The honest comparison
Four ways to cover legal at this stage, and each is right for somebody. This page's job is to tell you which one is yours, including when it isn't us.
| Hourly outside counsel | Full-time GC | AI-native legal services | CharterPoint outside GC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Episodic, well-defined questions | Sustained volume, commonly $5M to $10M ARR and up | High-volume routine documents | The two-ish years in between |
| Cost shape | Hourly; unpredictable by design | $330K to $470K fully loaded plus a recruiter fee; fixed | Low; per-document or subscription | Typically $60K to $180K a year; agreed up front |
| Context retained | Rebuilt each matter | Deep, institutional | None; each request starts cold | Held continuously; handed off at the end |
| Coverage & capacity | Whoever on the bench is free | One person in the building; a team as you grow | Always on; no judgment behind it | One named attorney, a deliberately limited client count, and the coverage answer written into the engagement letter |
| Judgment under deal pressure | Yes, at the meter | Yes | No; it flags, it doesn't decide | Yes; that's the whole product |
| Board-ready | As engaged | Yes | No | Yes |
| When it's the better choice | Truly episodic needs | Sustained daily volume; regulated scale | Template-shaped work at volume | Real, weekly legal needs before the seat |
Where the platforms fit
Compliance automation like Vanta, Drata, and Secureframe sits alongside all four columns rather than making a fifth one. Collecting evidence is not the same thing as exercising judgment. Keep the platform, and add counsel at the points where the calls actually get made.
When we're the wrong answer
Pre-revenue with a template-shaped need? Buy templates. In sustained litigation? Hire litigators who do that work all day. Regulated at scale with daily legal volume? Hire the general counsel, and we'll help you do it.
Self-selection
Pick by signals rather than revenue. If legal questions arrive every week, if you keep re-explaining your context to someone new, and if the next twelve months hold a round, an enterprise motion, or an AI feature launch, then you're in the fourth column's territory.
Fifteen minutes. No pitch.
You talk, we diagnose. You leave with the two or three exposures worth addressing first, along with a straight answer on whether you need counsel now, including "not yet."