Fractional is in. We have fractional marketers, fractional sales management professionals, fractional CTOs (which seems impossible to me), and even fractional leadership (help, what is that?).

A few years ago, I met my first Missouri-based fractional law firm. He wanted to learn everything about my practice and try to put into practice what I had learned and applied over the years. I told him it was easy. We 1) find the work, 2) get the work, and 3) do the work while applying our unique set of abilities for those three functions.

After that conversation, I started studying who was providing fractional in-house counsel services. I even interviewed a subject-matter expert and author along the way.

After studying 20+ firms that provide these services, I found significant commonality in what they offer their clients. Not one of them mentioned a glaring omission.

In this brief discussion, I’ll explain the difference between a fractional in-house general counsel vs. the firm you use now for basic legal needs. I will then explain what fractional law firms generally do, and if you hire one, I’ll give you my best advice on one role they should be performing weekly, which is that glaring omission I mentioned earlier.