With Q2 coming to a close, many business leaders will soon begin gearing up for FY26 budget planning–aligning financial targets with strategic priorities, hiring needs, and operational goals. Around this time, legal departments are often asked a familiar question:
"Given what we're spending on outside counsel, wouldn't it make more sense to just hire someone?"
It's a fair question–but not an easy one to answer.
In this two-part blog series, we'll explore the nuances of modern legal resourcing. Part 1 examines the math behind this perennial question and why the numbers rarely tell the full story. And Part 2 takes a broader look at the legal resourcing landscape, comparing critical factors such as cost, continuity, and control.
Part 1: Beyond the Math: Why Hiring isn't Always the Smarter Move
When outside counsel spend comes under scrutiny, it's reasonable to consider alternatives. Hiring a full-time in-house lawyer may seem like the obvious solution: more permanent, more predictable, and more cost-effective—at least on a spreadsheet.
But surface-level comparisons often overlook the hidden costs of hiring, such as the time it takes to ramp up a new hire, as well as the risk of committing too early to a role that hasn't yet fully matured. The numbers also fail to account for the business value of flexibility, continuity, and senior-level experience—intangibles that don't show up on a spreadsheet but have real impact.
When you take a broader view—not just of cost, but of what you're truly getting—there are many instances when hiring isn't the smartest move.
What it Actually Costs to Hire In-House
Let's break down the full cost of hiring a mid-to-senior level in-house lawyer—base salary plus other investments. Below is an example of the kind of analysis GCs are often asked to run, especially when a long-term outside counsel relationship is being questioned.
| Cost Component | Annual Estimate |
| Base Salary (midpoint between Sr. Counsel and Asst. GC) | $284,274 |
| Typical Bonus (~15% of salary) | $42,641 |
| Benefits & Payroll Taxes (~30% of comp) | $98,074 |
| Recruitment & Onboarding (annualized) | $15,000 |
| Infrastructure & Overhead (tech, office, admin support) | $10,000 |
| Total Annual Cost | $449,989 |
And that's just the tangible cost. What these numbers don't reflect are the intangibles: the time and effort required manage, supervise, and ramp up a new hire, or the cost of replacing a lawyer that may not be the right fit. When you add it all up, the true cost of a full-time lawyer is rarely just the number on their offer letter.
A Smarter Way to Scale Legal Support
What if you could scale your legal team strategically–without adding permanent headcount? Not a replacement, but targeted support where and when you need it most: building the foundation of a new legal team, training/upskilling team members, stabilizing operations, or extending bandwidth when demand spikes.
This is where OGC comes in. Our attorneys are all former GCs or senior in-house counsel, bringing both a deep business fluency and significant legal acumen. They work alongside your team to support strategic and operational priorities without the long-term cost or rigidity of a full-time hire.
When you take a step back and compare the options (which is the focus of Part 2), the real limitations of a full-time hire come into focus. By hiring OGC, you gain:
- Access to a Full Team: You're not just getting one lawyer. You're tapping into a network of seasoned attorneys with deep experience across industries and practice areas. Our team collaborates behind the scenes, sharing insights to deliver smarter, faster results for your business.
- Talent Without the Headaches: Hiring a full-time in-house lawyer takes time, effort and commitment–not just to find the right person, but to onboard, ramp up and manage them. And, if it doesn't work out, you start over. OGC attorneys bring in-house experience and operate with minimal oversight needed. Plus, you can scale support up or down as needed.
- More Time to Assess Before Hiring: OGC offers a low-risk way to assess legals needs, identify what works and build a right-sized legal team over time. We bridge the gap while you figure out what's next.
- Faster Time to Impact: Our lawyers hit the ground running. With relevant in-house experience, they quickly get up to speed with your business, team and goals, delivering value from day one.
- Greater Spending Efficiency: You only pay for the work we do–no costs for downtime, sick days or nonproductive hours. With OGC, you're paying for results, not overhead.
- Clarity and Predictability: Our long-term, fixed-fee arrangements come with defined scopes and predictable pricing. You know exactly what you're getting and what it will cost. In contrast, in-house legal teams often get pulled into non-legal work, diluting value.
- Partner-Level Talent, Mid-Level Cost: For the cost of a mid-level in-house hire, you get a partner-level attorney with a track record of delivering business-aligned results. It's a better return on investment with deeper experience, faster ramp-up, and greater flexibility.
- Legal Leadership While You Scale: Hiring in-house too early can be a costly misstep. If you are considering your first in-house legal hire, OGC can help you build the foundation, policies, templates, and processes, without locking in to permanent headcount before you're ready.
Balancing the Math with the Bigger Picture
Hiring an in-house attorney can absolutely be the right move—but not always, and maybe not right now. When weighing this decision, it's natural to focus on the math. But real-world business needs aren't always best served by a break-even calculation. Flexibility, experience, and time to impact matter, too.
For many companies, especially those still defining or scaling their legal function, the smarter move may be to wait. Not because hiring is wrong, but because there's real strategic value in staying nimble as your business evolves.
In Part 2, we'll explore the full landscape of legal resourcing models—ALSPs, traditional firms, and embedded teams like OGC—and how to choose the right model (or mix) to balances cost, control, and continuity while you grow your in-house team.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
