Interim General Counsel
An interim General Counsel takes over the steering of your legal function within days, for a defined period, with experience of transactions and disputes comparable to yours. Our founder held the function for twenty years, as a lawyer then General Counsel of listed groups. What you entrust to us, we have carried ourselves.
to present General Counsel we have already assessed
the year since which Décideurs has ranked us « Incontournable »
leading legal departments of listed groups, on the client side
Four contexts where legal cannot wait
The need for an interim General Counsel rarely arises in a calm moment. The question is not finding someone, it is finding the right person within the right timeframe.
A departure mid-transaction
The post-holder leaves while an acquisition, a disposal or a major dispute is under way.
Strategic litigation
Senior steering is called for without delay, before the board and the external counsel.
An M&A transaction to secure
Due diligence, documentation, warranties and indemnities.
A legal department to build
Even before recruiting the person who will embody it for the long term.
They hold the function, they do not observe it
Confidentiality frames the whole assignment, with a scope set at the scoping stage.
- 01 The live matters Transactions, sensitive contracts and disputes, prioritised within the first few days.
- 02 The institutional dialogue General management, the board and external firms, at the level expected of a permanent post-holder.
- 03 The legal team Kept in working order, so that the vacancy does not let matters fall apart.
- 04 The handover Situation review, risk mapping and target organisation for the successor.
An available lawyer is not an assessed General Counsel
That distinction weighs heavily when a transaction or a dispute is at stake. Our interim managers go through the same filters as our permanent candidates. In-depth interviews, cross-checked references, verified experience of environments close to yours. No profile is presented to you without our having met and assessed them ourselves.
No profile on paper alone
Every manager is seen in an in-depth interview before entering our talent pool.
Comparable transactions
We verify real experience of contexts close to yours, not the job title.
Cross-checked references
Taken from people who have seen the manager at work.
A live transaction does not suspend its deadlines
Call us. The conversation is enough to assess the situation, and we mobilise an interim General Counsel in under 48 hours.
Ce que les dirigeants nous demandent avant d'appeler
Yes, it is one of the most frequent cases in our assignments. The manager takes over the documentation, the timetable and the relationship with external advisers, then locks down the difficult points of the negotiation. Due diligence, warranties and indemnities, sensitive contracts, an order of priorities is set within the first few days. They hold the dialogue with general management, the board and the external firms at the level expected of a permanent post-holder, and keep the legal team in working order throughout the transaction. For this kind of context, we select profiles whose experience of comparable transactions has been verified during the cross-checked reference calls. Confidentiality frames the whole assignment. Our work touches on non-public transactions, so discretion applies to the manager as much as to the firm, with a scope of information set at the scoping stage.
A senior consultant conducts every evaluation in person, with the support of the team, never on paper. An available lawyer is not an assessed General Counsel, and that distinction weighs heavily when a transaction or a dispute is at stake. Our interim managers therefore go through the same filters as our permanent candidates. In-depth interviews, cross-checked references, verified experience of environments close to yours. No profile is presented to you without our having met and assessed them ourselves. Our founder spent twenty years in the function, as a lawyer, then General Counsel and board secretary of listed groups, and Décideurs has ranked BCP Partners « Incontournable » in the recruitment of legal departments every year since 2011. That double reading, practitioner and recruiter, underpins our judgement on every profile.
The assignment moves across to the search for the permanent post-holder without a break. We frequently run both workstreams in parallel, the manager holding the function while the search advances. The manager in post reveals the real remit of the function, its areas of risk, the profile it genuinely needs. That finding feeds the scoping of the permanent search, and you decide without being driven by urgency. The manager also prepares the ground for their successor. Situation review, risk mapping, target organisation. No data is lost along the way, the same senior consultant follows both strands, with the support of the team. You keep a single thread, from the first call through to the integration of the permanent post-holder, with the same demands of evaluation across both disciplines.
Le besoin devient pérenne ?
La transition prépare le recrutement : le manager tient la fonction pendant que la recherche du titulaire avance. General Counsel recruitment →