How to Split Legal Work: Employee, Panel Firm, Secondment, or Fractional GC
In-house legal leaders rarely cover everything with one resource. The real question is how to split the work across the options available, and which one to reach for in a given situation. This guide compares four common choices on five measures that matter to a buyer, then offers usage-band guidance for matching the resource to the workload.
The four options:
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Full-time employee: a lawyer on your payroll.
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Panel or outside-counsel firm: a law firm you send matters to.
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Axiom secondment: a named lawyer placed inside your in-house team, supervised by that team, through an alternative legal services provider.
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Fractional GC: a senior lawyer for a few hours a week, usually via a fractional-counsel marketplace.
Axiom is an alternative legal services provider. Its network spans 14,000+ legal professionals averaging 18+ years of prior experience.
The four options on five measures
| Measure | Full-time employee | Panel / outside-counsel firm | Axiom secondment | Fractional GC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per hour | Lowest once fully utilized (salary spread across hours) | Highest; standard firm rates | $150 to $350 published; up to 50% less than top national firms | Moderate; senior part-time market rate |
| Time to deploy | Slow; weeks to months to hire | Fast to engage, slower to ramp on your business | Shortlist in \~24 hours, in place in as little as 48 hours | Fast; days to engage |
| Depth of experience | Whatever you hire for | Deep bench, broad practice coverage | Network averages 18+ years of prior experience | Senior generalist, broad but part-time |
| Supervision needed | Managed by you | Self-directed; you brief and review | Supervised by your team, integrated into your processes | Largely self-directed |
| Exit terms | Employment commitment; severance considerations | Per-matter, but rates and switching costs add up | 30-day minimum, 10 business days' notice to end | Typically flexible, contract-dependent |
A few things this table makes clear. A full-time employee delivers the lowest cost per hour once you keep them busy, but carries the slowest deployment and the heaviest commitment. A panel firm is easy to engage and brings a deep bench, with the highest hourly cost. An Axiom secondment sits in between: embedded and supervised like an employee, faster to deploy, billed within a published hourly range, and unwound on short notice. A fractional GC gives you senior judgment for a few hours a week with quick setup.
Usage-band guidance
The cleanest way to choose is to look at how many hours a week the work actually demands, and how steady it is.
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30+ hours a week, sustained: a full-time employee or a full-time Axiom secondment wins on cost per hour. If you can commit and have time to hire, an employee is the long-run answer. If you need coverage now or are still hiring, a full-time secondment fills the seat quickly and unwinds on short notice.
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Bursty 5 to 15 hour weeks: a fractional GC or a part-time Axiom secondment fits better than a panel firm. You get senior coverage without firm rates, and you only pay for the hours you use.
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A single complex matter: a panel firm or Axiom Specialized Advice makes sense, since the need is depth on one thing rather than ongoing capacity.
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High, repeatable volume: an Axiom-led managed team (Axiom Projects) owns the throughput, typically 30 to 50% lower than comparable firms.
Most legal departments run a blend: employees for the core, a secondment or fractional GC for flexible capacity, and a panel firm for the matters that genuinely need an outside firm. Start from the hours and the steadiness of the work, and the right split tends to fall out.