ABOUT US

WHO WE ARE

WHO WE ARE

PSG Consult Counsel Ltd

When Investing, Consult Counsel, Your In-House Legal Advantage

PSG Consult Counsel is a boutique legal consultancy, incorporated as a U.K. limited company, is

based in London and founded in 2021. Our marketing name is Consult Counsel.

We are seasoned, specialist, in-house lawyers that exclusively represent investors as their trusted advisors.

As career consultants rather than freelancing interim lawyers, we are available all year-round and can be deployed when investors need us e.g. when they invest, for lifecycle events on investments to restructurings and disputes.

With a network of pre-vetted lawyers as consultants to draw on, we offer investors flexibility for

their in-house legal coverage.

We are not a law firm or a recruitment firm, we are a consultancy.

Whilst our consultants are qualified lawyers, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority ("SRA"), PSG Consult Counsel Ltd itself is not SRA regulated, as reserved legal activities are not carried out.

WHO WE SERVE

INVESTORS

We Provide Specialist In-House Investment Legal Services

Exclusively To Investors, Primarily Family Offices

Types of Investors That Are Our Clients:

Private Client Investors: such as high-net-worth individuals, ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family offices.

Alternative Investors: such as private equity firms and venture capital firms.

Buy-Side Institutional Investors: such as asset-managers, hedge funds, endowment funds, insurance companies, pension funds and sovereign wealth funds.

Corporate Investors: such as small and medium sized enterprises ("SME") and larger corporates.

See Why Us and Our Specialisms.

Investor Client Corner

With globally recognised talent shortages; increasingly complex investments in fast-evolving markets; more direct private market investments; and investment strategies having a greater focus on ESG, sustainability and impact investing, specialist legal representation has become crucial.

These circumstances highlight the limitations of conventional methods for legal coverage, which are as follows:

Permanent in-house lawyer hires:

Talent shortages have led to fierce competition driving salaries higher.
Adding benefits, overheads and administration costs, the actual hiring cost can be on average 2 times and at the top end, 2.5 times the base salary, excluding recruiter fees.
A permanent specialist in-house lawyer may not be fully utilised all the time, as investments are opportunistic and made periodically.
Hiring processes and notice periods mean long lead in times before getting a permanent in-house lawyer aboard.
With investments being periodic, exposure to deal flow is limited, making a permanent hire's specialist knowledge stale.

Freelancing interim lawyers:

Freelancing interim lawyers tend to have portfolio careers and make lifestyle choices such as working for part of the year. This means they may be on an assignment or unavailable when you need interim in-house cover.
Using different freelancing interim lawyers to meet your in-house legal needs, creates a lack of consistency and creates inefficiencies with having to get them up to speed each time a new freelancing interim lawyer is hired.
Freelancing interim lawyers operating solo, lack access to backup resources and are unable to scale.
Recruiter fees or placement fees to law firms that offer consultants from their platforms, add to the hiring costs.
Freelancing interim lawyers often come from private practice and are further removed from the structuring of investments as they see the investments after they have been structured, whilst true in-house lawyers gain insights from having been an integral part of the structuring process.

Law Firms:

Leading law firms that have expertise in investments, tend to represent the banks that sell investments. This leaves investors with law firms that the banks have not hired, as they lack the requisite expertise. Leading law firms may not wish to jeopardise their relationship with the banks and switch sides to represent investors, as investors invest periodically unlike banks that structure and sell investments regularly, giving leading law firms a pipeline of work that investors cannot match.
Investors being represented by law firms that lack the necessary expertise in investments, is further exacerbated where investors solely rely on the law firm to manage their legal risk and have no in-house lawyer with investment expertise to challenge the quality of advice the law firm gives, or to manage legal fees.

Secondees:

Their primary loyalty is to the law firm they work for and have their future career in, not to investor that is a client that they are seconded to. Secondees are, therefore less likely to advocate for more robust advice from the law firm for the benefit of an investor that is a client or to manage legal fees to ensure value for money, unlike an in-house lawyer hired by an investor, whose loyalty lies with the investor and not the law firm.

PSG Consult Counsel Ltd has addressed each of the above limitations and we offer our discerning clients a compelling alternative way to meet their legal coverage needs.

For details on how we have addressed the above limitations see How We Compare and How We are Different.

WHAT WE DO

PSG Consult Counsel Ltd

Protection with a Structured Edge

WE PROVIDE INVESTMENT LEGAL SERVICES

to Investors

We offer seasoned, specialist in-house lawyers that provide the

consistency of a permanent hire, the flexibility and cost-efficiency of an interim hire and valuable insights to investors, as we have worked on both sides of an investment by having worked for investment banks and switching sides to represent investors exclusively and have also worked as an independent board director of vehicles used for investments in the offshore market.

We are available for when you invest, for lifecycle events on investments and if a restructuring or dispute arises.

We understand commercial motivations, having worked for investment banks that structure and sell investments;

we have the gravitas to advise senior stakeholders on legal risk, regulations and provide strategic advice;

we have experience in mitigating legal risk; and have experience in managing your law firm costs without compromising long-standing relationships.

We are skilled at translating legal advice into practical actions; explaining complex legal concepts to non-lawyers;

we are adept at conflict resolution; and with exposure to diverse cultures and languages, we are effective at

navigating cultural nuances.

Confidentiality and discretion are paramount in our dealings as trusted advisors and problem-solvers.

For details, see Our Core Service.

We Are More Than Lawyers, We Are Also Consultants

WE PROVIDE GC CONSULTING SERVICES

to Start-ups, Scale-ups, Fintech and Corporates

Start-ups and scale-ups may not need the overhead cost of hiring a permanent general counsel ("GC") and may use a law firm for its ad hoc legal requirements.

PSG Consult Counsel Ltd offers GC Consulting Services by providing a fractional general counsel ("GC") as a flexible alternative to having the overhead cost of a permanent, sole GC hire. The GC can be called upon when needed to provide a cost-effective way to review and negotiate commercial contracts; manage legal risk; manage legal budgets; ensure regulatory compliance; ensure good governance by drafting and reviewing policies and procedures; and setting-up and/or maintaining relationships with law firms on law firm panels.

As an in-house lawyer, the GC can challenge the law firm's advice and legal costs and ensure value for money by managing legal spend; can save costs by doing work internally; be more readily available than a partner at a law firm; and be there on the journey as the start-up or scale-up grows, as its trusted advisor.

Fintech and other corporates may be backed by Private Equity Firms and may need a GC to grow their in-house legal team, manage legal risk, or guide their c-suite on growth plans or company turnarounds.

PSG Consult Counsel Ltd provides strategic advice for projects, including, but not limited to, new products; setting up new offices in another jurisdiction; building out an in-house legal team including helping in the interview vetting process; navigating market events; corporate restructurings; regulatory implementation; drafting policies and procedures for internal governance; templating documents;

and leveraging our extensive network to introduce parties for structuring and funding solutions.

For details, see GC Consulting Services.

WE PROVIDE ADVISORY CONSULTING SERVICES

to Specialist Law Firms and Advisory Firms

Specialist litigation law firms that represent investors can leverage our specialist product knowledge as well as our network of service providers, such as corporate trust, agency, custodians and fiduciaries, to review transaction documents, track and trace assets to obtain the facts to determine liability and assess the merits of a claim for their litigation strategy.

Specialist financial regulatory law firms can leverage our specialist product knowledge to enhance the offering to their clients when advising on the implementation of regulations. They can also leverage our insights of having worked in investment banks to help them 'jargon bust' and understand internal bank acronyms so that they look well informed when pitching for work from banks.

Advisory firms that provide valuations, expert witnesses, advice for claims trading on distressed assets, advice on litigation funding claims and general governance advice, can offer a better outcome for their clients, by leveraging our specialist product knowledge and our network of service providers to identify the facts in default scenarios or litigation matters, to enable them to better assess the merits of claims and to ensure appropriate governance for their clients.

For details, see Advisory Consulting Services.