01
You do not need another generalist
You need someone who has seen the exact issue before and can work inside your business context.
The specialist gap
The problem is not capacity. It is confidence in one narrow area.
Legal teams often know exactly where they are exposed. The hard part is finding senior niche judgment without sending the matter out, over-hiring, or forcing a generalist to fake depth.
02
External counsel can be too detached
A memo may answer the legal question while still leaving you to translate it into business action. It brings an in-house perspective — someone who understands what deliverables the business actually needs, not just what’s legally correct.
03
The niche can expand
Specialist work often reveals adjacent needs, which is why the model has to support stacking expertise into one flexible mandate.
Depth on demand
Specialists who operate inside the business.
Goodlawyer matches for practice depth and operator judgment, then helps shape the scope so specialist expertise turns into practical momentum.
- vetted lawyers in network
- 750+
- years in-house experience
- 8+
- stackable specialties
- 1 or more
Depth plus business fluency
We look for lawyers who can apply expertise in operating context, not just explain legal doctrine.
Scoped to the gap
Use specialist support for a project, a spike, or an ongoing fractional mandate without turning it into headcount.
Specialist stacking
A privacy lead may also cover AI governance or vendor risk. An employment lawyer may help with HR policy and executive issues.
Meet the lawyers customers actually work with.
16 yrsPearl C.
Fractional General Counsel
Toronto, ON
- Corporate
- Commercial
- Venture capital
15 yrsNofa K.
Technology, SaaS & Privacy Counsel
Toronto, ON
- SaaS
- Data privacy
- Commercial
16 yrsRyan T.
Fractional General Counsel
Cambridge, ON
- Technology
- IP
- Privacy
15 yrsRebecca H.
Fractional Commercial Counsel
Vancouver, BC
- Commercial
- Mining
- Leadership
34 yrsShari H.
Fractional General Counsel
Vancouver, BC
- Commercial
- IP & licensing
- Governance
11 yrsJosée B.
Global Technology & AI Counsel
Montréal, QC
- Technology
- AI
- Cybersecurity
17 yrsNatasha G.
Fractional General Counsel, B2B SaaS
Toronto, ON
- B2B SaaS
- Privacy
- Legal operations
8 yrsThelma Z.
Employment & Labour Counsel
Vancouver, BC
- Employment
- Investigations
- Human rights
12 yrsStefan B.
Commercial In-House Counsel
Calgary, AB
- Commercial
- Fintech
- Telecom
Choose the right model
Fractional, secondment, and recruiting are different answers to different risks.
Buyers often ask where one model ends and another begins. The simplest answer is to start with capacity, duration, and whether the relationship should become permanent.
Pricing and sizing
Trade the legal meter for a planned mandate.
Legal coverage gets risky when the work goes into an open-ended billing meter. We scope the route before the work starts: responsibilities, monthly capacity, seniority, and handoff expectations.
Before work starts
The triggerLeave, vacancy, overflow, or specialist gap
The capacity1–5 days/week
The operating rhythmMeetings, tools, stakeholders, handoff
The budget logicPlanned scope instead of surprise invoices
No meter anxiety
No vague handoff
Right-fit talent
Common specialty gaps
Coverage where lean legal teams most often need depth.
Start with the expertise you are missing, then shape the engagement around the business outcome.
Privacy & data
DPAs, AI governance, security reviews, regulatory updates.
Employment
Policy, investigations, separations, HR escalations.
Procurement
Vendor agreements, public-sector terms, risk allocation.
Commercial contracts
MSAs, SOWs, channel paper, enterprise negotiations.
Regulatory
Industry-specific licensing, compliance, regulator response.
M&A support
Diligence, integration, disclosure, deal execution.
IP & licensing
Usage rights, assignments, software, brand, content.
Capital markets
Governance, disclosure, financing support.
How specialist support starts
Start narrow, then expand only where it earns its keep.
We turn a specialist gap into a practical mandate with the right seniority, scope, and cadence.
Name the gap
Identify the risk area, business context, and decisions the internal team needs confidence on.
Match the specialist
Find lawyers whose practice depth and industry experience line up with that specific issue.
Stack adjacent work
Fold in adjacent workstreams only when they make the engagement more useful and efficient.
Transfer judgment
Leave the team with playbooks, templates, and decision rules so the learning can compound.
Customer proof
Specialist counsel when the roadmap will not wait.
Goodlawyer supported our legal team during a busy quarter, helping us manage resourcing challenges such as parental leaves and the need for specialist counsel.
Kosta Starostin
VP Legal · Cohere
FAQ
Questions worth asking before you bring someone in.
Straight answers on how the model works, who you will be working with, what it costs, and what happens if things change.
Goodlawyer is not a law firm and not a traditional recruiter. We are an alternative legal service provider that curates a network of independent lawyers and matches them to in-house legal needs.
Find the specialist
Get the narrow expertise your team needs now.
Share the practice area, industry context, and timing. We’ll identify a specialist who can apply judgment inside your business, not just write a memo.
- Depth without a specialist headcount
- Operator instincts, not doctrine only
- Stack adjacent needs in one mandate