Legal Consultation
Standing advisory and retained general counsel for organisations without an in-house legal function.
Detailed overview
Many organisations need legal judgement more often than they need a transaction. Our retained advisory service gives them a named partner and an agreed monthly allocation of time, at a predictable cost.
In practice this covers the questions that arrive without warning: whether to sign, how to respond to a demand letter, whether a policy is adequate, what a new regulation means in operational terms.
It also covers the work that never gets prioritised otherwise — contract templates, compliance calendars, delegation frameworks — which is usually where the avoidable problems are.
- Retained general-counsel arrangements
- Single-issue legal opinions and risk assessments
- Second opinions on existing advice
- Board and management briefings
- Legal health checks and documentation audits
- Policy, template and playbook development
- Escalation triage and outside-counsel coordination
- Fixed-scope strategy sessions
Why you might need this service.
If one of these describes your situation, a short conversation will establish whether there is a matter worth pursuing.
You need legal input regularly but not enough to justify an in-house hire.
Decisions are being made without legal review because counsel feels expensive to call.
You want a second opinion on advice you have already received.
The board has asked for an assessment of the organisation's legal exposure.
The attorneys handling legal consultation.
“We use SALAW as our retained counsel. The value is not the big matters — it is being able to call at four in the afternoon and get a straight answer about whether to sign something. That has probably saved us more than any single case.”
Before you make contact.
Submit the consultation form on this site, call the office, or email our intake address. We aim to acknowledge every enquiry within one business day and to offer an appointment within three. Where a matter is time-critical — an arrest, an injunction, a deadline that expires this week — say so in your first message and we will treat it accordingly.
A named partner or senior associate is responsible for every file and remains your point of contact throughout. Work is delegated within the team where it is efficient to do so — document review does not need partner time — but supervision does not move, and you will always know who is accountable.
Depending on the matter: hourly at the rate of the lawyer doing the work, a fixed fee for defined scopes such as documentation or a licence application, or a retainer for continuing advisory work. Whichever applies, you receive a written engagement letter setting out the basis, the rate and the estimate before any chargeable work begins.
Yes, directly, and at the first opportunity. A candid assessment early is worth considerably more than an encouraging one that changes eight months and a large invoice later. Where a case is weak we will explain why, and whether anything can be done to strengthen it.
- Tax & Financial LawTransaction structuring, filings, audits and disputes with the revenue authorities.
- Intellectual PropertyRegistration, licensing and enforcement of trademarks, copyright, designs and confidential information.
- Compliance & Regulatory MattersLicensing, data protection, AML and sector regulation — plus representation when a regulator engages.
Speak to the legal consultation team.
Describe what has happened in a few sentences. We will tell you whether it is a matter we should take, what it would involve, and what it would cost.
- Direct line
- +1 (212) 555-0142
- Response time
- Every enquiry acknowledged within one business day.