Is Your Business Actually Ready for an In-House Legal Team?

Hiring an in-house legal team sounds like one of those big grown-up business moves that should automatically mean the company’s doing well. And yeah, sometimes it does.  You don’t have to worry about outsourcing tasks to a law firm and hope they eventually get around to what you need. Instead, it’s more immediate, and deadlines tend to be followed. 

But it’s also nice to know that having an in-house legal team can signal growth, complexity, and the point where legal needs are no longer just the occasional contract review and a bit of outside counsel here and there. But with that said, bringing legal in-house is not some automatic badge of business maturity that every company needs to rush towards the second things start getting serious. Well, there’s just a lot to consider here, too, honestly. 

Start with the Type of Legal Work You’re Actually Dealing With

This is probably the biggest thing to look at first. So, some businesses really do have enough ongoing legal work to justify an internal team. For example, maybe contracts are constant, regulatory issues come up all the time, employment matters keep surfacing, partnerships need reviewing, and there’s enough volume to keep legal properly busy. In that case, bringing people in-house can make a lot of sense.

But a lot of businesses are not there yet, even if they’d like to think they are. Sometimes the legal workload feels big because it’s stressful, not because it’s actually consistent enough for a full internal function, which, in that case, you probably should just work with a law firm instead.

You Should Think Beyond the Salary Number

But shouldn’t it be all about the costs, though? But seriously, this is where people can get caught a bit. They look at the salary, maybe add benefits, and think they’ve got the cost picture figured out. But no, not quite. Because an in-house legal team usually needs support around process, document handling, internal systems, and tech that allows them to actually function properly. 

Otherwise, the business ends up paying for legal talent while still expecting them to work in a setup held together by scattered files, vague recordkeeping, and someone saying, “It should be in Slack somewhere.” Which, no, it doesn’t work like that either; there needs to be some sort of infrastructure there. 

If the legal side of the business may need to handle investigations, disputes, document requests, or large volumes of records, then the legal team needs a tool. Actually, even if you don’t have a legal team, you still need a proper document infrastructure put in place, and eDiscovery software can be a pretty wise decision there too (ideally, this should be put into place before you hire a legal team).

Be Honest About Control Versus Flexibility

A lot of businesses want in-house legal because they want more control, faster turnaround, and somebody who really understands the business from the inside. Sure, by all means, here, all of that is fair. Those are real advantages. But with that said, outside firms still offer flexibility that can be very useful, especially when needs go up and down, or when a business needs niche expertise, it wouldn’t make sense to hire permanently. So, you might honestly be better off asking, “Is in-house better for this business, right now?”