A fractional General Counsel, embedded in your team.
A fractional General Counsel gives you the judgment of a full-time GC, sized to what a growth-stage or mid-market company actually needs. At NanoGC, that's a senior, Big-Law-trained attorney who runs your legal function from inside your team, on a scoped engagement, without the salary, equity, or billable-hour meter of the alternatives.
Most companies outgrow outside counsel long before they can hire a full-time GC.
That in-between stage, when you need the judgment of a General Counsel but can't justify the cost, is where legal risk compounds fastest. Contracts pile up. Regulatory exposure grows. Board questions get harder to answer without saying "let me check with our outside lawyers."
We built NanoGC for that exact gap. Senior attorneys with Big-Law training and in-house experience, embedded in your team, not billing by the hour from across town.
Embedded from Day 1. Priced to a scope, not a meter.
We become part of your team, and your team becomes ours.
We work on flat monthly retainers or defined-scope engagements. No surprise bills. No partners-meet-with-associates handoffs. The attorney you talk to on Day 1 is the attorney who handles your matter on Day 100, and who sits in your board meeting, reviews your contracts, manages your outside counsel, and answers your midnight Slack messages when something breaks.
From first call to embedded counsel.
We don't drop a generic retainer on your desk. Every engagement starts with understanding your business, scoping it honestly, and proposing the right tier, then we get to work.
Intake
Tell us what you're facing. A short intake call and document review map your entities, jurisdictions, active matters, and board cadence, so we understand the business before we ever quote it.
Scoping
We place you on the right tier, Anchor, Core, Command, or Enterprise, based on organizational complexity, regulatory environment, and active workstreams, not headcount or revenue alone.
Proposal
You receive a single, tier-based proposal with a clear monthly scope, response-time commitments, and deliverables, structured as a flat retainer or scoped hourly engagement, whichever fits your needs.
Engagement
We execute against an agreed Scope of Work as your embedded GC. As your needs grow, we revisit scope proactively, a natural growth conversation, never a surprise after the fact.
Match the pace to the work.
Four ways to engage NanoGC. All delivered by the same senior partners, no associate handoffs, and pricing scoped up front so the invoice never surprises you.
- Predictable monthly fee
- Embedded as your GC function
- Minimum 90-day engagement
- Best for growth-stage & mid-market
- Defined deliverables & milestones
- Fixed quarterly fee
- Ideal for discrete initiatives
- M&A, fundraising, compliance builds
- Dedicated senior counsel
- Board-level strategic role
- Reduced rate for commitment
- For companies replacing a GC hire
- Specialty expertise, no retainer
- Hourly or project billing
- AI governance, Stark/AKS, M&A
- Augments existing legal teams
A fractional GC works differently than the firm you'd normally call.
| Traditional firm | NanoGC, embedded | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | An hourly meter. The invoice grows with every call, email, and revision. | A scoped engagement priced to a defined Scope of Work, agreed up front. |
| Who does the work | Partners sell, associates execute, and you pay for the training. | A senior, Big-Law-trained attorney owns your account end to end. |
| Availability | Scheduled calls and email tag, with the clock running the whole time. | Embedded in your Slack and email, reachable like a teammate. |
| Relationship | An outside vendor reacting to requests, matter by matter. | Inside the business, anticipating what's coming next. |
| Continuity | New intake, conflict checks, and ramp-up for every new matter. | Already up to speed on your business and your risk posture. |
What founders ask before hiring a fractional GC.
The fractional model vs. traditional firms
What exactly is a fractional General Counsel?+
A fractional GC is a senior attorney who runs your legal function on an ongoing, part-time basis, the same role a full-time General Counsel would play, sized to what a growth-stage or mid-market company actually needs. At NanoGC, that attorney is Big-Law-trained and embedded in your team, not a vendor you call only when something breaks.
How is this different from hiring a traditional law firm?+
Traditional firms sell partner time and execute with associates, billed by the hour, so your costs rise with every email, call, and revision, and you often pay for someone's learning curve. We work as your embedded GC under a scoped engagement: a senior attorney owns your account, the price is tied to a defined scope, and the relationship is continuous rather than matter-by-matter.
Do you bill by the hour?+
Most engagements are scoped, priced to a defined Scope of Work and agreed before any work begins, so you can budget with confidence. Some specialized or unpredictable matters are handled hourly, but that is always disclosed and agreed up front. Either way, the goal is the same: no surprise invoices.
When does a fractional GC make sense?+
When you've outgrown ad-hoc outside counsel but can't yet justify a full-time GC's salary and equity. If contracts are piling up, regulatory exposure is growing, or board questions increasingly start with "let me check with our lawyers," you're in the gap we built NanoGC to fill.
Pricing & transparency
How is pricing structured?+
We scope the work, then match it to an engagement tier, Anchor, Core, Command, or Enterprise, based on the depth and volume of legal support you need. You see the scope and the price before you commit, and we revisit the tier as your needs change rather than letting an open meter run.
What does a scoped engagement include?+
A defined set of legal responsibilities, typically ongoing contract work, corporate and governance support, compliance, and counsel to your leadership team, delivered for a predictable fee. Anything outside the agreed scope is flagged and quoted before we start, never billed after the fact.
Are there hidden costs or minimums?+
No. Pricing is agreed in writing through the Scope of Work, and out-of-scope matters are surfaced and priced before any work happens. You won't find associate training time, conflict-check ramp-up, or partner review ladders baked into your invoice.
What happens if our needs grow or shrink?+
Engagements are designed to flex. If your legal load increases, a financing round, a new product line, a regulatory shift, we move you to a tier that fits. If things quiet down, we right-size in the other direction. The point is to track your business, not lock you in.
The embedded experience
What does "embedded" actually mean day to day?+
Your attorney works inside your business, not from across town. They join the channels where decisions happen, learn your products and priorities, and are reachable like a member of the team, so legal input arrives while you're making the call, not weeks later in a memo.
Do you work in Slack and over email?+
Yes. We integrate into the tools your team already uses, Slack and email are standard, so quick questions get quick answers and you're not scheduling a formal call for every issue. For deeper work, we still produce the rigorous documents you'd expect from senior counsel.
Will I work with the same attorney over time?+
Yes. The senior attorney you meet during scoping is the one who owns your account, the same person who reviews your contracts, joins the hard conversations, and knows your history. There's no partner-to-associate handoff once the engagement starts.
How responsive are you?+
Because your attorney is embedded and already up to speed on your business, routine questions get same-day turnaround and urgent issues get prioritized attention. You're not re-explaining context or waiting in a queue behind unrelated matters.
Industry expertise
Which industries do you focus on?+
We built NanoGC around areas where our attorneys have operator-level fluency rather than a wide-aperture "everything legal" practice. The deepest of those are growth-stage technology and venture-backed companies, venture financings and VC fund formation, from early-stage funds to larger funds above $25M, with continued depth in regulated industries like healthcare and digital health.
What do you do for venture-backed and growth-stage companies?+
Seed, Series A, and later-stage financings; VC fund formation for early-stage through $25M+ funds; commercial and SaaS contracts; IP and data terms; corporate governance; and the AI-governance questions modern product teams now face. We speak operator, so the advice lands with your CTO and CFO instead of getting ignored.
What healthcare and digital-health work do you handle?+
HIPAA and data-privacy compliance, telehealth and multi-state licensing, fraud-and-abuse considerations (including Stark and Anti-Kickback exposure), reimbursement, and the commercial and financing agreements healthcare and health-tech companies live on. We focus on the regulatory, privacy, and commercial layer, not FDA submissions or clinical-trial conduct.
Why does industry depth matter?+
When your team describes a new feature or deal, we already understand the regulatory posture, the privacy considerations, and the contract landmines, so you don't pay for our learning curve, and we catch second-order risk before it becomes a problem.
Getting started
How do we begin working together?+
It starts with an intro call. From there we move through a short process: Intake to understand your needs, Scoping to define the work, a tier-based Proposal, and then Engagement on an agreed Scope of Work. You'll know exactly what you're getting, and what it costs, before you commit.
How quickly can you get up and running?+
Quickly. Because engagements are scoped rather than spun up matter-by-matter, a senior attorney can be embedded and working shortly after the Scope of Work is agreed.
Who will we be working with?+
NanoGC is led by founding partner Eugene Kim, with a curated bench of of-counsel attorneys and paralegals. We're intentionally small, the work and the outcomes are better at this scale.