What to organize with an external legal function before hiring in-house counsel

Hello, this is Legal Agent.

As a startup grows, legal work builds up and the company starts considering an in-house hire. But hiring alone does not create a working legal function. Settling the intake process, contract-review standards, key documents and division of roles with outside counsel first means a new hire is not left reconstructing past decisions from scratch.

An intake process for legal requests

Decide who raises what kind of matter, through what channel and at what stage; without this, requests scatter even after someone is hired. The contract-review request form, how urgent matters are handled, what the business team should supply up front, and the point of contact for board or fundraising matters can all be set up while still using outside counsel, and carry over once someone joins.

Preserve the standards behind contract review

For recurring contract types such as NDAs and outsourcing agreements, record which clauses matter (liability caps, IP ownership, confidentiality periods) by turning past comments from outside counsel into a house position. Where past review sits scattered across email and chat instead, a new hire needs time just to reconstruct the company's legal history.

Turn key documents into a data room

Organising the articles, corporate register and shareholder register, the same documents reviewed in fundraising or M&A due diligence, into something resembling a data room helps investor and audit responses too, not only the hire. This takes more than creating folders: which version is current, who updates it, and how access is managed all need deciding.

Dividing roles with outside counsel

Hiring in-house counsel does not mean handling everything internally. Day-to-day review can go in-house while fundraising, M&A and litigation stay with outside counsel, and setting up that division, sharing matters, standards and policy, before the hire makes the transition smoother.

Building for generative AI from the start

A company hiring now can design its legal function around generative AI from day one, since summarisation, first-pass review and knowledge search are areas AI handles well. AI supports a legal function only once intake and standards are already clear, though; it is not a substitute for them.