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General Counsel in Chelmsford
Burns & Co. provides fractional general counsel to companies in Chelmsford and across Essex: senior, in-house style legal support on a flexible basis, without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
Book a ConsultationChelmsford is the county town of Essex, a cathedral city with a strong commercial base and one of the fastest-growing populations in the east. Housing runs from Victorian terraces near the centre to large modern estates on the periphery, with a well-established commuter market.
The companies we support in Chelmsford are usually past the point where legal work can be handled ad hoc, but not yet at the point where a full-time general counsel is justified. That gap is exactly what fractional cover is designed to fill.
Growing companies in Chelmsford usually reach the point where legal questions arrive faster than they can be outsourced, but not the point where a full-time general counsel makes sense. Fractional cover sits in that gap: a senior lawyer who knows the business, joins the conversations early and keeps decisions commercially grounded.
Contract review, drafting and negotiation
Employment and HR legal support
Governance, board reporting and company secretarial
Risk, compliance and regulatory questions
Managing external advisers and specialist counsel
Support on transactions, funding and commercial deals
Fractional general counsel is for companies in Chelmsford that have reached the point where legal questions arrive faster than they can be outsourced, but not the point where a full-time hire is justified. It gives you a senior lawyer who knows the business, joins the conversation early, and keeps the legal position aligned with what the company is actually trying to achieve.
In practice that means contract review and negotiation, employment and HR support, governance and board reporting, risk and compliance questions, managing external advisers, and being the person in the room when a commercial decision with a legal dimension is being taken.
Chelmsford runs from Victorian and Edwardian streets around the city centre to 1930s semis in the suburbs and very substantial new development at Beaulieu and Channels. The new-build estates bring estate rentcharges and management companies, so the transfer and management pack matter as much as the title itself. That is the backdrop to General Counsel work in Chelmsford, and it shapes the questions we raise at the outset.
Whether the instruction in {{place}} is a one-off or an ongoing arrangement, the sequence below is how the work runs.
We start by looking at where the company actually is: the contracts it runs on, how legal questions are handled now, who is accountable for what, and where the exposure sits. That gives a clear picture of what needs attention first.
Fractional support is set up around the business rather than a fixed package. We agree how much time is needed, how the engagement works, who we deal with internally and how decisions are escalated, in writing, before any work starts.
From there we operate as part of the management team: reviewing and negotiating contracts, advising on employment matters, preparing board papers, and being available for the questions that need an answer today rather than next week.
The arrangement is reviewed as the company changes. What a business needs at twenty staff is not what it needs at two hundred, and the scope should move with it rather than becoming a fixed cost nobody uses.
It is priced against an agreed amount of time each month rather than the cost of a full-time hire, which is usually a fraction of a senior in-house salary once salary, benefits, pension and recruitment are counted. The scope is agreed in writing before work begins.
A firm is instructed matter by matter, and each new instruction starts with someone learning your business. Fractional cover is a standing relationship: the context is already there, so the answer comes faster and the advice is joined up with what the company is doing commercially.
Where it is useful, yes. Many clients ask us to prepare or review board papers, report on legal and regulatory matters, and attend the meetings at which decisions with a legal dimension are taken.
Yes. We act for clients across Chelmsford and the wider Essex area, and we handle most matters remotely, so distance is rarely an issue. Where a matter needs attendance on site or at a local hearing we arrange it.
We provide general counsel across Chelmsford and the surrounding Essex area, including:
Tell us what you need and we will come back with a clear scope, a named contact and a fixed fee wherever we can.
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