Give both proposals the same workload
A proposal for ongoing legal support can sound complete without saying who will do each part. Before choosing, compare both proposals against the same work you expect to need.
Fictional example: a founder expects customer agreements, a first hire in a new jurisdiction and financing diligence to need attention during the same month. The operations lead collects documents; the founder makes business decisions. Two lawyers propose ongoing support with a monthly allowance, but neither proposal explains how competing deadlines will be handled.
These are invented proposals for comparison, not service packages, legal advice or examples of available lawyers.
Read the responsibilities, not just the title
| Expected work | Proposal A | Proposal B |
|---|---|---|
| Customer agreements | Do: review and negotiate the agreements; maintain the legal review queue from requests the operations lead submits. | Do: review and negotiate selected agreements. The founder maintains intake and chooses which agreements enter the queue. |
| First hire in a new jurisdiction | Do: advise on the employment arrangement and prepare the agreed documents, within the lawyer’s confirmed experience in that jurisdiction. Refer work outside that scope separately. | Coordinate: identify employment counsel and prepare the business brief. The specialist’s engagement and work are separate. |
| Financing diligence | Not addressed: the proposal mentions general corporate support but does not say who will handle diligence. | Coordinate: organize requests with financing counsel and the company’s operations lead. Financing counsel handles the separately agreed legal work. |
| Keeping the diligence packet current | Not addressed: no one is assigned to update the diligence packet when a hire document is completed. | Not addressed: organizing initial requests does not identify who checks for later documents and alerts financing counsel. |
Neither proposal is automatically better. A leaves the financing role unresolved, and its hire work depends on confirmed experience in that jurisdiction. B assigns more coordination and leaves contract intake with the founder. Both leave a gap between completing a document and including it in the current diligence packet.
Not addressed means ask. It does not mean the work is refused, included for free or safe to assign by assumption.
Make “coordinate” specific
For each specialist workstream, ask who will engage and pay the specialist, prepare the brief, provide records, receive the advice and obtain the company’s decision. Confirm each lawyer’s scope directly; a coordination role does not by itself establish responsibility for another lawyer’s advice.
In this example, one possible arrangement to agree is: the founder engages financing counsel; the fractional general counsel organizes the request list; operations maintains the document packet and flags new records; financing counsel reviews the legal materials within its agreed scope. The founder confirms business decisions and who can approve them. This division is a proposal to discuss, not an assignment already accepted by those people.
Ask what happens in the busy week
Now put a customer negotiation, the hire and a diligence request in the same week. A monthly allowance does not tell you which gets attention first, how quickly someone will respond or what happens when the allowance is used.
Ask each lawyer to explain how priorities will be set when deadlines compete, the notice they need, what would move to a separate assignment and who will tell you when the plan needs to change. Confirm any specialist’s availability separately. If a deadline cannot be supported, you need to know before relying on the arrangement.
Send a concrete follow-up
For the customer agreements, new-jurisdiction hire and financing diligence described above, please mark the work you would do personally, the work you would coordinate with a separately engaged specialist and anything not covered. For coordination, name who engages and pays the specialist, briefs them, provides records, receives advice and obtains our decision. Please also identify who updates the diligence packet when new hire documents are completed. If these needs overlap in one week, what priority and capacity arrangement could we agree?
Compare the replies before comparing the headline allowance. If most of your immediate needs belong with specialists, consider whether separate specialist engagements with a named coordinator fit better than one broad ongoing assignment. If the recurring general work is substantial, define that role and the specialist boundaries together.
Ready to discuss the work? Find legal talent. Bring the same workload list so proposed scopes can be compared.