Business
In-house lawyer or outsourced: an honest calculation for business
An in-house lawyer handles some tasks faster, but costs more than it seems when hiring. We look at which tasks they take on first, when it is cheaper to bring in an outside specialist, and what the costs consist of in both cases.
The business is growing, and sooner or later the question arises: hire a lawyer in-house or entrust legal matters to an external specialist. The owner or manager starts calculating: salary, taxes, workplace, equipment. But that is not where the costs end, and some of the work the new employee may not cover at all.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the wrong format slows down deals, hinders debt recovery and costs more than it seems when hiring. In this article we look at which tasks an in-house lawyer takes on first, when outsourcing is cheaper, how to calculate workload, and which hiring mistakes cost the most.
An employee or an outside lawyer: how to choose the right format for business
In Kazakhstan, companies choose between hiring a lawyer in-house and handing tasks to an external specialist. This is not a question of prestige, but of how often legal work arises and how predictable it is. Before opening a vacancy, it is worth sorting your tasks into categories.
An in-house lawyer is an office employee who deals only with the company's matters: contracts, HR, correspondence with state bodies, courts. An outsourced lawyer is an external specialist engaged for a specific task or providing support on a retainer basis. A visiting lawyer is convenient when the flow of work is of the same type and can be planned. Look at the criteria.
- How often legal questions arise: daily or once a month
- Whether a person is needed in the office at all times or remote contact is enough
- Whether there is a regular flow of contracts, HR documents, court cases
- Whether you are prepared to organise a workplace and monitor workload
- How complex the specifics are: whether industry experience is needed
In-house lawyer: which tasks they take on first
An in-house lawyer in a company first of all takes on the routine that would otherwise fall to the manager: reviewing and drafting contracts, pre-action correspondence, HR orders and internal regulations. An in-house lawyer works daily with internal documents, contracts and HR matters. They see what is happening in the company and spot a risk before it becomes a problem: a disputed wording in a contract, a missed licence deadline, a conflict with an employee.
What an in-house lawyer does when external disputes arise: prepares the position and documents for court, represents the company's interests in the courts of Kazakhstan, liaises with a private or state court enforcement officer. If they see that a matter requires narrow specialisation — for example, tax or criminal defence — they prepare the materials and coordinate the work of the relevant specialist. The tasks of an in-house lawyer are broader than they seem: they remove from the business the risk of missing a deadline, signing an unfavourable document or losing evidence.
- Contracts and claims: review, drafting, tracking deadlines.
- HR documents: orders, regulations, internal acts.
- Internal documents: policies, instructions, policies.
- Court disputes: position, evidence, representation.
- Coordination with relevant specialists on narrow issues.
When it is more cost-effective to engage an external lawyer
Outsourcing legal tasks to an external lawyer is more cost-effective when the volume of work is irregular. If in some months a transaction needs to be supported or a contract reviewed, and in others there is nothing, an in-house position sits idle while the salary and taxes on it continue. Outsourcing in such a situation allows specialists of a narrow profile to be engaged for a specific task: today a tax consultant is needed, tomorrow a lawyer for disputes with a contractor.
Another sign is one-off or seasonal tasks: registering changes, handling a specific dispute, preparing documents for an inspection. Keeping a person on staff for such episodes is not rational.
Outsourcing also covers peak loads, when internal resources are insufficient and hiring a second lawyer for a few months makes no sense. When choosing an external provider, their status is checked: under Article 58 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, an advocate or a member of the chamber of legal consultants is entitled to represent a company in court, while an in-house lawyer appears in court as an employee of a legal entity.
When an outsourced lawyer is needed is also indicated by typical signs:
- Tasks are grouped into short periods, with no idle time between them.
- One-off projects: reorganisation, a major contract, a court dispute.
- No need for constant access to routine work and templates.
- Involvement of a narrow specialist in a specific matter.
Comparison: an in-house lawyer and an outsourced lawyer by workload
When comparing an in-house lawyer and an outsourced one, the workload is distributed differently. For an in-house specialist it depends on the volume of document flow and the number of court cases: in a quiet month this means reviewing contracts and advising employees, while during a dispute or an inspection by a state body they switch to preparing procedural documents. At such moments current tasks pile up, and some of them have to be closed with a delay.
The difference shows up on routine tasks. An external specialist takes a specific block — a contract, a claim, a lawsuit — and sees it through to a result, whereas an in-house lawyer handles several areas at once and sets priorities independently. Below is how the workload looks across common tasks.
- Contracts and claims — a constant stream for an in-house lawyer
- Court cases — peak workload requiring concentration
- Employee consultations — daily small-scale work
| Task | In-house lawyer | Outsourced lawyer |
|---|---|---|
| Contract review | In order of the internal queue | Within an agreed timeframe |
| Court dispute | Switches from current tasks | Brought in for a specific case |
| Employee consultations | A constant stream that fragments the day | On an agreed schedule |
| Pre-action claims work | Combines with document flow | Handled as a separate block |
| Peak workloads | Accumulates tasks in the queue | Workload is distributed according to volume |
The workload depends on the volume of document flow and the number of court cases.
In-house or outsourced lawyer: what the costs consist of
The cost of an in-house lawyer consists of several parts. Besides the salary, these are mandatory payroll contributions, an equipped workplace and technical support: a computer, access to legal databases, communications, office supplies. Add to this training, professional development and time spent on administration — holidays, sick leave, downtime.
The cost of an outsourced lawyer is formed differently: payment for an agreed scope of work or hours, engaging specialised experts for a specific task, and no expenses for organising a workplace. The cost of an in-house lawyer is predictable per month, but not flexible: you will have to pay even when there is little work. How much an outsourced lawyer costs depends on the complexity of the tasks and how regularly you seek their services.
- Salary and mandatory payroll contributions
- Workplace, equipment and access to databases
- Training and professional development
- Payment by scope or hours for an external lawyer
| Cost item | In-house lawyer | Outsourcing |
|---|---|---|
| Remuneration | ongoing | on completion of work |
| Taxes and contributions | from the payroll fund | included in the fee |
| Workplace and equipment | at the company's expense | at the contractor's expense |
| Training and access to databases | regularly | as needed |
| Downtime | paid | not paid |
Breakdown of expenses without specific amounts.
What mistakes are made when hiring an in-house lawyer
One of the common mistakes when hiring an in-house lawyer is failing to set out the job function and the list of tasks in the employment contract, even though the job function is a mandatory term of the contract under Article 28 of the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This leads to disputes over the scope of responsibility, when part of the work is left undone. Choosing the wrong lawyer can mean the employee has no experience in your particular industry: for example, they know employment disputes but not supply contracts. Another misstep is hiring one person for everything at once, expecting them to cover taxes, court cases and corporate matters alike.
Business mistakes with a lawyer also happen when cases are handed over for ongoing support. If you do not audit the current contracts and set out priorities, the new employee spends time on secondary matters. It is also risky to leave limitation periods and pre-action claim work unattended. To avoid this, define in advance:
- Which tasks the lawyer handles first and which are dealt with on a residual basis.
- Who is responsible for the result: the lawyer, the manager or the relevant department.
- How often and in what form the lawyer reports on the work done.
- Where the originals of contracts and court documents are kept.
How to determine whether you need an in-house lawyer now
To understand whether you need an in-house lawyer now, assess your own workload against three criteria: how often legal tasks arise, what their volume is, and what share of them is court disputes. If contracts, claims and HR matters come in a steady stream every day, and disputes have become a regular part of the work, a permanent specialist within the company is justified.
When tasks come in waves — once a month or less often — and disputes are isolated, there is no reason to rush into hiring. Before deciding whether to hire a lawyer, look at the nature of the cases.
To assess this, use the criteria for choosing an in-house lawyer:
Check whether anyone inside the company can handle the search for and analysis of legal risks: contract work, claims, HR documents, correspondence with state bodies. If an accountant or the manager covers these tasks on a residual basis and they pile up, it is time to calculate the workload seriously.
Separately, look at how much time goes into monitoring instructions and dealing with the consequences. When legal work takes up more than one day a week, the answer to whether you need an in-house lawyer now is usually obvious. With seasonal spikes, outsourcing covers that volume.
Calculating an in-house lawyer on salary alone is a mistake: part of the costs is invisible, and without a full workload you are paying for idle time. Decide based on the volume of routine work that cannot be postponed and has to be handled continuously.
