About |
John Burchill and Edward Simpson run ‘The Legal Director’ which has a network of 15 senior
lawyers who have all worked as Legal Director or General Counsel for a range of top UK and
International companies.
The Legal Director advises businesses who do not employ in-house lawyers. They act as
counsellors and a sounding board to owners and directors of businesses on legal/commercial
issues and advise them on their use of solicitors. They do not operate as a law firm but work
internally with your board or senior management team.
The Legal Director believes that every business should have a lawyer on their
decision making team rather than rely solely on external solicitor support.
All businesses manage their legal affairs in two phases:
Phase 1 – The Internal Phase involves the internal organisation and management of legal
affairs. This phase is often neglected and can take up the valuable time of directors.
Phase 2 – The External Phase involves appointing an external law firm when a legal issue
can no longer be managed internally. This requires the preparation of good instructions and
management of the law firm input and cost. This phase is often mismanaged by businesses.
The Legal Director manages both phases to save your directors’ time and to ensure
proper management of your legal affairs. Solicitors are not set up to provide this
service. They operate through individual lawyers who advise on specialist areas of
law. The Legal Director uses one lawyer to advise across all of your legal affairs.
The benefits of using The Legal Director are:
1. They use their many years of experience of advising businesses from the inside to work as
part of your internal senior management team. They get close to your key people, work at
your place of business and adapt quickly to your business culture.
2. They save your directors valuable time freeing them up to concentrate on core activity.
3. You benefit from the use of a legal director without the need to incur the fixed cost of
employing a full time lawyer. Their service is flexible and is used only when needed.
4. They know when to use solicitors, how to prepare a set of instructions, how to evaluate and
use the advice received and how much the advice should cost. They introduce you to good
quality law firms and can get better value from the law firms you already use.
5. They propose straightforward solutions aimed at facilitating your commercial objectives
rather than providing you with a commentary on the technical aspects of your legal problems.
6. They oversee your legal affairs helping you to make the right commercial decisions and
giving you peace of mind.
They prefer to work on a retained basis providing a regular service, weekly or monthly, which
gives your business the ongoing legal support you need. They advise on ‘one off’ issues and
individual projects where required. They also provide your managing director or key decision
makers with personal support and guidance which is a need often overlooked by businesses.
John or Edward can be contacted on 07766 461018 or on 07747 846 960 or at
john.burchill@thelegaldirector.co.uk. or ed.simpson@thelegaldirector.co.uk
Their website can be found at www.thelegaldirector.co.uk.