Interim & On-Demand Counsel · USA & International
Interim & Contract Legal Talent, Deployed at the Speed of the Matter
When a deal lands, a leave begins, or a regulator sets a deadline, the work cannot wait for a six-month search. We place vetted interim and fractional counsel into US law firms and in-house teams as a flexible, scalable layer of senior capability — calibrated to the gap, not the headcount plan.
Legal capacity, deployed at the speed of the matter.
A generalist staffing agency sends résumés; we read the matter. We know which interim counsel can stand up a data room under deal pressure, which can run a regulatory remediation or a carve-out separation to a hard filing date, and which can slot into an in-house team mid-leave without a week of ramp.
The result is senior capability on the work fast — and released cleanly the moment the need ends. The shift to flexible resourcing is structural, not a passing experiment. Independent data puts the alternative legal services segment at US$28.5 billion (2023), growing at an 18% compound annual rate across 2021–2023, with roughly 40% of law firms expecting to use independent ALSPs more next year — and only ~1% expecting to use them less (Thomson Reuters / Georgetown Law, ALSP 2025).
See how our market-mapping method finds the right interim lawyer in our methodology, or read where demand is moving in our legal hiring market updates →
From first call to active matter — in roughly seven days.
A deliberately short runway. We compress sourcing, conflicts and onboarding into a single sprint so the engagement starts while the need is still acute. The ~7-day average is our own operational benchmark across placements.
- I Day 0
Brief & calibrate
Scope, seniority, jurisdiction and start date defined on the first call — we read the matter, not just the job title, so the shortlist is calibrated to the gap from the outset.
- II Day 1–3
Shortlist
Pre-vetted interim counsel mapped to the matter from our active bench — lawyers we already know can stand up a data room under deal pressure or run a regulatory remediation to a hard date.
- III Day 4–6
Clear & onboard
Conflicts cleared and access provisioned in parallel, not in sequence — the steps that usually run end-to-end are compressed into a single sprint so the engagement starts while the need is still acute.
- IV Day 7
Live on the work
Counsel embedded and billable — roughly seven days from first call to active matter, the average across our placements.
Four modes of flexible capability.
Each engagement is sized to the gap and scaled on your terms — a single counsel or an embedded team, for a sprint or a season. Every interim placement is a contract or temporary engagement, billed by the day.
Transactional Overflow & Due Diligence
Deal-ready counsel who absorb the spike in M&A, financing and diligence work — running data rooms and workstreams alongside your core team until the transaction closes, then released cleanly afterward.
Carve-Outs, Integrations & Specialized Projects
Defined-scope mandates — post-deal integration and TSA exit, carve-out separation, regulatory programmes, remediation, contract migrations, investigations — staffed at the right seniority and stood down on delivery.
Practice-Area & Jurisdiction Coverage
On-demand depth in the disciplines your team does not carry full-time, parachuted in for the duration of the matter and across the US and international jurisdictions where the work actually sits.
Fractional GC & Team Augmentation
A fractional general counsel for a scaling company without a full-time legal budget, or embedded interim lawyers and secondees who hold a leave or a surge — integrated into your processes, billed by the day, released when the need ends.
Hiring across the wider legal department too? See in-house & general counsel recruiting and legal operations recruitment, or start from the legal talent acquisition hub for companies.
A model the profession is now buying at scale.
Flexible legal resourcing has moved from experiment to procurement line. The independent data shows where the demand is heading.
- $28.5bn
- Size of the alternative legal services market (2023) — flexible staffing is one of its original pillars.
- Thomson Reuters / Georgetown Law, ALSP 2025
- 18%
- Compound annual growth in ALSP spend across 2021–2023.
- Thomson Reuters / Georgetown Law, ALSP 2025
- 40%
- Law firms expecting to use more independent ALSPs next year — only ~1% expect to use them less.
- Thomson Reuters, ALSP 2025 Report
- +7.6%
- Growth in M&A practice demand, Q3 2025 — the fastest-rising practice, and exactly when capacity spikes.
- Thomson Reuters Institute, 2025
Sources: Thomson Reuters / Georgetown Law, Alternative Legal Service Providers 2025 report (market size and growth), and the Thomson Reuters Institute (2025) for Q3 practice demand. Market figures describe the alternative legal services segment, not Sartori & Partners placement metrics; the ~7-day time-to-submit benchmark elsewhere on this page is our own operational claim.
Coverage for the moment the gap opens.
The situations that bring law firms and in-house teams to us — and how an interim engagement answers each.
Can you cover a deal surge when our corporate team is at capacity?
Yes — transaction overflow is one of our most common engagements. When an M&A or financing wave lands, we place due-diligence and transactional counsel onto the deal within the week, running data rooms and workstreams alongside your core team until close. Demand for M&A work grew 7.6% in Q3 2025, the steepest rise of any practice (Thomson Reuters Institute), so capacity spikes are exactly the moment interim counsel earns its place.
Do you provide cover for parental or medical leave?
Yes. When a senior lawyer steps out for months and the workload does not, an interim secondee holds the seat — full- or part-time, with a fixed or open end date. We match like-for-like seniority to bridge the absence with no permanent commitment, and stand the engagement down when your lawyer returns.
Can interim counsel run a regulatory project or a post-deal integration to a hard deadline?
Yes. When new rules, a filing, an internal audit, a carve-out separation or a TSA exit arrives with a fixed date, we place project counsel who run the workstream end to end and stand down on delivery. The resource is scoped to the project, not the org chart — specialist regulatory, compliance and transactional lawyers brought in for the duration of the programme only.
How does this work during a headcount or budget freeze?
Interim counsel adds senior bandwidth on a day-rate, with no recruitment fee, employer benefits or long-term payroll. Budget can be frozen while the matters keep coming — flexible capacity scales the team up for the surge and scales back down the moment it passes. For a three-to-six-month gap, the interim route is typically the more cost-effective one, and it converts to a permanent hire only if you decide the role should stay.
Can a scaling company use a fractional GC instead of a full-time hire?
Yes. A fractional general counsel gives a growth-stage company senior legal judgment — board matters, commercial contracts, financing, the first compliance framework — for a defined number of days a month, without the cost of a full-time GC the headcount cannot yet justify. When the company outgrows the fractional model, we run the permanent in-house search.
What if a matter falls outside our team's core practice areas?
We parachute in the specialist for the duration of the matter, then release the seat. That is on-demand expertise across jurisdictions and disciplines — the niche capability your team does not carry full-time, deployed only while the work is live.
Interim work, on your terms.
The same flexibility that lets a client scale up is what lets an experienced lawyer choose the work — defined-scope mandates, secondments, fractional GC days, deal-overflow sprints, between permanent roles or as a deliberate way of practising.
We place vetted interim counsel into US and international matters: M&A and diligence surges, leave cover, carve-outs and integrations, regulatory programmes, and fractional general-counsel mandates. You set your availability, rate and jurisdictions; we bring the briefs that fit. Every engagement is treated in confidence, and the hiring firm pays the fee — joining our network costs you nothing.
Build the permanent team, too.
When the gap should become a hire, our specialist searches place the lawyer for the long term.
In-House & General Counsel
When interim cover or a fractional GC proves the role, we run the permanent general-counsel and senior in-house search.
Explore in-house & GC recruitingCompliance & Regulatory
Chief compliance officers and regulatory leadership — the permanent counterpart to a regulatory project hire.
Explore compliance recruitmentLegal Operations
Legal-ops and legal-tech leaders to build the function that supports a flexible-resourcing model.
Explore legal operations recruitingBuilding a corporate legal department? Start with our work for companies. A senior lawyer open to interim and project work? Join our interim & secondment network.
Tell us where the gap is
A brief today. A shortlist this week. Counsel on the matter by the next.
Global reach, immediate impact — flexible by design, rigorous by default. Tell us the scope, seniority and start date, and we will move.