Practice Area
Some matters do not require litigation. They require judgment — sustained, senior, and discreet — applied to questions whose answers will shape what happens later. The firm provides outside general counsel and strategic advisory services to businesses, executives, boards, and in-house teams on white collar risk, federal investigations exposure, and complex regulatory matters.
Outside general counsel relationships are not a substitute for transactional, employment, or IP counsel. They are a deliberate layer of senior judgment on the issues that need it most — investigation readiness, regulatory exposure, sensitive personnel matters, board reporting, and crisis response.
Most businesses learn how their incident response works only when something goes wrong. A short readiness engagement — reviewing preservation policies, escalation paths, document retention, internal investigation procedures, and government-contact protocols — closes the gap before it matters.
When a business arrangement, billing practice, or compliance question raises concern, a focused privileged review can quietly answer whether the concern is real, what the exposure looks like, and what (if anything) should be done.
Senior, candid counsel to boards and audit committees on the matters they cannot delegate — executive misconduct allegations, regulatory inquiries, whistleblower reports, and crisis events.
When a matter becomes urgent — federal agents at the door, a press inquiry, a board member learning something they didn’t know — the firm steps in as the calm, senior voice in the room and stays through resolution.
The firm is most useful early. Some signals to call:
Outside counsel work is not delegated. The attorney advising the board is the attorney whose name is on the door — and the same attorney who would handle the matter if it escalated.
Twenty-eight years of federal experience means knowing which risks become investigations, which become declinations, and which become trials. That perspective sharpens every advisory engagement.
Sensitive matters require the firm to behave as though no one will know it was involved. That is the working assumption on every engagement.
Frequently Asked
No. It complements in-house teams and traditional outside counsel by adding focused, senior judgment on federal and regulatory risk — the areas where the gap between ‘routine’ and ‘crisis’ is the narrowest and the most consequential.
Most engagements are project-based or matter-based, with hourly billing. A retainer model is available when a continuing advisory relationship is the right fit. Engagement letters are clear, and the scope is defined up front.
Often, yes. Many engagements come from other outside counsel who want a federal-side strategic partner on a matter their firm is otherwise handling. That relationship is structured to make the existing firm’s work easier, not harder.
Engagements are structured to preserve attorney-client privilege and work-product protection wherever possible. The firm is candid about the limits of those protections in any given matter and structures the work accordingly.
Confidential consultations with Michelle Fernald. Serving Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, El Paso, and federal courts nationally.
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