Mandate Types

Goodlawyer supports a range of mandate types so you can design your workload around what matters most to you, whether that’s flexibility, stability, variety, growth, or lifestyle. Rather than forcing everyone into one rigid model of practice, most of our work falls into four categories. The first three are contract-based (you practise through your own firm and we route mandates to you) while the fourth is traditional employment. Understanding the differences up front helps you tell us what you actually want, and helps us match you well (even if what you want evolves over time).

Executive legal support for mid-sized businesses that need legal leadership and day-to-day work without hiring a full-time GC.

What it's actually like: You're the senior legal voice — often the only lawyer in the room. You get a handle on what the business has been worrying about, then build out the processes, contracts, and programs they need to scale. High responsibility, high variety, and the hours can be less predictable, with rarely a fixed end date.

This one's for you if you want executive-level ownership, enjoy building a legal function from the ground up, and run an organized, efficient practice.

Typical engagement: 1–3 days/week → See [Compensation] for rates.

Embedded within a company's existing legal team, owning day-to-day legal work and execution.

What it's actually like: There's already an in-house team, sometimes one other lawyer, sometimes hundreds. Fractional in-house work takes two main shapes: embedded day-to-day legal work taking on overflow, or specialist counsel brought in for deep expertise in a specific area. These mandates usually don't come with a set end date; they tend to run as long as the need does.

This one's for you if you want hands-on work embedded in a team — whether that's owning the day-to-day, standing up something new, or bringing deep expertise in a specific area.

Typical engagement: 2–3 days/week. → See [Compensation] for rates.

Full-time or near-full-time roles (4–5 days/week) covering parental leaves, sabbaticals, or periods of growth — typically 3–18 months.

What it's actually like: A single, near-full-time role for a set period. It's the fastest path to replacing a full-time salary, and these often have long tails — many lawyers are asked to stay on part-time once the leave, project, or period of growth ends, creating a stable anchor client to build around.

This one's for you if you want stability and income parity with a traditional in-house salary, sooner rather than later.

Typical engagement: 4–5 days/week. → See [Compensation] for rates.

While our core focus is flexible, contract-based legal support, we also place lawyers into select permanent in-house roles. This is the one type that isn't contracting — instead of practising through your own firm and contracting with the client, you become a full-time employee of the company.

This one's for you if you want traditional, permanent in-house employment.

A fractional practice rarely means a handful of one-day-a-week mandates. In practice, most Goodlawyers build around one or two anchor mandates — for example, a two-day FGC alongside a two-day FIH — rather than juggling many small ones.

A common shape:

In 2025, our top fractional earners averaged over $300,000 in take-home while working an average of 36 hours per week — comparable to many senior in-house roles, but with substantially fewer hours and far more control over how your practice is structured.

[→ Full rate ranges and worked examples live on the Compensation page.]

(But you never do work you are not paid for!)

Every mandate is a fixed-fee arrangement predicated on reserved availability rather than for units of time or specific deliverables — you're compensated for the capacity you commit, whether or not the client uses every hour in a given month.

That said, the shape of a mandate is influenced by what the client needs. They may need you on particular days, some time on-site, or a specific working pattern — we figure this out on a per mandate basis. You're there to be a proactive, trusted advisor and to treat the client as a genuine priority, not to wait to be handed tasks. The fixed fee buys them real access to you; your job is to make that access valuable.

You don't have to leave your current role to join the network — but be realistic about the ramp (and check the terms of your current employment agreement). Going fractional doesn't replace your income overnight. It usually starts with a single part-time anchor mandate, and we build your book up from there over time. If replacing your full salary right away is what you need, fractional is the hard path — a secondment or full-time role is what you’re after.

We're also upfront about this: fractional work usually can't be done exclusively on evenings and weekends around a demanding full-time job. A client is paying to be your top priority, not your last — offering to work weekends is not typically a viable way into a fractional practice. If you have lots of flexibility and are well under capacity in your day job, plus can offer a fractional client some office hours during daytime core business hours, then moonlighting could work for you.

Some lawyers prefer the focus of one full-time mandate. Others stack a couple of fractional roles for variety or income. What's right depends on what you're optimizing for at this stage of your life and career.

When you set your Work Preferences, you'll choose between fractional, secondment, and full-time. "Fractional" covers both FGC and FIH — so if either appeals, switch fractional on and tell us the size of mandate you're after (you can change your preferences any time).