buys legal support, and why a retainer fits most growing companies best.
| Factor | Ad-hoc / hourly | Monthly retainer | In-house GC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Unpredictable; high per-hour | Fixed, predictable monthly | USD 150k+ salary plus benefits |
| Availability | When you book and pay | On call all month, priority | Full-time, but one person’s bandwidth |
| Knows your business | Re-briefed each time | Yes, named lawyer with continuity | Yes, deeply |
| Breadth | Whatever you pay for | Broad: contracts, IP, fundraising, disputes | One person’s expertise; specialists cost extra |
| Commitment | None | Monthly, cancel anytime | Permanent hire |
| Best for | Occasional one-off needs | Growing startups with steady legal flow | Larger companies with constant legal volume |
For most startups between seed and Series B, the retainer is the sweet spot: the breadth and continuity of in-house counsel, the flexibility of an external firm, and a cost you can actually plan around.
Simple to start, easy to scale, no lock-in.
We learn your stage, team, jurisdictions, and the legal workload you are facing or anticipating.
A clear monthly proposal: the coverage, the named lawyer, the turnaround commitments, and the fixed fee.
We get up to speed on your contracts, cap table, IP, and policies so we are useful from day one, not month three.
Through the month: contracts drafted and reviewed, advice on call, filings handled, with priority turnaround.
Proactive reviews of what is coming, fundraising, hires, launches, so legal is ahead of the need, not behind it.
Move up a tier as you grow, scope down in a quiet quarter, or cancel anytime. No long-term lock-in.
Select the closest fit. We will tell you what it covers and how we scope it. Every retainer is tailored, these are starting points.
A retainer brings your recurring legal needs under one roof, with one team that knows your business. Coverage is tailored to your tier, and typically includes the following.
The day-to-day contract workload of a growing company: drafting NDAs, MSAs, vendor and customer agreements; reviewing what counterparties send you; and negotiating the terms that matter, with priority turnaround instead of one-off quotes each time.
SAFE notes and convertible instruments, term-sheet review and negotiation, shareholders agreements, ESOP documentation, and due-diligence support, the legal work a raise generates, handled by a team that already knows your company.
Trademark registration and prosecution, IP assignment from founders and contractors, and the IP clauses across your contracts, the clean IP position investors actually diligence.
Offer letters and employment agreements, contractor agreements, workplace policies, and advisory on hiring, exits, and disputes across the jurisdictions you employ in.
Your terms of service and privacy policy kept current, GDPR / DPDPA / CCPA alignment, and sector-specific regulatory support as your product and footprint change.
When something lands, a legal notice to send or respond to, or a dispute to resolve, retainer clients get rapid response and negotiation and mediation to keep matters out of court.
At the fractional-GC level, strategic legal oversight, board and investor support, risk frameworks, and management of any external specialists, the judgment of a general counsel, on tap.
You are past the stage where free templates are enough, but nowhere near needing a full-time lawyer. A starter retainer gives you a professional on call for the contracts, hires, and early fundraising that suddenly need to be done right.
Post-raise, the legal volume jumps: customer contracts, a growing team, investor obligations, IP to protect, compliance to maintain. A growth retainer is your outside legal team, scaled to the workload, at a predictable cost the board can plan around.
You need near-GC coverage but cannot yet justify a USD 150k-plus hire. A scale retainer or fractional GC gives you the strategic capability now, and a clean handover later when you do hire in-house.
You operate across India, the US, the UK, the UAE, or APAC and are tired of coordinating disconnected local firms. A multi-jurisdiction retainer gives you one team that understands your whole footprint.
A startup legal retainer is an arrangement where, for a fixed monthly fee, a lawyer or legal team provides ongoing legal support to your company, contracts, fundraising, IP, employment, compliance, and disputes, instead of billing you by the hour for each separate task. It gives you predictable cost, priority access, and a lawyer who knows your business, without the expense of a full-time hire.
A fractional general counsel (fractional GC) is a senior lawyer who acts as your part-time General Counsel, providing the strategic legal oversight a GC would, board and investor support, risk management, contract and policy frameworks, oversight of external specialists, but on a part-time, retainer basis. You get the capability of a GC for a fraction of the six-figure cost of hiring one full-time. It is increasingly the standard model for startups between seed and Series B.
Retainers are priced by the level of coverage and your stage, from a focused starter retainer for early-stage startups up to near-GC coverage for growth-stage companies. The point of the model is predictability: a fixed monthly fee you can plan around, typically far less than equivalent hourly work and a small fraction of a full-time GC’s salary. We scope your retainer to your actual workload and quote a clear monthly figure.
For a startup with a steady flow of legal needs, almost always. Hourly billing is unpredictable, discourages you from asking quick questions (because every call is metered), and means re-briefing a lawyer who does not really know your business. A retainer gives you predictable cost, a lawyer with continuity who knows your company, and the freedom to pick up the phone without watching the clock. For genuinely occasional one-off needs, hourly can still make sense, which is why we also offer individual services.
It depends on volume. If your legal workload genuinely needs a full-time person every day, an in-house hire may be justified, though it costs USD 150k-plus a year plus benefits. If your needs are substantial but not constant, which describes most startups up to Series B, a retainer or fractional GC gives you most of the capability at a fraction of the cost, with the flexibility to bring legal in-house later. Many companies use a retainer precisely until the volume justifies a hire.
Yes. Our retainers are monthly with no long-term lock-in, scale up as you grow, scope down in a quiet period, or cancel anytime. The model is meant to flex with your business, not trap you.
It happens, a fundraise, an acquisition, a dispute. We flag it early, agree the additional scope with you upfront, and handle it, either as a temporary tier bump or a defined add-on. No surprise invoices; you always know the cost before the work happens.
Yes. For startups operating across India, the US, the UK, the UAE, and APAC, a multi-jurisdiction retainer gives you coordinated coverage across your whole footprint, one legal team that understands the full picture rather than disconnected local firms you have to project-manage yourself.
An arrangement where, for a fixed monthly fee, a lawyer or legal team provides ongoing legal support, contracts, fundraising, IP, employment, compliance, and disputes, instead of billing by the hour for each task. It gives predictable cost, priority access, and a lawyer who knows your business, without the expense of a full-time hire.
A senior lawyer who acts as your part-time General Counsel: strategic legal oversight, board and investor support, risk management, and contract and policy frameworks, on a retainer basis. You get the capability of a GC for a fraction of the six-figure cost of hiring one full-time. It is increasingly the standard model for startups between seed and Series B.
Priced by the level of coverage and your stage, from a focused starter retainer to near-GC coverage for growth-stage companies. The model is built on predictability: a fixed monthly fee, typically far less than equivalent hourly work and a small fraction of a full-time GC’s salary. We scope your retainer to your actual workload and quote a clear monthly figure.
For a startup with a steady flow of legal needs, almost always. Hourly billing is unpredictable, discourages quick questions, and means re-briefing a lawyer who does not know your business. A retainer gives predictable cost, continuity, and the freedom to pick up the phone without watching the clock. For genuinely occasional needs, hourly can still make sense.
It depends on volume. If your workload genuinely needs a full-time person daily, in-house may be justified, though it costs USD 150k-plus a year plus benefits. If your needs are substantial but not constant, which describes most startups up to Series B, a retainer or fractional GC gives most of the capability at a fraction of the cost, with flexibility to hire in-house later.
Yes. Retainers are monthly with no long-term lock-in. Scale up as you grow, scope down in a quiet period, or cancel anytime. The model flexes with your business.
It happens, a fundraise, an acquisition, a dispute. We flag it early, agree the additional scope upfront, and handle it as a temporary tier bump or a defined add-on. No surprise invoices; you know the cost before the work happens.
Yes. For startups operating across India, the US, the UK, the UAE, and APAC, a multi-jurisdiction retainer gives coordinated coverage across your whole footprint, one legal team that understands the full picture rather than disconnected local firms.
A named lawyer from our team who gets to know your business during onboarding and stays with you for continuity, supported by specialists for IP, data protection, disputes, and other areas as your needs require.
Prakhar Rai is an advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of India and the founder of My Legal Pal. An alumnus of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, with a Master of Business Laws, Prakhar has 10+ years of experience advising startups, technology companies, and entrepreneurs on contracts, fundraising, intellectual property, and corporate matters across India, the UAE, the UK, and Southeast Asia.
He has acted as outside counsel and fractional general counsel to founders through formation, fundraising, scaling, and cross-border expansion. My Legal Pal’s startup retainer service is led by Prakhar and delivered by a team that works with founders day to day.
Fixed monthly fee. Priority turnaround. A named lawyer who knows your business. Contracts, fundraising, IP, employment, compliance, and disputes, the capability of a general counsel, a fraction of the cost. Cancel anytime.
No lock-in · +91 8004800100 · contact@mylegalpal.com