Why Fast-Growing Companies Waste Thousands on High Legal Costs — And the Alternative Founders Are Now Choosing

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Legal protection doesn't have to be expensive, as long as its managed correctly.

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As companies scale, their legal needs expand faster than their systems, people, or budgets. Most founders realise too late that they are leaking thousands—sometimes tens of thousands—on legal fees that could have been avoided with a better structure.

In the UK SMEs jointly spend £13.6 billion annually on legal costs, with many small businesses unable to predict their legal costs so they can be managed. This article breaks down why legal spend spirals in fast-growing companies and the alternative to law firms and their typical high legal costs.

If you would like a personalised review of your current legal spend, please book a complimentary consultation.  Why Fast Growing Companies Suffer from High Legal Costs

Even strong businesses fall into the same traps. Here’s why legal becomes expensive when you grow.

1. Over-reliance on external law firms for everyday work

This is the biggest source of overspend.

Founders often get support from law firms, which is fine in the early days. But as the company grows and enters into more contracts, engages with new investors - law firm hours grow with it.

This is often results in fees mounting as:

• you pay senior associate rates for simple commercial reviews

• teams send unnecessary work to law firms because internal processes aren’t clear

• you pay higher fees for last-minute reviews

  
  

This can easily result in legal costs amounting to over £40,000 per year for even small businesses.

2. Founder risk becomes bigger — and more expensive

When a business grows without adjusting its legal infrastructure, issues compound:

• Outdated template contracts

• Non-standard clauses across multiple jurisdictions

• No contract approval process

• Missing compliance steps

• No centralised training or document ownership

Founders often deal with the consequences only when something breaks. And by then, it costs more to fix.

3. Teams waste time on preventable legal bottlenecks

Without structure:

• Sales teams rewrite clauses

• Operations teams draft contracts from scratch

• Finance negotiates legal terms

• Documents get stuck in email threads

This slows revenue, increases risk, and inflates legal spend.

4. Legal strategy doesn’t grow with the business

This is the quiet killer. What worked for a 5-person startup does not work for a company with:

• international customers

• multi-partner distribution

• regulated activities

• data-heavy products

• investment rounds

  
  

If legal doesn’t scale with the business, legal spend increases without adding value.

The Modern Solution to High Legal Costs: Fractional Legal Support

Traditional hiring is expensive. With junior solicitors in London being paid £120,000 per year, getting an experienced lawyer to support your business is expensive. In addition, costs increase through benefits and training. But the hourly cost from law firms are even more expensive. This is why founders and SMEs are moving to the model already used by tech companies in the US and UK:

Fractional Legal Counsel (Part-Time Lawyer)

By using this model you get a senior in-house lawyer for a set number of hours per week/month, at a predictable cost, covering areas from contracts to legal operations.

It's the same person integrating into your business, understanding your goals, and continuously improving your legal function. And because they focus on proactive legal work, they prevent 70–80% of the reactive spend founders normally pay law firms for.

The Three-Step Fix we use to Cut Business' Legal Costs by up to 50%

1. Fractional legal counsel model

Instead of paying £300–£600 per hour for routine legal work or £10,000 plus a month for a full time legal hire, we provide you with a part time senior lawyer so you have legal support for a fraction of the cost. We tailor the level of weekly/monthly support to the specific legal needs of your business, with packages starting from £850 per month. They act as an extension of your business and manage your legal strategy, contracts, operations, and if necessary external counsel for specialist support.

2. Implement a legal strategy with simple and scalable legal processes

The fractional lawyer implements a lightweight structure for contracts, approvals, and documentation to help instantly reduce unnecessary repeated work and internal contract delays. Templates (catered to your business needs and risks) are produced to speed up business and reduce risks.

3. Only use external law firms where truly needed

Law firms can serve a valuable role with advising on niche and specialist areas. We review when they are used, cutting them out from day-to-day operations which are handled by the fractional lawyer. The result of our model is immediate savings on annual legal expenses and faster speed-to-contract.

Implementing a legal strategy with simple scalable legal processes

This alone can cut spend dramatically. By understanding the current legal framework and issues, a strategy and new framework can be developed. A solid legal framework would include:

• Centralised templates and terms - One source of truth. Consistent terms. Reduced risk.

• Playbooks - Clear guidance on what the business can accept, reject, or negotiate.
  

The strategy would also determine updates to:

• processes

• documents

• legal budget

• internal legal support v external legal support
  

This shifts legal from reactive firefighting to proactive value creation. Only using law firms when needed With law firm fees costing £350-600 per hour, determining the best time to bring in additional support is crucial, and can mean the difference in reasonable costs becoming high costs. We review the needs of the business for specialist areas, forecast likely spend based on our experience working with lawyers in over 90 countries, and negotiate fees that are reasonable with them on your behalf. Expected ROI: What Founders Typically Save

After implementing the steps above, fast-growing companies usually see:

• up to 50% reduction in external legal fees

• faster contract turnaround so your deals progress faster

• lower operational risk

• improved compliance readiness

• lower founder stress

• more predictable legal budgeting

• stronger legal infrastructure for scaling
  

This is why fractional legal support is currently one of the fastest-growing legal support models in the UK and US.

Other ways Count & Sol Helps Scaling Businesses reduce Legal Spend

In addition to providing fractional legal support, we also provide on-off services to help improve your internal legal function for those not requiring on-going legal support yet, including:

• Legal strategy and risk assessments

Review of current operations so founders can scale confidently.

• Contract Management

Implementing new processes to streamline and standardise your legal documents

• Cross-Border Compliance

Assisting with ensuring new products/services are compliant before expanding into new jurisdictions.

• External Counsel Management

Ensuring you only pay for the specialist work you actually need and manage the costs in the process.

The Business Advantage

Businesses that manage their legal operations early don’t just avoid risks — they set themselves apart.

That means:✔️ Robust protection and risk management✔️ Faster revenue✔️ Reduced costs

At Count & Sol, we help ambitious founders and scaling businesses treat legal as a growth strategy and manage the costs in the process. For deeper insight into how Count & Sol can support the legal needs of your business whilst reducing cost, book a consultation today.