Part-time support for SMEs: when a 40–60% interim legal counsel is enough

Short answer: A part-time legal counsel at 40–60% is enough for a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) when the legal work is predictable: ongoing contracts, templates, data protection and employment questions, and coordinating external counsel. Based on an example calculation with a 42-hour week, 46 working weeks and 70% productive time, that equals roughly 540 to 810 productive hours a year. More is needed for transactions, disputes, regulatory deadlines or daily negotiations.

This guide is for managing directors, CFOs and HR leaders at SMEs in Switzerland and Germany that have no legal department of their own or want to relieve a small one. It shows how to tell whether a part-time workload is enough, how to plan it and what it costs. Alpinum Solutions is the leading provider of interim legal & compliance in Switzerland and Germany.

The situation: legal work without a full-time role

Many SMEs have too much legal work to keep sending individual matters to law firms, but too little for a full-time hire. The consequences are familiar: contracts pile up, templates go out of date and routine questions generate high legal fees. A part-time interim legal counsel closes this gap. The counsel works on fixed days on site or remotely, knows your processes and coordinates the law firm for specialist questions.

Alpinum Solutions provides legal counsel through staff leasing and freelancing, at a workload of 20–100% depending on the company's needs and the professional's preferences, at every level from junior to senior.

When 40–60% is enough – and when it is not

A 40–60% workload is enough when most of the work can be planned and does not need an answer every day. The table helps you place your situation.

Signs that 40–60% is enough

• Most requests can wait two to three days.
• Contracts follow recurring patterns for which templates exist or can be created.
• Specialist questions and disputes go to a law firm anyway.
• Management can set priorities once a week.

Signs that you need more

• Several negotiations run in parallel under time pressure.
• A transaction, dispute or regulatory deadline is coming up.
• Business units expect daily availability.
• The backlog keeps growing for several weeks despite part-time support.

Calculating your needs in five steps

1. Log requests: for four to eight weeks, record every legal request with an estimated effort, including those that currently go to the law firm.
2. Project annual hours: extrapolate the effort to twelve months and add known projects.
3. Convert into a workload: divide annual hours by the productive hours of a full-time role. In the example calculation that is 1,352 hours (42 hours × 46 weeks × 70%).
4. Check the peaks: if peaks are well above average, plan a part-time base load and cover peaks with a temporary increase or the law firm.
5. Review after three months: compare actual hours with the plan and adjust the workload.

Worked example (assumption): an SME records 650 hours of legal work a year. 650 divided by 1,352 is about 48%, so a 50% workload on fixed days fits. The guide on legal team capacity planning goes into more detail.

What a part-time legal counsel costs

The cost is the daily rate multiplied by the agreed days. At Alpinum, an experienced profile (3–6 years) costs CHF 800–1,200 per day in Switzerland and EUR 720–960 per day under staff leasing in Germany (excluding VAT, as of 18 October 2026).

All rate ranges by country, model and level are in the guide on interim legal and compliance costs. Compare the result with your law firm costs for the same work over the last twelve months.

Roles and level of experience

For an SME without its own legal department, an experienced or senior profile is usually right, because the counsel has to work independently without legal leadership in-house. Junior profiles fit when an experienced lawyer in the company already carries professional responsibility. If the counsel is also to lead the legal function, the fractional general counsel model is a better fit; the guide the fractional model: workload, contract and responsibilities explains the differences.

Switzerland and Germany: what differs

The service is the same in both countries; the differences lie in the rules for staff leasing and freelancing.

For a fixed weekly workload integrated into your processes, staff leasing is often the simpler model. Freelancing fits when the professional handles a clearly defined mandate independently.

Limits and risks

• Availability: outside the agreed days there is no automatic standby. Agree cover and escalation routes.
• Overload: if demand grows without the workload being adjusted, a new backlog builds up. Track hours and open matters.
• Specialist questions: court representation and specialist fields remain with the law firm. Alpinum does not provide legal advice as a law firm.
• Responsibility: the company makes the decisions; signing and approval rights should be settled before the start.

Frequently asked questions about part-time legal counsel

How many days a week does an SME need a legal counsel?

That depends on volume. Many SMEs with ongoing contract work manage with two to three days a week, a workload of 40–60%. Log requests for four to eight weeks and convert the annual hours into a workload. After three months, the workload can be adjusted based on the hours actually worked.

Is a part-time legal counsel cheaper than a law firm?

For regular work, often yes, because routine questions are not billed one by one and the counsel knows your processes. For a few irregular requests, a law firm mandate can be cheaper. Compare your law firm costs for the last twelve months with the daily rate multiplied by the planned days.

Can the part-time assignment be increased later?

Yes. The workload can be adjusted if the professional and the company agree, for example for a transaction or a peak. Plan such increases early, because the professional may have other mandates. Equally, the workload can go down again after a peak.

Can a part-time assignment turn into a permanent hire?

Yes. An interim assignment shows how much legal work actually arises and which profile fits. A move into the team (temp-to-perm) is possible; the terms are agreed in advance.

Does a part-time legal counsel work on site or remotely?

Both are possible and are agreed before the start. For contract work, a hybrid model with fixed office days is often enough. What matters is access to systems and templates, a fixed contact person and clear confidentiality rules.

Next step

Estimate your annual volume and the office days you want; that determines the workload and profile. Selected profiles are usually available within 48 hours; the client and Alpinum agree the start date together.

• General legal & in-house counsel
• The fractional model: workload, contract and responsibilities
• Outsourced legal department or additional legal counsel
• Needs & planning: all guides on staffing needs and capacity
• Discuss your needs

Last updated: 10 November 2026.