Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House

Counsel®

Twenty Years of Experience in Ten Points™

Ten Things: Legal Department of One – A

Survival Guide
“One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do.

Two can be as bad as one, it’s the loneliest number since the number one.”

 “One (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiKcd7yPLdU)” Three Dog Night

I appreciate everyone who writes to me about the blog.  In particular, I enjoy your suggestions for future
blog posts and I always add them to my list of ideas.  Today, I am writing on a topic that several readers
have asked me about – how to deal with being the only lawyer in the department, a/k/a the “loneliest
number.”  First, I think being an in-house lawyer is the best job in the legal profession.  I say that having
always been part of a good-sized legal department:  at American Airlines, at Sabre Corporation, and
now here at Marketo (https://www.marketo.com/).  The smallest department I have been associated
with was my first year at Travelocity when there were five of us (one year prior to acquiring another
online travel company in London which added several more to the team).  I have never been a solo
general counsel or member of a really small team.  So, I have been a little hesitant to write about
something where my experience is somewhat lacking.  Having thought about it, however, I think I have
enough general experience to share some thoughts on what I would be looking for – or doing –  if I were
to ever become a legal department of one.  I think the ideas below also work well for someone who is
part of a relatively small department.

I start with thinking about what drives someone to accept a position as a solo general counsel.  I imagine
that it is probably a combination of wanting to build something from scratch, of wanting to do it your
way, and the potential for a substantial economic payoff down the road when the small or start-up
company gets “big.”  Additionally, I suspect someone wanting the “Lone Ranger” role enjoys the rocket-
like pace and the challenge of being the only lawyer at a company.  Regardless of your reasons, this
edition of “Ten Things” discusses what you need to do and watch out for if you want to succeed as a
legal department of one:
1.   Clarify your role.  The first thing you need to do before accepting the role as the lone lawyer is to
clarify exactly what your role will be.  Are you expected to be part of the executive team and a trusted
advisor to leadership and the Board of Directors, or are you simply going to be a scrivener whose job is
solely to draft contracts and manage any outside counsel?  While it’s likely to be some combination of
both, be sure to get your role, duties, and expectations nailed down before accepting the job.  And if you
do nothing else, get all promises about your job, compensation, bonus, equity, etc. in writing
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/leliagowland/2017/04/13/before-you-accept-a-job-offer-try-saying-
this/#2f3401e86060).  If you are a lawyer reading this, I am sure I do not have to explain why.  If you
cannot get something in writing from the company, then document back to the company your
understanding of the offer and all of the promises made to you.  While not perfect, it’s better than
nothing and, if unrefuted, it will be very useful in the event of a problem down the road when people
start to “forget” what was promised.

2.  Gut check.  Before you say “yes” to becoming a solo general counsel you need to stop for a gut
check.  Is this really what you want to do with your career?  It takes a special type of lawyer to be the
only in-house counsel at a company.  First, I wouldn’t take on a job like this unless I had at least four
years of experience (and more is definitely better).  Second, are you ready to give up the perks and
“cushy” lifestyle of working at a law firm or a big in-house department?  In this new job, you will need
to be almost completely self-sufficient and ready to work long hours to ensure everything gets done.  
You may no longer have an office with a door or even a cubicle.  More likely you will sit a long table
with other employees and your rank as general counsel will not mean a whole lot.  Third, get ready to
fly by the seat of your pants when making legal decisions.  You will need to become the ultimate do-it-all
generalist – a legal Swiss Army knife.  You will not have the time, generally, to go to outside counsel (if
that’s even an option), nor will you be able to spend hours researching the problem.  On a daily basis,
you will make important decisions with less than perfect information in areas of the law where you have
little to no background.  Are you comfortable with this?  Fourth, be ready to take on and get comfortable
with more risk than you’ve ever experienced in your legal career.  Your orientation will quickly become
more “business” than “legal” much of the time.  You must learn how to analyze risk
(https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/ten-things-spotting-analyzing-and-managing-
risk/) quickly and lay out the options for the business and, ultimately, live with what the business
decides it needs to do.  This takes a strong stomach.  Finally, the odds are high that your compensation in
terms of salary and bonus will be low with some front-loaded equity so that if the company takes off you
are very well rewarded.  Can you make this type of initial financial sacrifice and wait on the “if”?

3.  Get scrappy.  Unless the situation is very unusual, becoming the general counsel of a start-up or
small company means you will need to be very frugal.  Money will be at a premium and there will be
tremendous pressure to limit expenses.  You may have no budget for outside counsel or what you do
have will be tiny.  You will need a very fast education in how to be “legally frugal.”  Further below I
identify some specific free on-line legal resources, but here are several things to focus on generally:

Find a boutique law firm or solo practitioner.  You can seriously stretch your legal budget
(https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/ten-things-effectively-managing-outside-
counsel-spend/) by ditching “Big Law” and finding a small firm or even a solo practitioner to help
with legal work.  Try to find an individual who previously worked for a “Big Law” firm and then
decided to step out on their own or as part of a small boutique firm
(https://www.practicepanther.com/boutique-firms-becoming-increasingly-popular/).  The work
will be five-star quality but the price will be drastically lower.
Find free CLE, “boot camps,” and seminars.  If you look, you’ll be amazed at how much free CLE
(http://blogs.findlaw.com/greedy_associates/2014/03/10-free-cle-webinar-providers-part-i.html),
 “boot camps,” and seminars are available to you, either in person or via webinar.  Take advantage of
these opportunities to learn and hone existing or new legal skills at no cost.  You typically get great
materials, including forms and checklists by attending.  You can sign up for free client alerts on the
web sites of most major law firms.  Once you do, you will often get offers for free CLE/webinars.
Free law library.  Many law schools provide guest access hours to their collection at no cost. 
Likewise, many state and federal courthouses provide access to their law library at no cost.  Large
city libraries often have sections devoted to legal books and publications.  Take advantage of these if
you can to make up for the lack of a library.  And if there is a book you use frequently in your
practice check to see if it is available for free on Google or at a discounted price (used or new) on
Amazon or eBay.
Specialized Blogs.  You can find a lot of free guidance, information, and forms on legal blogs
dedicated to the sole general counsel or start-up company lawyer.  Start-Up Company Lawyer
(http://www.startupcompanylawyer.com/) is a great one to start with.  Also check out Start-Up
Law 101 (http://grellas.com/faq-startup-1.html) and The Ultimate List of Legal Resources for Start-
Ups (https://www.wrike.com/blog/ultimate-list-legal-resources-startups/).

4.  Learn the business.  No surprise here, in order to be a successful in-house lawyer whether it is part of
a large department or as a solo general counsel you need to learn the business of your company, most
importantly how it makes money.  That said, learning the business takes on even more significance for a
solo general counsel because you will be expected to know everything, vs. just the part of the business
you might be responsible for as a member of a large department.  The best way to do this at a start-
up/small company is the following: a) read everything you can about your company or produced by
your company (especially any documents prepared for investors); b) get product demos so you can
“see” what your company’s products do and how they are used by customers; c) ask questions.  If you
don’t understand something be sure to ask someone to help you understand; d) make a friend or two in
the business who can help guide you in learning about the company (more friends the better); and e)
understand basic business finance (https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/ten-things-
basic-finance-for-in-house-lawyers/) including how to read a balance sheet, income statement (P&L),
and cash flow statement.

5.  Get Practical Law.   I know I sound like a broken record in this blog when I say that the single best
resource an in-house attorney can get is Practical Law
(https://content.next.westlaw.com/Browse/Home/PracticalLaw?contextData=
(sc.Default)&transitionType=Default&firstPage=true&bhcp=1).[1]  This is even more so if you are a
single in-house lawyer or part of a small team.  Simply put, Practical Law can give you the guidance,
research, forms, checklists, “what’s market,” sample policies, practice notes, global coverage, toolkits,
etc. you need.  All in an incredibly “practical” and useful way.  Literally, everything you need to answer
just about any legal question or request put to you by the business.  It’s not free, however, so you will
have to pay for a yearly subscription (but I would fight for this as part of coming on board).  If you don’t
already use it, my suggestion is to sign up for a free trial and get a demo.  If Practical Law is not in your
budget, all is not lost.  There are several free resources out there that can provide a well of useful
information at no cost (as well as some low-cost tools).  Here are just a few:

Getting the Deal Through (https://gettingthedealthrough.com/) – GTDT is free to in-house lawyers

and provides a multitude of legal guides that quickly summarize the laws of multiple nations on a
particular legal topic.  For example, if you need to know merger clearance in Chile, or arbitration in
France, or IP law in the USA, it’s here.  All written by top law firms practicing in each jurisdiction. 
Even if you have Practical Law, GTDT is a site worth bookmarking.
 Lexology Navigator (https://www.lexology.com/navigator/) – Similar to GTDT, though not as
comprehensive, this is a free site where prominent law firms write detailed articles on numerous
legal topics listed by jurisdiction.  Want to know how patents work in Mexico, or employment law
basics in Canada, or enforcement of foreign judgment in Norway, here you go.
Lexology.com (https://www.lexology.com/) – The is a newsfeed service that captures the best of law
firm publications and client alerts.  In its own words “Lexology delivers the most comprehensive
source of free-to-access legal updates, analysis and insights. We publish in excess of 450 articles every
day from over 800 leading law firms and service providers worldwide across 50 work areas in 20
languages. Our searchable archive now contains more than 650,000 articles. Our combination of
timely, quality, granular information and relevant insight supported by our intuitive, innovative
technology provides an unparalleled user experience.”  Go to the site, enter your areas of interest,
and every day you will get an email with a ton of helpful information and top-notch analysis of those
legal areas.  I read this every day.
Justia.com (https://www.justia.com/) – A helpful free mishmash of links to case law, law reviews,
blogs, contract forms, etc.
Harvard Guide to Free Legal Resources (https://guides.library.harvard.edu/free) – Our good
friends at Harvard have produced a lengthy list of links to free legal resources.  If you can’t find it
anywhere else, it’s worth trying here.
Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/) – Well, it’s Google.  If it’s on the web, you can
probably find it here.
Rocket Lawyer (https://www.rocketlawyer.com/legal-documents-forms.rl) – lots of free form
agreements.
Business in a Box (http://www.biztree.com/) – Silly name, but for the nominal price of $199 you can
get access to a plethora of form contracts and other documents.  All very well written and useful (I
have a subscription myself).  For $100 more you can get the same in multiple languages (and two
more licenses).  This could be the best $199 any in-house lawyer has ever spent.
Artificial Intelligence (https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2017/08/15/ten-things-artificial-
intelligence-what-every-legal-department-really-needs-to-know/) – as AI becomes cheaper and
more user-friendly, I would look for AI that can assemble contracts, review contracts, provide
research, and/or do other tasks that will reduce the amount of “rote” legal work on your plate.  This
will allow you to focus on more value-adding work with no additional headcount.  Look at tools like
LawGeex (https://www.lawgeex.com/), Determine (https://www.determine.com/), or Ross
Intelligence (https://rossintelligence.com/).   AI has to potential to truly delivery on “doing more
with less.”

6.  Fix the basics first.   If you’re going to work for a start-up or small company, odds are good that there
is a lot to fix from a legal angle.  You must keep in mind that you cannot fix it all, certainly not at once. 
So, you need to focus on the basics first.  Here is the list I would walk in with:

Fix the basic corporation documents (https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/ten-

things-basic-corporate-governance-for-in-house-counsel/) (i.e., articles of incorporation, by-laws,
LCC documents, etc.) as it’s likely these were probably prepared by the founders using a “do it
yourself” form and can use updating.
Clean up or prepare the “cap table (http://venturehacks.com/articles/cap-table),” a spreadsheet or
chart that shows who owns what in terms of equity of the company.  This will be extremely
important as the company matures and/or takes on investors, especially when it comes to the
founder’s understanding about getting diluted in the first round of financing.
Get the right human resources policies
(https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/ten-things-partnering-with-hr-1-1-3/) in
 place as it’s likely HR has been an after-thought at the company.  This is a place where Practical Law
can be a goldmine of forms and checklists.  Keep an eye on the company culture, especially if it’s
basically a “frat house (http://www.newsweek.com/why-startups-run-frat-houses-fail-629418)”
which is a recipe for lawsuits down the road (just ask Uber).
Prepare form agreements for the company’s most used contracts and install a repeatable contracting
process.  For this, Practical Law, Business in a Box, or Rocket Lawyer can be a huge help.
Get on top of data privacy and data security issues.  Watch out for the GDPR
(https://www.dataiq.co.uk/blog/summary-eu-general-data-protection-regulation) which applies to
any company that processes the data of EU citizens regardless of where the company is located.  I
have seen a lot of small or start-up companies be surprised when customers start demanding GDPR
compliance.
Protect the company’s intellectual property (https://www.cooleygo.com/protecting-your-
intellectual-property/), i.e., trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets.   For many small
companies, IP is the crown jewel and if it gets improperly copied or stolen then all the value of the
company falls away.

7.  Build a network.  You may be a department of one, but you are not alone.  Focus on ways to build a
network of lawyers (in-house or outside) that you can talk to and bounce ideas off of.  Building such a
network allows you to “expand” your department without adding headcount.  Consider joining
organizations like the Association of Corporate Counsel (https://www.acc.com/committees/sldc/) or
the American Bar Association (http://apps.americanbar.org/dch/committee.cfm?com=CL240000) and
tap into their groups and committees dedicated to small legal departments.  Look for legal message
boards and listservs where you can post questions, ask for forms, etc.  Likewise, many metropolitan
areas have organizations comprised of general counsel (https://tgcf.org/) that meet regularly and
discuss topics of interest to the group (and encourage members to email the group with questions or
seeking forms or recommendations, etc.).  Or, create your own organization of general counsel at small
or start-up companies to accomplish the same results.  The key is knowing that you can have a network
of in-house lawyers in similar positions who can help and share resources.

8.  Think about the future.  You may be all by yourself today, but down the road, you may have the
opportunity to expand the department and start to hire paralegals and lawyers.  You should be thinking
about expansion from day one.  As you go about your daily work, keep notes about what legal issues the
company is facing and – if you had the chance – how would you expand the legal department to deal
with those issues.  Keep track of how much money you are spending with outside counsel and how
bringing that work in-house would reduce those costs
(http://www.catalystlegal.com/Articles/CaseAddNewLwr.htm).  Or, if there are contracts that are lost
or substantially delayed because you don’t have the time to deal with them, capture that cost as well. 
Ultimately, you’ll want to present a compelling business analysis
(https://www.weareoptimize.com/blog/how-to-build-a-business-case-to-hire-more-staff) of why
adding headcount to Legal make sense for the business.  Also check out the ACC’s Guide to
Establishing a Legal Department
(http://www.acc.com/_cs_upload/vl/membersonly/InfoPAK/1313060_1.pdf).

9.  Prioritize/Delegate.  If you take this job, you will need to become an expert in two things: prioritizing
and delegating.  As to the former, it’s obvious that you will have way more on your plate than you can
possibly get done even if you worked 24/7. So, come prepared to hone your ability to decide what needs
to be done now and what can wait.  Fortunately, for most lawyers, the ability to prioritize seems to be in
our DNA.  It’s how we survive.  If it’s not instinctual, then brush up on the basics.  My guiding lights
were always “urgent vs. important” and “value.” The more urgent and the more valuable (either in
creating value or preventing value destruction) got to the top of the pile.  Similarly, even if you are the
only lawyer, it doesn’t mean you cannot delegate
(https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/ten-things-how-to-delegate-the-essentials/).
 Hopefully, you at least have a kick-ass assistant and in my experience assistants can do way more than
answering the phone and keep your calendar.  In fact, you should tell your assistant to let calls roll to
voice mail and that you will keep your own calendar.  Instead, figure out what types of tasks your
assistant can take on for you.  If it doesn’t require a law degree to accomplish it is “game on” for
delegating.  In addition to your assistant, consider whether there are others in the business who can take
on tasks you have been saddled with.  For example, can someone in sales be trained to do contract in-
take and gather all the information you need to begin to draft the contract (or if it’s a form contract, can
they do the first “draft” of the form for you)?  Your pool of available people to delegate to is only limited
by your imagination (and their willingness to help).  You can also reduce your workload by being a
teacher and training employees in your company on things like “writing smart
(https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/ten-things-time-for-a-conversation-about-
drafting-documents-and-emails/),” data protection, contracts 101, negotiation
(https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/ten-things-how-to-negotiate-practical-tips-for-
in-house-counsel/), and so on.  The more you can teach someone to handle certain tasks or avoid
problems, the less work that will end up on your plate.

10.  Know who to please.  This is the hardest task of all, especially in a small company.  Remember that
you are not the founder’s or the CEO’s lawyer, you are the company’s lawyer.  This is usually not an
issue when the founder is the only shareholder and is the sole board member, but when other investors
come on board you must be aware that you now, under the rules of professional responsibility
(https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/ten-things-common-ethics-issues-for-in-house-
counsel/), represent all the investors, “management” as a whole, and the board.  You must seek to do
what is in the best interests of the company and not any one employee.  In other words, you represent
the entire box of Milk Duds and no particular dud (damn, that didn’t work as well as I thought it would,
but you get the point).  Doing this is easier said than done.  One way to get it right is making it part of
clarifying your role before you join the company.  Regardless of who you represent, it is important to
show value (https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/ten-things-how-to-make-your-in-
house-clients-love-you-and-the-legal-department/) every day.  Most likely, you were hired because the
cost of outside counsel became greater than the cost of your salary.  You must continuously show that
management made the right decision.  Keep senior management up to date on what you’re working on,
make sure they know your key accomplishments, and always focus on showing them how they are
saving or making money by having an in-house lawyer vs. going outside.  Finally, as mentioned, the risk
profile of a start-up/small company is vastly different than a large, established company.  You need to
quickly get into “Dr. Yes (https://sterlingmiller2014.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/ten-things-making-
legal-the-department-of-yes/)” mode and drop “Dr. No.”  This doesn’t mean you cave on everything,
rather you must be sure you understand what risks the company is willing to tolerate and then adjust
your legal thinking accordingly.  Sure, it may be risky to accept uncapped liability in a contract but it
may be the only way a start-up/small company can start to gain customers.  Don’t say “no,” say “we
need to get some insurance!”

*****

It takes a very special lawyer to be a legal department of one.  If this is the path you have chosen (or are
considering), I greatly admire you.  I don’t know if I could do it.  That said, I don’t mean to imply that
every start-up or small legal department operates on a shoestring.  Many do not.  But for those that do, I
think the keys for someone going into that job are fully understanding what you are getting into, turning
frugality into an art form, and learning to be way more aggressive than you might normally be.  And, if
you’re able to get smart fast and work at a lightning pace, this might be the life for you.  If any readers
who are “departments of one” want to comment on some of the things they have learned or do to stay
sane, please write a comment below or post on LinkedIn.  Your real-life experience would be very
valuable.

Sterling Miller

January 31, 2018

Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel: Practical Advice and Successful Strategies is
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[1] For full disclosure, I do write a column for Thomson Reuter’s (the owner of Practical Law).  However,
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Posted in legal and tagged small legal department, solo general counsel, startup company lawyer on
January 31, 2018 by Sterling Miller. 20 Comments
20 comments

1. Nina says:
January 31, 2018 at 2:37 pm
Nice reading and a lot of useful information, as usually. Thank you for not leaving us, the only
lawyers in the department, alone. Looking forward to next posts!

REPLY
1. Sterling Miller says:
January 31, 2018 at 2:48 pm
Thank you!

REPLY
2. Lucy says:
January 31, 2018 at 3:25 pm
As the only staff attorney for a local government, I was pleased to read this post. While the context is
different in government practice, I still got some good ideas from the article, and I may use it as
inspiration to develop something similar for government practice to share with a state-wide
organization of local government attorneys in which I am a member. Thank you for your blog. I
always find the articles helpful.

REPLY
1. Sterling Miller says:
January 31, 2018 at 4:52 pm
Hi Lucy – thanks for reading and taking the time to write a comment! Best regards – Sterling

REPLY
3. Cecilia Z says:
January 31, 2018 at 4:56 pm
I run legal as sole attorney at a venture-backed start-up, and this is an excellent summary – thanks for
posting. One tactical point I would add is, fierce prioritization and finding the balance between
urgent/daily tasks and longer term tasks such as GDPR compliance planning. On any given day
there are dozens of meetings I could attend and a big part of the job is time allocation among them,
and building a culture where folks come to you, instead of you chasing down issues. The other item I
would add is, figure out what are the OKRs/metrics you need to show both value and need, and
begin tracking them asap so that on a quick turn you can provide them to leadership and have the
discussion about department goals and longer term company needs. I also agree that without my
prior big firm and big in house department experience I would have a much harder time succeeding
here.

REPLY
1. Sterling Miller says:
January 31, 2018 at 5:18 pm
 Great points Cecilia! Thank you for reading and for posting. If you get the chance, if you could
also post this reply on the LinkedIn posting of the article, more people will see (and it’s great
info). Regards – Sterling

REPLY
4. Kirstie Penk says:
January 31, 2018 at 6:31 pm
This makes good reading Sterling – thanks. I worked for 8 years as the first European GC for a
NASDAQ listed business (before being able to recruit a team) and a lot of this rings true. I would add
that you will absolutely have to get off the fence when giving legal advice – advice like a private
practice lawyer would give – i.e. “these are your legal options…..” will never wash as a sole in -house
lawyer and you will be required to give your commercial opinion on what the business should do.

I loved being a sole in house lawyer and thought the model should be available for smaller
businesses who either could not afford an experienced lawyer full time or did not need one full time.
So now I run a law firm where our team of experienced in house lawyers work for businesses as their
sole in house lawyer on a part time basis (usually for between 1 and 6 days a month) – The Legal
Director.

REPLY
1. Sterling Miller says:
January 31, 2018 at 6:55 pm
Great stuff Kirstie! If you get the chance, find the LinkedIn post of the blog and add this info as a
comment. Really helpful points.

REPLY
5. Michael Bates says:
February 2, 2018 at 3:13 am
Thanks for another great article Sterling. A “legal Swiss army knife”, being “scrappy” and making
“important decisions with less than perfect information in areas of the law where you have little to
no background” sum up my every day! Appreciate the resource recommendations.

REPLY
1. Sterling Miller says:
February 2, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Hi Michael – so glad you liked the article and that I captured all the challenges of the “Army of
One”! Thanks for reading. Regards – Sterling

REPLY
6. Jude says:
February 5, 2018 at 7:48 am
Hello Miller:

Thank you for your post. I just signed up as a solo in house counsel and I hope to send in my
experience down the line.

Cheers.

Jude
 REPLY
1. Sterling Miller says:
February 5, 2018 at 2:22 pm
Thank you for reading and the comment! I definitely want to hear how things go. Rgds

REPLY
7. IREM OZDEMIR GOKAY says:
February 11, 2018 at 5:09 am
Thank you for the valuable information. As the only lawyer at an engineering&construction
company group, who is trying to start a legal department from scratch, the information above just
reflects what I have been going through for the past 2 years. But I should also admit that I like the
challenge and one of the most important things that I constantly try to do is to create mutual working
groups with relevant departments to solve issues that would bring value to our company. So maybe
thats a way to avoid working all alone for me.. worked untill now! Also creates a synergy between
the newly established legal and the other departments that are there since 40 years. Thank you again
for the article very useful.

All the best,

Irem

REPLY
1. Sterling Miller says:
February 13, 2018 at 1:12 am
Hi Irem – thank you for the comment and for reading the blog! Best regards – Sterling

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8. Matthew Curry says:
May 9, 2019 at 10:36 pm
Hi. I came across this article and found it really useful. I was wondering if anyone has come across
templates or examples of inter department Service Level Agreements between say legal and sales at
orgs where there is only 1 (or few) lawyers. Example would be at growth stage VC backed
companies. Inter-department SLAs are popular between sales and marketing and would seem to be a
natural thing to extend to legal / sales that might help set expectations and priorities. If anyone has a
links or thoughts please share, I am looking around and asking my network as well!

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1. Sterling Miller says:
May 10, 2019 at 1:16 pm
Hi Matthew – can you send me your email address? I think I can help.
sterling.miller@sbcglobal.net. Rgds

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9. Natanee says:
June 17, 2020 at 7:24 pm
Very helpful and well needed. Wish I saw this article 6 months ago. Thank you so much.

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1. Sterling Miller says:
 June 17, 2020 at 7:57 pm
Thank you Natanee! I am glad you found it useful. I hope you “follow” the blog so you get all the
new posts emailed to you when they go live. If I can help you with anything, please reach out at
smiller@hilgersgraben.com. Rgds

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10. Tommy says:
December 18, 2020 at 10:45 pm
I’ve got a similar, but related, question. I’m stepping into the role of CFO for a multi-national non-
profit, and with it comes a responsibility to oversee the legal “activities” (in quotations because the
responsibility ranges from compliance to contracts to ???). We don’t have a legal department or any
lawyer on our staff, though we do have a very competent one on our board. Any advice – and in
particular resources to look at – for someone in my situation?

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1. Sterling Miller says:
December 18, 2020 at 11:39 pm
Hi Tommy – reach out to me via email. smiller@hilgersgraben.com Thanks!

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