Entrepreneurs today are building companies in an environment where the rules of the game are written by their largest competitors. Law has become an offensive tool used by major corporations to create barriers, capture markets, and outmaneuver challengers before they gain traction. For founders moving fast, this creates a dangerous illusion: that legal can be pushed aside until later.
In a recent episode of the AJ Osborne Podcast, host AJ Osborne and guest Jeff Holman talk about fractional legal teams redefining access to business strategy for small startups to survive and grow.
Modern business no longer treats the law as a set of guardrails or a reactive service. Today, law itself has become a strategic weapon. Large corporations understand this better than anyone. They innovate quickly, but also leverage regulation, litigation, and intellectual property to bury competitors before they can rise.
For small and midsized businesses, regulation doesn’t level the playing field. Government agencies, compliance requirements, and enforcement actions consistently favor the companies with deep legal departments. Entrepreneurs often find themselves fighting uphill against regulatory and legal barriers they never anticipated.
This is why understanding and integrating legal strategy from the very beginning is not an option. It’s foundational, and failing to recognize this shift can cost an entrepreneur not just money, but their entire business.
When people think about “strategy,” they usually think about plans: build a product, launch, scale, capture revenue. But strategy, properly understood, has five elements:
Legal is embedded in each of these. Your contracts, your intellectual property, your partnerships, your financing—every one of these is both a business decision and a legal one. The companies that treat legal as strategy are the ones that pull ahead.
Many founders tend to operate under dangerous assumptions. They think they “can’t” pursue certain business models, or they defer opportunities because they assume the law doesn’t allow it. In reality, most of the time the opportunity is viable, but it requires structured guidance to execute properly. Such misunderstandings leave entire markets unexplored, while competitors who integrate legal expertise from the start seize those advantages.
Ignoring this dynamic leaves your company structurally unprepared to compete.
The most common mistake founders make is believing they’re “not ready” for legal counsel. They can only imagine attorneys as a service for Fortune 500 companies or billion-dollar funds. The truth is, early-stage businesses have the most to lose and the least margin for error.
Hiring legal help only after a problem arises forces you into defensive mode, and by that stage, your choices are limited. You don’t get to ask, “Where do we want to go?” Instead, you’re handed three bad options: mitigate, litigate, or absorb the loss.
Equity arrangements with executives, investor terms, intellectual property filings, partnerships, and compliance structures all set the foundation for future growth. If they are mishandled early, they become nearly impossible to correct later. A founder might think they are saving money by delaying legal involvement, but in reality, they are eroding the very asset they are trying to build.
Proactive legal planning is an investment in stability, scalability, and opportunity capture. It keeps entrepreneurs out of reactive mode and positions them to capitalize on strategic openings others overlook.
Every entrepreneur’s objection is the same: “I can’t afford half a million dollars a year for a general counsel.” Of course, until recently, that was true. Only large corporations could have hired attorneys who sat inside their leadership teams, shaping strategy from the beginning.
A single lawyer, no matter how talented, will always be strong in some areas and weak in others. Startups do not need one overworked generalist; they need a team of specialists who can step in precisely when their expertise is required.
However, this is exactly why the fractional model exists. Just as startups now leverage fractional CFOs and CMOs, they can now access legal counsel on a fractional basis. The model is simple: the right attorney, at the right time, for the right issue. Instead of paying for one full-time lawyer, a company taps into a legal team that collectively covers the entire spectrum of needs, like contracts, employment, intellectual property, partnerships, regulatory compliance, and more.
A fractional legal team provides:
Fractional general counsel levels the playing field, which means their company can operate with the same legal sophistication as an established competitor. Small businesses and startups adopt the same strategic posture as global corporations, removing the excuse that “we’re not big enough” for legal planning.
Waiting to involve legal counsel is one of the most expensive mistakes an entrepreneur can make. The assumption that law is only for “big companies” has cost countless founders their businesses, their intellectual property, and opportunities they never even realized were available.
Fractional legal teams exist to close that gap. They eliminate the false choice between growth and compliance and give founders the ability to compete on equal footing with incumbents who have always weaponized the law to their advantage.
Entrepreneurs should not ask whether they can afford legal counsel, they should ask themselves how much it will cost not to have it.
*Disclaimer: This content is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice in any jurisdiction or create an attorney-client relationship with any attorney or law firm, including Intellectual Strategies. This might include legal advertising for applicable jurisdictions. Any discussion of past results, strategies, or outcomes does not guarantee similar results in any future matter. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Intellectual Strategies or any affiliated organizations. Listeners, viewers, and readers should consult a qualified attorney for legal advice specific to their situation.
