Tinatin Gugunava
Corporate law · Civil law
For business
Legal services for companies in Georgia - building a legal function without a full-time lawyer, or alongside one
Most small and mid-sized companies in Georgia have no in-house lawyer, yet legal questions land on their desk every week: a supplier's draft contract, an employee who has to be let go, an invoice ninety days overdue, a letter from the Revenue Service. Usually the director or the accountant absorbs all of this, and an advocate gets a call only once a claim has already been filed. That is the most expensive way to handle legal risk, both in money and in management time.
Outsourcing the legal function is the alternative: the company hands part or all of its legal workload to an advocate or a small team, with an agreed scope and agreed response times. This page looks at when that model beats hiring in-house, which tasks fit it, how the engagement is set up and how to pick advocates by area of law. It pays particular attention to foreign-owned businesses, where language and head-office reporting add a layer of their own. Questions of company law as such - charters, shareholder agreements, director liability - are covered on the corporate law page.
Published
The concept
An outside corporate lawyer - what legal outsourcing means
The idea is straightforward. The legal work a company generates on a regular basis is channelled to one responsible advocate who knows the business and does not start from scratch every time. They know which contracts you sign, who your key counterparties are, how employment is organised and which disputes you have had. That accumulated knowledge is what separates a retained advocate from a lawyer you call once.
Business legal support is not just about going to court. Most of the work is preventive: checking a contract before signature, putting internal documents in order, giving line managers short instructions, keeping track of deadlines. Litigation often arises precisely because nobody owned that routine layer.
In practice an outsourced advocate may be part of a law office or a small firm, or practise independently and bring in colleagues from neighbouring fields when needed. What matters to the company is having one point of contact and knowing who is accountable for the result, however many people end up working on its matters.
Models
Four models: ad hoc, monthly retainer, in-house and hybrid
The right model depends less on headcount than on how regular and how specialised your legal questions are.
ModelWhen it fits and what to watch
Ad hoc engagementsLegal matters come up a few times a year: one major contract, one dispute, one licence. The fee is agreed per task. The drawback is that the advocate re-learns your business each time, and nobody does the preventive work.
Monthly retainerQuestions arise every week or several times a month. A fixed monthly fee covers an agreed scope, often with an hours cap; work above the cap or outside the scope is billed separately. The main risk is a vague scope that leaves each side expecting something different.
In-house lawyerLegal work fills a full-time role and needs daily presence inside the business. The cost includes salary, taxes, leave and cover. An in-house generalist will still need outside counsel for narrow matters such as a tax dispute or a court case.
HybridAn in-house lawyer or office manager handles routine matters, while an outside advocate takes litigation, tax issues and difficult negotiations. For growing companies this is often the most flexible set-up, provided the roles are split in writing.
Typical work
What a monthly legal retainer usually covers
These are the recurring tasks companies most often outsource. Not every business needs all of them - defining the scope starts with picking the relevant ones from this list.
Contract flow
Reviewing counterparty drafts and returning comments, preparing and updating your own templates, a final check before signing. Under a retainer the key figure is the agreed turnaround: how many working days until a reviewed contract comes back.
Employment paperwork
Employment contracts, internal labour regulations, job descriptions, confidentiality and non-compete terms, disciplinary procedure and termination documents. Many labour disputes start from a gap in the paperwork rather than from the decision to dismiss itself.
Debt collection
Reminder and demand letters, negotiating a payment schedule, a payment order or a claim, then enforcement. A fixed escalation path - which step happens on which day overdue - improves recovery and spares your managers awkward phone calls.
Tax audit support
Answering Revenue Service requests, submitting documents, contesting an audit report and appealing within the statutory time limits. Here the advocate works hand in hand with your accountant: the figures belong to the accountant, the legal argument and the procedure to the advocate.
Licences and permits
Obtaining the licences and permits your activity requires, monitoring compliance with their conditions, renewal dates and dealings with the supervising authority. In regulated sectors a single missed deadline can mean a suspended business.
Disputes and claims
Assessing a claim from a customer, supplier or former employee, drafting the response, negotiating a settlement and, where needed, representing the company in court. Retainers often treat court proceedings as a separately priced item, and that should be agreed up front.
Personal data and internal policies
Rules for processing employee and customer data, CCTV, consent forms, the privacy policy on your website. Georgian data protection requirements have tightened in recent years, and many companies' documents have not caught up yet.
Registry changes and corporate housekeeping
Preparing shareholder resolutions, registering a new director or address, powers of attorney, a calendar of annual obligations. Small but regular tasks, and skipping them tends to hold up a contract or a bank process at the worst moment.
Advocates for company legal work
The catalogue lists 4 746 advocates whose civil or general licence covers company matters; those who name corporate law as a field come first. Each card shows the certificate number and languages, and the city where the advocate has published it.
Ani Bukia
Corporate law · Criminal defence
Nino Samkharauli
Corporate law · Civil law
Mariam Saganelidze
Corporate law · Civil law
Shota Tutberidze
Corporate law · Criminal defence
Levani Makhatadze
Corporate law · Criminal defence
Setting it up
How a retainer engagement is set up - seven stages
In a well-run engagement the first month is the busiest: the advocate learns the business and uncovers gaps that have piled up over the years.
Initial review
The advocate goes through the main contracts, employment documents, pending disputes and the registry extract. The output is a short map: what is risky, what is urgent and what can be fixed gradually.
Defining the scope
A written list of what the monthly service includes and what it does not. The usual grey zones are court representation, matters in a new field of law and work outside office hours.
Response times (SLA)
How quickly an ordinary question gets answered, how many days a contract review takes, how emergencies are handled - a tax inspector at the door or a court summons, for example. Keep the targets realistic, or they will be breached in the first month.
Communication rules
Who asks questions on the company side, through which channel and in what form. When ten employees message the advocate on five different apps, information gets lost and billable hours pile up. One or two named contacts fix this.
Confidentiality and conflicts
An advocate is bound by professional secrecy under the law and the Bar's ethics code, but many companies also ask for a separate NDA. Before starting, the advocate checks they are not acting for a competitor or counterparty in a matter where your interests collide.
Reporting
A short monthly report: matters handled, time spent, open items and risks spotted. It shows management what the money is buying and becomes the basis for adjusting the scope.
Review after three months
Actual workload in the first months often differs from what anyone expected. At the review the parties adjust the scope, the hours cap or the model itself - or conclude that ad hoc work suits the company better.
The contract
What your legal services agreement should spell out
- Scope: a list of what is included and a separate list of what is done only under an additional agreement.
- Fee model: the fixed monthly amount, any hours cap, how overruns are billed, and out-of-pocket costs such as state fees, translation or notary charges.
- Response times for routine and urgent matters, and who stands in for the lead advocate during holidays or illness.
- Confidentiality terms, how documents are stored and how company materials are returned when the engagement ends.
- The format and frequency of reporting, including time records if the fee depends on hours.
- Term, notice period and a handover procedure for open matters, so that a dispute is never left unattended mid-way.
- The scope of the power of attorney: before which bodies and for which actions the advocate may represent the company without further approval.
Choosing counsel
Choosing advocates by area of law
Most company matters fall under civil and administrative law, so the lead advocate should hold a civil or general licence. If the business carries criminal exposure - the possibility of tax or economic crime allegations, for instance - you will also want an advocate with a criminal or general licence. The licence type and certificate number appear on every profile in our catalogue.
Few advocates are equally strong in every field. A common structure is a lead advocate covering corporate and contract matters who knows the business well, plus two or three specialists called in as needed: tax law for audits and structuring, employment law for disputes and dismissals, intellectual property for brands and software.
At the first meeting ask not only about experience but about day-to-day working habits: who answers when they are in court, how time is recorded, whether they already serve clients of a similar size and sector. A good sign is an advocate who talks about your specific risks from the outset rather than in general terms.
Foreign-owned companies
Foreign-owned companies and the language question
For a company with foreign shareholders or management, legal work lives in two languages. Dealings with state bodies, the public registry and the courts are conducted in Georgian, and foreign-language documents are filed with a translation. Management and head office, meanwhile, expect advice and reports in English or Russian. An advocate who is fluent on both sides removes the interpreter layer and with it a whole category of mistakes.
Bilingual contracts need a clause stating which version prevails if the texts diverge. For documents submitted to a Georgian authority the Georgian text is what will be read in practice, so translation quality deserves the same attention as the commercial terms.
Group requirements are a separate topic: global policies, compliance procedures, reporting templates. Part of an outsourced advocate's job is to reconcile them with Georgian law - where a group standard can be applied as it is and where it needs local adaptation, typically in employment relations or data processing. Time zones matter too, so agree in advance when head office can expect answers. In our catalogue you can filter advocates by language.
Questions about legal services for companies
How small can a company be for a retainer to make sense?
Frequency matters more than size. If legal questions come up several times a month - contracts, staff, overdue customers - a retainer is usually more predictable than a string of one-off engagements. If you have two or three matters a year, ad hoc work is the better fit.
Does the monthly fee cover litigation?
That depends entirely on the agreement. Retainers commonly include responding to claims and negotiating, while court proceedings are priced separately because their scope cannot be predicted. What matters is that this is written down rather than assumed.
We have an accountant. Do we still need an advocate for a tax audit?
For a routine audit an accountant is often enough. Once you are contesting an assessment, appealing, or arguing about the legal characterisation of a transaction, you need an advocate managing the procedure and the deadlines. The two working together, each owning their part, usually gives the strongest position.
Our director does not speak Georgian. Can the whole service run in English?
Yes - communication, reports and advice can be in English or Russian. Dealings with Georgian authorities and courts happen in Georgian, and the advocate handles that side. Use the language filter in the catalogue or ask the coordinator to shortlist suitable advocates.
Can we give the advocate access to our internal systems?
You can, and it often speeds things up. Put the scope of access and the rules for storing and returning documents in the contract. The advocate is bound by professional secrecy, but from a data protection perspective the company still decides which information it shares.
A solo advocate or a law firm?
A solo advocate offers personal involvement and often more flexibility; a firm offers holiday cover and specialists from different fields under one roof. What really counts is who your actual contact will be and how quickly the right specialist can be brought in, not the form of the practice.
How do we switch advocates without harming ongoing matters?
Sign with the new advocate first, then notify the previous one in writing and ask for a list of open matters, deadlines and documents. In court cases a new power of attorney has to be filed. During the handover both advocates should agree on the nearest deadlines so that none is missed.
A legal function for your company - start with one free call
During working hours a coordinator gets back to you within 15 minutes, asks which legal questions come up regularly and suggests advocates by field and language, English and Russian included. The first consultation is free.