Scaling faster
How startups are scaling faster with less legal overhead
At some point in a startup’s journey, legal work starts becoming a recurring theme—not just the occasional contract or funding round, but day-to-day needs that touch sales, partnerships, and operations. Things get done, but often not in the most efficient way. There’s no clear owner, and legal tasks get passed around between founders, sales leads, and operations.
Over time, this starts to create friction. Commercial contracts take longer than they should. Teams duplicate work. Questions about what’s been agreed to or what’s missing start to pop up more regularly. And legal becomes something that everyone is involved in, but no one truly owns.
In this article, we break down an emerging model for managing early-stage legal needs: What it looks like, how it works, and why more startups are adopting it.
Key takeaways
Legal work scales quickly. Startups often face growing legal needs, especially around contracts, before a full-time hire makes sense.
Law firms aren’t built for day-to-day support. They’re great for complex matters, but not for fast-moving, operational work.
On-demand legal counsel is a flexible alternative. Part-time, in-house-style legal support gives startups continuity and speed without full-time overhead.
Faster contracts = faster growth. Dedicated legal support helps close deals quicker and removes blockers from the sales cycle.
You build lasting infrastructure. On-demand counsel can help create systems and processes that set the foundation for scaling your legal function.
How the traditional legal support model falls short for startups
Many startups handle the growing need for legal operations ownership by turning to external counsel. Law firms play a critical role here, especially when it comes to complex or high-stakes matters. But in a fast-moving startup environment, the challenge isn’t necessarily legal complexity—it’s legal execution. And that’s where the traditional model can fall short.
External counsel is typically structured to support specific events; financing rounds, IP filings, or regulatory matters. They bring deep subject-matter expertise, but they’re not embedded in your team. They don’t sit alongside sales or proactively build workflows. And their time is scoped carefully, which makes it hard for them to weigh in on the kinds of operational questions that come up every day in a growing business.
That’s not a flaw—it’s a function of how law firms work. But it creates a gap. Startups need legal support that’s closer to the business, more responsive, and tailored to their pace. And when that doesn’t exist, things start to slow down. Sales cycles lengthen. Contract negotiation becomes reactive. And legal work starts to drain time from the people who should be focused on growth.
This is the moment when most companies start considering a full-time hire. But for many, it’s still too early.
Why a full-time legal hire often comes too soon
When you add up the hours, legal might be taking up 5–10% of executive time, enough to be distracting, but not enough to justify a full-time headcount. And hiring in-house counsel is expensive. At this stage, it’s likely one of the most senior and high-cost hires you’ll make.
There’s also the challenge of finding the right person. In markets like Germany, in-house legal for startups is still a relatively new career path. Many talented lawyers come from firm backgrounds, with deep expertise in one field but less exposure to the breadth and speed required in a startup setting. They’re sharp, but they may not have the commercial instincts, product intuition, or experience navigating the realities of an early stage company.
So founders end up stuck between two imperfect options: an external legal partner that’s high-quality but high-level, or a full-time hire that feels too early and hard to source.
A modern framework: On-demand legal support
Startups today are operating in a different legal landscape than they were even five years ago. There’s more complexity earlier on, more pressure to move fast, and more expectation that a company is “buttoned up” from the start, especially when it comes to commercial contracts and external credibility.
That’s why a growing number of companies are turning to what’s now often called on-demand legal counsel: An approach that brings experienced legal professionals into the business on a flexible, part-time basis. Not as external consultants, but as integrated team members who help shape how legal gets done internally.
This isn’t about outsourcing tasks. It’s about embedding legal capability into the business itself—at a level that’s appropriate to the stage you’re in, and scalable as your company grows.
What does on-demand legal counsel look like in practice?
The core benefits of an on-demand legal counsel are continuity and context. Rather than working with external counsel on a case-by-case basis—or waiting until you’ve got the volume to justify a full-time hire—this model puts someone in place who:
Is experienced in your industry and product
Can Understand your sales cycle and negotiation patterns
Sets up and maintains internal legal processes
Works cross-functionally with teams like sales, finance, and operations
Acts proactively to reduce risk and increase speed
In the early stages, most of the workload is commercial in nature: sales contracts, partnership agreements, and procurement. These are business-critical touchpoints, and having someone dedicated, who can support sales, turn contracts faster, and ensure consistency, can have an outsized impact.
And because on-demand counsel is designed to flex with your needs, you’re not locked into the structure or cost of a full-time hire before you’re ready.
Why the on-demand model is gaining traction
There are a few key reasons why the on-demand approach is becoming more widely adopted among early and growth-stage companies:
Speed with structure
Move quickly without sacrificing quality: On-demand counsel can create a legal layer that’s fast, consistent, and closely connected to commercial outcomes, especially in contract-heavy functions.Cost-effective continuity
Rather than paying high hourly rates for ad hoc work, or over-investing in a full-time hire too early, gain a middle path that scales with your legal needs over time.Startup-native expertise
The on-demand counsel aren’t just legally trained_ They’ve worked inside fast-paced, tech-driven businesses before. They bring commercial awareness, product context, and a practical mindset to the work.Stronger internal alignment
An embedded lawyer becomes part of your culture and rhythm. They’re not just “on call”, they’re part of your meetings, your tools, and your growth plans. That alignment helps prevent legal becoming a blocker.Smarter use of external counsel
The on-demand model doesn’t replace law firms. It complements them. With internal processes in place and a clear legal owner on your team, external legal advice can be used more strategically for high-stakes matters, not operational tasks.
How it evolves with your company
Another benefit of the on-demand model is that it’s not static. In the early months, more time may be needed to get systems in place with contract frameworks, negotiation playbooks, approval flows. Over time, as those processes mature, the need for hands-on legal support may taper off, or shift into more specialized areas.
Eventually, most companies do reach the point where a full-time legal hire makes sense. But by then, they’re not starting from zero. The groundwork is laid, the function is running, and the transition can happen with clarity and momentum.
"Using embedded legal support through Paxa, we were able to quickly streamline our commercial contracting processes and significantly reduce sales cycle times. Having a dedicated legal partner available—even part-time—meant faster decisions, fewer delays, and more consistency across the board."
— Maik Taro Wehmeyer, Co-Founder and CEO of Taktile
Where Paxa comes in
At Paxa, our model is built entirely around this embedded approach. Our services are exclusively comprised of experienced legal professionals who’ve scaled tech companies before—people who understand what effective legal operations look like, and how to set them up from day one.
Whether you need support one day a week or a few hours each day, we tailor our involvement to fit your business. The goal is simple: to bring you the legal expertise you need, when you need it, in a way that grows with you.
If you’re spending too much time on legal work, or worried that no one is truly owning it, Paxa can help you fill the gap with experienced, flexible support that fits your stage.
Reach out to learn how Paxa can help you move faster, reduce risk, and build legal infrastructure that scales with your business.