Interim general counsel · Companies
Interim general counsel
Full-time cover for a vacancy, a deal, or an investigation. On a day-rate. Live in days, then a handover to a permanent search if the seat should stay.
When an interim general counsel is the right instruction.
A chief executive, a board, or a private-equity sponsor calls when the chair is empty and the work is not. The work is a resignation with no deputy, a financing that needs a signature, or an investigation that has to sit inside privilege.
The same instruction is an interim GC, and it is interim corporate counsel when the company has not used the general counsel title. Full-time. Day-rate. A defined end. It is not a two-day fractional officer, and it is not the retained search that produces a named general counsel. Cover does not shorten an 11-week search.
A GC or CLO search in this book reaches a shortlist in 24 days and an accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16, across 38 searches since 2017. The person in the chair during those weeks is a separate instruction. Run both letters the same week if the seat is already empty. Do not judge the retained search by the interim clock, or the reverse.
Two outside readings explain why the call is common now. In the Association of Corporate Counsel and FTI Consulting 2026 Chief Legal Officers Survey, released 29 January 2026, 63 percent of 1,049 chief legal officers expected headcount to stay flat, and the survey recorded increased reliance on outside counsel at 48 percent (ACC and FTI Consulting, 29 January 2026). Flat headcount plus more outside counsel is an empty chair being billed by the hour. It is not a plan.
The Thomson Reuters Institute, with Georgetown Law and the Saïd Business School at Oxford, estimated the alternative legal services market at $28.5 billion in 2023, an 18 percent compound annual growth rate from 2021 to 2023, in the Alternative Legal Services Providers 2025 report released 28 January 2025. Of 213 corporate law departments surveyed for that report from September to October 2024, 57 percent use alternative providers, including for flexible resourcing (Thomson Reuters Institute, 28 January 2025; Reuters, 28 January 2025). Flexible resourcing at GC level is this seat, not a staffing agency's associate bench.
Read the model test in the interim versus permanent guide. Every other day-rate lawyer on this desk, including surge counsel who are not the general counsel, is interim legal talent. Two or three days a week is fractional general counsel.
From the first call to a lawyer on the work.
The measured figure is a median of 7 days across 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, counted apart from 230+ permanent in-house placements.
- I First call
Brief the gap
Scope, reporting line, conflicts, and whether a retained search will run beside the cover. The company names who the interim reports to before anyone is approached.
- II Then
Shortlist
Lawyers who have already been a general counsel or a deputy and will take a defined full-time gap. Not a bench of associates. Not a résumé drop.
- III Before start
Clear and onboard
Conflicts checked before outreach. No CV leaves us without written consent. Access, privilege, and the panel list are settled before the first billable day.
- IV Median day 7
Live on the work
The measured result of that sequence, across 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, is a median of 7 days from the first call to the start. One Series C fintech file in San Francisco was live on day 6.
Seven days is the median, not a promise on a dirty conflict. If the only available lawyer sits on the other side of the financing, or the board has not named a reporting line, the file waits. The gates are the same as a permanent search: conflicts before outreach, no CV without written consent, an NDA on request. The method is how we run a search.
- 60+
- Interim and fractional engagements since 2017.Separate from 230+ permanent placements.
- Sartori & Partners
- 7 days
- Median from first call to start.
- Sartori & Partners, 2017-2026
- 24 days
- GC/CLO shortlist, retained search.Not the interim clock.
- Sartori & Partners, n=38
- 11 weeks
- Median to an accepted GC/CLO offer.Range 8 to 16 weeks.
- Sartori & Partners, n=38, 2017-2026
Size the letter to the matter, then stop.
Vacancy, deal, or investigation. The term follows the work. It does not follow a headcount cycle.
Vacancy cover
The general counsel has resigned, is leaving, or is out with no deputy who can hold the board. A named lawyer is inside the company while a retained search runs on its own clock.
Deal and financing cover
A financing, a carve-out, or a signing block that outside counsel cannot occupy. The interim GC is on the workstream and on the signature the panel partner does not hold.
Investigation and regulatory response
An internal investigation, a regulator's letter, or a privilege question that has to be answered by someone inside the company, not by a firm billing the same matter from the outside.
Write the term for three to nine months. The short end is a parental leave. In 2026 the U.S. Department of Labor states that the Family and Medical Leave Act provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year, and that it applies to public agencies, schools, and companies with 50 or more employees. An eligible employee has worked for that employer at least 12 months and at least 1,250 hours (U.S. Department of Labor). A Series C company under 50 employees is not inside that federal floor. Its leave is whatever the offer letter and state law already say. The interim still has to cover the weeks the GC is actually out, plus the financing that does not pause.
The long end is an investigation, a CEO transition, or the legal work that is still on the board pack after a close. Past the term in the letter, end the cover or open the retained search. Extending a day-rate past the work it was bought for is how a company pays for an officer and still does not have one.
The early days are the work a panel partner cannot do from the outside. Take the signature on the financing or the commercial paper that is already late. Tell the board, in a short note, what is open and what is not. Instruct outside counsel so the hours have a buyer again. Leave a written list for the returning general counsel or the permanent hire: litigation holds, the cap table, open employment claims, privacy incidents. That list is the handover, not a status meeting.
A private-equity sponsor uses the same split. PE-backed GC searches in this book reach a shortlist in 26 days and an accepted offer in 12 weeks. The interim starts on the 7-day median while that search runs. Portfolio sequencing, operating GC versus group counsel, sits on PE portfolio legal hiring. A carve-out that outlasts the interim is post-merger legal integration, not a longer day-rate with no end date.
Day rates, and the monthly retainer those rates become.
2026 bands from closed interim and fractional engagements. A monthly retainer is those rates times the weekdays the letter commits. It is not a second price list.
| Engagement | US day rate | UK day rate | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interim GC | $1,800 to $3,200 | £1,400 to £2,400 | Full-time cover |
| Fractional GC, for contrast | $2,800 to $4,500 | £1,800 to £3,200 | 2-3 days a week |
A monthly retainer equals the day rate times the weekdays in the letter. Twenty weekdays at the interim GC band is $36,000 to $64,000 in the US and £28,000 to £48,000 in the UK. Days billed are credited against a later retained fee for the same seat.
Source: Sartori & Partners day-rate bands, 2026. Monthly figures are twenty weekdays times those bands.
Twenty weekdays at $1,800 to $3,200 is $36,000 to $64,000. That is the US monthly retainer when the letter commits a full-time interim GC and the month has twenty weekdays. The UK equivalent, at £1,400 to £2,400, is £28,000 to £48,000. The invoice stops when the scope stops. There is no employer-benefit load inside the day rate, and there is no retained percentage until you open a permanent search.
In the Association of Corporate Counsel and FTI Consulting 2026 Chief Legal Officers Survey, released 29 January 2026, 35 percent of chief legal officers named budget and resource constraints as their top barrier to success. A day-rate is how a frozen requisition still gets a general counsel into the room. It is not a way to postpone the decision about whether the seat is permanent.
Do not set that number next to a large-cap proxy and call it a saving. A Series B to C first general counsel, on 2026 bands, is $240,000 to $340,000 base with a 20 to 40 percent bonus. That is a salary for an officer. The interim number is rent for a defined gap. A company that tries to buy the officer with the day-rate is still interviewing when the term ends, with a tired interim and a board that thinks search failed.
Fractional GC at two to three days a week is the higher day rate, $2,800 to $4,500 in the US, because the cadence is standing and part-time, not a full-time gap. Do not use the interim band to price a fractional seat, or the reverse. The fees, guarantee, and off-limits guide is the retained letter. This section is only the day-rate letter.
The day-rate is allowed to become a retained search. The credit is in the first letter.
Write the join on day one. The cover lawyer may be a candidate for the permanent seat, or may be expressly not. Leaving it unsaid is how the conversion becomes a dispute.
The company remains the employer, or uses the contractor vehicle it already has. Sartori & Partners does not put the interim lawyer on its own payroll. Benefits, visa, and insurance stay with the company. Days already billed are credited against a later retained fee for the same seat. The retained fee is 25 to 30 percent of the hire's total first-year compensation. Thirty percent of that fee is paid as a retainer at engagement and kept if the client cancels the search. The replacement term on a retained GC, CLO, or CCO search is 12 months. That term does not attach to the day-rate. The day-rate ends when the letter ends.
The permanent clock does not move because cover is in the chair. Shortlist in 24 days. Accepted offer in a median of 11 weeks, range 8 to 16, of 38 GC and CLO searches since 2017. Retained corporate mandates are completed 92 percent of the time. The files that do not complete stall because the scorecard was never agreed, not because a lawyer was missing for a week. An interim GC does not repair a brief the board has not written.
In the Association of Corporate Counsel and FTI Consulting 2026 Chief Legal Officers Survey, released 29 January 2026, 84 percent of chief legal officers report directly to the CEO, up from 79 percent the year before. That reporting line is an officer fact. A day-rate does not create it. When the board wants the line, open a first general counsel search or, where a GC is already in the architecture, a succession search. Off-limits still apply: we do not recruit from a client's legal department for 24 months after a mandate.
The engagement letter says whether the interim lawyer is in the later field or out of it. If in, that lawyer is mapped with everyone else, not instead of a search. An internal-only appointment is a decision the board can make. It is not a search. The method for the retained half is how to run a general counsel search.
Series C fintech. Parental leave plus a financing. Live on day 6.
One file inside the 60+ interim and fractional engagements. Not one of the 230+ permanent placements.
A Series C fintech in San Francisco needed an interim GC for parental leave plus a financing. The terms were day-rate. Counsel was live on the work on day 6. That file is the worked example of the 7-day median, not a substitute for the 11-week retained clock.
The file is written up as Interim GC, Series C fintech, San Francisco. City context for day-rate cover sits on interim legal talent in San Francisco. Nothing in that file changes the band, the median, or the rule that days billed credit only when a later retained letter is actually signed for the same seat.
The San Francisco file
Parental leave plus a financing. Day-rate. Live on the work on day 6. Of the 60+ interim and fractional engagements.
Read the case studyInterim legal talent
The parent desk: deal overflow, leave cover, and counsel who are not the general counsel.
Open interim legal talentFirst general counsel
The retained search this cover often runs beside, or becomes. Shortlist in 24 days.
Brief a first-GC searchThe adjacent instructions.
Cover, a part-time officer, or a permanent search. Pick the letter that matches the failure you are trying to avoid.
Interim versus permanent
The model test: continuity this month against an officer the board can name. Two clocks, not an average.
Read the guideFractional general counsel
Two or three days a week. A different day rate. The right product when the work is real and not yet daily.
Fractional GCFor companies
How a CEO or a board briefs a legal search, from a first GC to cover that has to start this week.
Company hiringIn-house search across the department: in-house and general counsel recruiting. A sponsor with several portfolio chairs: PE portfolio legal hiring.
Where interim counsel is placed.
City pages live on the interim legal talent line. The GC-level engagement on this page uses the same desks.
Interim & contract counsel20 pages
Atlanta
Austin
Baltimore
Boston
Charlotte
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
Minneapolis
New York
Philadelphia
Phoenix
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tampa
Washington
Questions before the letter.
What is an interim general counsel?
Full-time day-rate cover, median start 7 days across 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017, for an empty GC seat, a deal, or an investigation. Counted apart from 230+ permanent in-house placements. It is not a five-day officer and not a seconded associate. Other day-rate lawyers sit on interim legal talent. A two- or three-day officer is fractional general counsel.
How fast can an interim GC start?
Median start is 7 days from the first call, across 60+ interim and fractional engagements since 2017. A Series C fintech in San Francisco was live on day 6. A retained GC search is a different clock: 24 days to a shortlist and 11 weeks to an accepted offer, of 38 searches since 2017. The decision between the two is the interim versus permanent guide.
What does an interim GC cost by the day and by the month?
US interim GC day rates in 2026 are $1,800 to $3,200; UK rates are £1,400 to £2,400. A monthly retainer is the day rate times the weekdays the letter commits. Twenty weekdays is $36,000 to $64,000 in the US and £28,000 to £48,000 in the UK. It is not a percentage of salary. The bands are Sartori & Partners closed-engagement rates for 2026.
How long does the engagement run?
Write the letter for three to nine months. The short end tracks parental leave: in 2026 the U.S. Department of Labor states that the Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a year for an eligible employee of a covered employer with 50 or more employees. Past that term, end the cover or open a retained search.
Can interim cover convert to a permanent general counsel?
Days already billed are credited against a later retained fee of 25 to 30 percent of total first-year compensation. The retainer on that search is 30 percent of the fee, paid at engagement, and the replacement term on a GC or CLO search is 12 months. The permanent clock stays 24 days to shortlist and 11 weeks to offer, of 38 searches. Say on day one whether the interim lawyer is in that field. The retained product is a first general counsel search or in-house counsel recruiting.
When is interim GC the wrong product?
It is the wrong product when the board needs a named officer this quarter: 84 percent of chief legal officers report to the CEO (ACC and FTI Consulting, 2026). A retained search still takes a median of 11 weeks, of 38 searches since 2017, and 92 percent of retained corporate mandates are completed. A two-to-three-day cadence is fractional general counsel, at $2,800 to $4,500 a day in the US, not this seat.
The chair is empty
A brief this week. Counsel on the work inside the median. A retained search only if the seat should stay.
Tell us the gap, the reporting line, and whether you already know the term. Day-rate cover and a permanent search can run on two letters. They should not be one confused mandate.