In-house lawyer in Almaty — a staff lawyer for your company without a place in the staffing table

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A dedicated specialist who handles your company on an ongoing basis
Knows your contracts, counterparties and dispute history, rather than starting from scratch every time
Works at your pace: chats, planning meetings, urgent matters during the day
Backed by the whole practice — tax, courts, HR, corporate law

In-house lawyer

We cover the in-house lawyer function for companies that cannot afford a single specialist on staff

A specific person is assigned to you, not a general queue of requests

They immerse themselves in the business: product, counterparties, standard transactions, problem areas

Complex matters go to specialist colleagues, but you have a single point of contact

We join your work chats and planning meetings, not just your email

We can strengthen an existing legal department rather than replace it

Tell us what tasks the company currently handles in-house and what keeps getting postponed — we will assess the workload and suggest a format. The first meeting and review of current documents are free of charge.

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13^years

of corporate practice

Transactions, shares, contracts, corporate disputes
1

dedicated lawyer

A specific person is assigned to the company, not a department
4^hours

response time

For routine questions during working hours, urgent ones — faster
26

companies under ongoing support

From trade and services to manufacturing and construction

Contract work

Reviewing incoming contracts, developing your own templates, protocols of disagreements, agreeing amendments with counterparties. The main volume of work in any company.

HR documents

Employment contracts, orders, job descriptions, dismissals and disciplinary sanctions. This is where inspections and disputes most often arise.

Corporate matters

Participants' resolutions, amendments to the charter, shares, change of director, reorganisation. We keep the document flow in order so it does not have to be redone later.

Claims and negotiations

We respond to counterparties, prepare demands, take part in negotiations. Some conflicts are resolved at this stage and never reach court.

Receivables management

We monitor overdue payments, record the debt in time, send demands. A debt passed to a lawyer in the third month is recovered more often than in the fifteenth.

Counterparty checks

A short pre-deal check: court cases, enforcement proceedings, length of existence, changes of director, signs of problems.

Representation in disputes

If a case goes to court, your lawyer handles it personally or together with a colleague specialising in the area. There is no need to brief someone from scratch.

Policies and training

We write clear rules for sales and procurement departments and train staff on them. It is cheaper to explain once than to deal with the same mistakes for years.

Tell us about your tasks — the in-house lawyer will assess the workload and suggest a format

The first meeting and review of current documents are free. If the volume of work is small and you do not need ongoing support, we will honestly suggest one-off services.

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No in-house lawyer
The lawyer has left
One lawyer cannot cope
Contracts are signed without review
HR is handled by the accountant
Receivables are piling up
Preparing for an inspection
Growing and need order

Cost

How much does it cost in-house lawyer

The format is tailored to the actual workload: from a few documents a month to a full replacement of a staff specialist. We calculate after reviewing the current volume of work.

Service	What is included	Cost
Meeting and review of documents	Assessment of current workload and risks	free of charge
Basic format	Up to 10 documents and consultations per month	from 150,000 ₸/month
Standard format	Up to 25 documents, participation in negotiations	from 280,000 ₸/month
Extended format	Unlimited documents, planning meetings, HR matters	from 450,000 ₸/month
Full replacement of an in-house lawyer	The entire function, including court cases	from 700,000 ₸/month
Support for your own legal department	Assistance with complex areas	from 200,000 ₸/month
One-off contract review	Opinion with a list of amendments	from 35,000 ₸
Drafting a contract template	Tailored to the company's specific types of transactions	from 90,000 ₸
Audit of the company's documents	Contracts, HR, corporate decisions	from 250,000 ₸
Bringing HR records into order	A set of documents and bringing them into compliance	from 300,000 ₸
Conducting a court case	Above the subscription volume	from 180,000 ₸
Department training	Regulations and session for employees	from 120,000 ₸

The ranges are indicative and do not constitute a public offer. State duty, notarial acts, registration fees and translations are paid separately.

Find out the cost for my case

How it works in-house lawyer: from the first meeting to ongoing work

We look at what you have

We review current contracts, HR documents and corporate decisions. Usually at this stage we find two or three issues worth closing straight away.

We assess the workload

How many documents come through per month, how many conflicts, whether there are court cases. The format depends on this, not on the size of the company or its turnover.

We assign a lawyer

A specific person is assigned to the company. They get to know the business: the product, counterparties, typical transactions, history of disputes.

We embed ourselves in the work

We join work chats and take part in planning meetings if needed. A lawyer you have to reach by email and three approvals does not work.

We close urgent matters

First of all we deal with what is on fire: unfinished transactions, overdue debts, HR documents that do not exist.

We put things in order

We develop templates for your typical transactions and bring document flow into a working state. After that, every new transaction goes faster.

We work at the company's pace

We answer questions within the working day, urgent ones faster. Once a month we send a summary: what has been done, what is next, where the risks are.

We bring in specialists

Tax, courts, migration, intellectual property — complex matters go to colleagues who specialise in them. For you, there is still a single point of contact.

Not sure whether you need a permanent lawyer?

Message us on WhatsApp about the tasks that are piling up right now — we will assess the workload and tell you honestly whether one-off services are enough.

Describe your situation

Team

Team of lawyers in Almaty

We handle a case from start to finish with the same team: you always know who is dealing with your matter and who to contact.

Asel Kurmanova

Lawyer for civil cases

Handles disputes over real estate, inheritance, contracts and transactions. Supports transactions from document review through to registration of title.

14 years of practice
Civil and housing disputes
Kazakh and Russian languages

Dmitry Kim

Lawyer for financial and motor vehicle disputes

Works with banks, insurers and debt collectors, handles recovery and bankruptcy cases, and defends drivers in administrative matters.

11 years of practice
Banks, insurers, motor vehicle disputes
Pre-trial settlement

Gulnara Abisheva

Lawyer for family and social matters

Handles divorces, division of property, alimony and disputes over children, as well as employment, pension and social issues.

9 years of practice
Family and employment disputes
Work with guardianship authorities

Yerlan Sagintayev

Lawyer for corporate law

Supports company transactions, arranges shares and corporate agreements, handles disputes between participants and reorganisation.

13 years of practice
Transactions, shares, corporate disputes
Support for investment rounds

Aigerim Nurlanova

Tax lawyer

Challenges notifications and inspection reports, handles tax disputes in court, supports inspections and recovers overpayments.

10 years of practice
Inspections and tax disputes
Working with the client's accounting records

Viktor Li

Construction and contract lawyer

Reviews contract agreements, estimates and acts, handles disputes over quality and scope of works, supports acceptance of facilities.

12 years of practice
Contracting, shared participation, acceptance
Working with construction expertise

Madina Ospanova

Intellectual property and IT lawyer

Protects copyright and trademarks, drafts contracts for IT teams and handles rights to products and code.

8 years of practice
Copyright, trademarks
Contracts for IT and studios

Sanzhar Ibraev

Bankruptcy and debt recovery lawyer

Handles bankruptcy and rehabilitation procedures, recovers receivables, defends directors against subsidiary liability.

15 years of practice
Bankruptcy, rehabilitation, debt recovery
S

Practice

Recent case stories from our lawyers in Almaty

Details have been changed and anonymised: the content of the case is protected by professional privilege.

Replacing a staff lawyer

The lawyer resigned and the company worked for a month without legal support

Situation: A trading company with a turnover of about 900 million tenge a year lost its only lawyer. Within a month, 34 unchecked contracts, two unanswered pre-trial claims and an employment dispute with a former employee had piled up. The search for a replacement on staff had been going on for three months without result.
What we did: A corporate practice lawyer was assigned to the company, and for the first week we dealt only with urgent matters: we responded to claims within the deadlines, reviewed contracts by priority of amounts, and prepared documents for a labour dispute. Then we developed supply and service templates for their typical transactions.
Outcome: Within two months, the contract approval time was cut from two weeks to two days. The company abandoned the search for an in-house lawyer: costs turned out to be 40% lower, while the volume of tasks covered was broader.

HR documents were handled by the accounting department — an inspection would have found violations

Situation: A manufacturing company with 60 employees had no HR specialist: documents were prepared by an accountant using templates from the internet. Employment contracts did not match the actual terms, job descriptions were absent, and holiday orders were drawn up retroactively. Management learned of the risks by chance.
What we did: We carried out an audit of the HR documents and compiled a list of discrepancies with priorities. We re-executed the employment contracts with the employees' consent, developed job descriptions, restored the registers and local acts, and trained the accounting department on the procedure for preparing documents.
Outcome: The set was brought into compliance within seven weeks. At an inspection six months later, there were no comments on the HR documents. Two dismissals during that period passed without disputes.

Contract work

The company was signing counterparties' contracts without a single amendment

Situation: A service company worked under contracts sent by its clients. The terms were one-sided: acceptance without a deadline, penalties only for the contractor, payment after signing the act with no obligation to sign it. Receivables were growing, but no one drew a connection to the text of the contracts.
What we did: We reviewed the existing contracts and showed which terms made recovery difficult. We developed a protocol of disagreements with priorities: what must be demanded and what could be conceded. We trained the managers to use it in negotiations.
Outcome: Within six months, 19 of 24 new contracts were signed with amendments on key clauses. The average payment period fell from 74 to 41 days, and overdue receivables dropped by a third.

Strengthening the department

The in-house lawyer stayed, but stopped drowning in day-to-day work

Situation: A construction company had one in-house lawyer who simply could not keep up: construction contracts, HR, claims, two court cases at the same time. Quality was falling, deadlines were being missed; he did not want to leave, but he was burning out. Management considered hiring a second one premature.
What we did: We divided the areas of responsibility: the in-house lawyer stayed on operational matters and communication within the company, while we took on the court cases, construction contracts and corporate matters. We set up a common procedure for handing over tasks so that context would not be lost.
Outcome: Both court cases were won, and delays in contract work stopped. The in-house lawyer stayed with the company and a year later headed the newly created legal department of three people.

Counterparty checks

A short checklist stopped a deal with a company on the brink of bankruptcy

Situation: The company was preparing for a supply of 64 million tenge with deferred payment. The counterparty was new but made a good impression: an office, a presentation, references to major clients. No one was going to check it — both sides were rushing the deal.
What we did: We carried out a standard pre-signing check: court cases, enforcement proceedings, length of existence, change of director. We found 11 claims against the counterparty over the past year and two unfinished proceedings for large amounts.
Outcome: The deal was carried out on prepayment instead of deferred payment. Five months later, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against the counterparty. The company did not lose a single tenge, although it had initially considered the check a formality.

Corporate matters

The charter did not allow what the owners considered settled

Situation: Two participants of the company agreed on the entry of a third with a share and on a special procedure for adopting decisions. During the paperwork, it turned out that the current charter was drafted from a standard template ten years old and did not permit the agreed terms, while some decisions required unanimity that would not be there.
What we did: We reviewed the charter and showed the discrepancies between what had been agreed and what the document actually said. We prepared a new version with a decision-making mechanism, pre-emptive rights, a procedure for exit and valuation of a share, and a corporate agreement between the participants.
Outcome: The changes were registered, and the entry of a new participant was formalised on the agreed terms. A year and a half later, when one of the participants exited, the procedure followed the written terms without a dispute.

Receivables

Debts were passed to lawyers in month fifteen — we moved that line to month three

Situation: The company had overdue receivables of 210 million tenge. They started dealing with the debt when relations with the counterparty had finally soured — on average after more than a year. By that point some of the debtors no longer had any assets.
What we did: Using their own statistics, we worked out at which month of delay a debt stops being recovered on its own — it came out at around three. At that line we built a procedure: an automatic reminder, a block on shipments, a written demand with a calculation, and handover to a lawyer. It was rolled out in the sales department's day-to-day work.
Outcome: Over the year, 96 million tenge was recovered from the old portfolio, and new overdue receivables fell by half. The share of debts closed without court grew noticeably — disputes started earlier and with solvent debtors.

Company growth

The company grew threefold, but the documents stayed at startup level

Situation: An IT company grew from 8 to 40 people in two years. Contracts with clients were still two pages long, rights to the code being developed were not secured anywhere, and some employees worked on verbal arrangements. During negotiations with a major client, the client's lawyers pointed this out, and the deal stalled.
What we did: We put together what was missing, in order of priority: contracts with developers securing rights to the result, confidentiality agreements, a reworked contract with clients, and a procedure for acceptance and ownership of the code. We worked in parallel with the ongoing negotiations, not after them.
Outcome: The deal with the major client closed six weeks later. The company then passed an investor's due diligence with no comments on the legal side.

Useful information

An in-house lawyer for a company in Almaty: employed or dedicated

Yerlan Sagintayev Corporate lawyer

Published: 14 September 2026 Updated: 16 September 2026

The company is growing, there are more and more contracts, counterparties are late with payment, and HR documents are piling up in the accountant's folder. The director starts looking for a lawyer — and the first thing he thinks of is someone on staff. But not everyone needs an employed specialist: sometimes the work is covered by a dedicated in-house lawyer, who works as an internal one, just without a desk in the office.

The mistake doesn't show up straight away. While the flow of deals is small, it seems an accountant with a contract template is enough. Then a claim arrives from a counterparty, the labour inspectorate asks for HR documents, and a major client wants an amendment to the contract by morning. That's when it turns out a lawyer is needed not 'sometime', but with a clear set of tasks and an entry point.

In-house lawyer: who this is and why a company in Almaty needs one

An in-house lawyer is a lawyer who works inside the company and knows its business processes: how sales, logistics and HR are structured, who makes decisions and what risks have already come up. He doesn't just answer requests — he is part of day-to-day operations: he sees a contract before it is signed, hears negotiations with a counterparty, and understands where management is ready to compromise and where it isn't. Tasks are handled in dialogue with the director or the owner, so the answers take into account not only the law but also the commercial sense of the deal.

This format is especially useful when there are many legal issues and they come up every day: a supplier has sent a protocol of disagreements, an employee is asking for documents, a buyer is late with payment. If the in-house lawyer is in constant contact, small issues don't turn into expensive disputes. Understanding internal processes reduces the risk of formal mistakes: for example, when a department signs an act without the necessary annexes or changes the terms of a contract in correspondence.

knows who is responsible for what in the company and how deals are handled;
joins negotiations and correspondence with counterparties;
sees documents before signing, not after a problem;
responds in dialogue with management, without unnecessary correspondence.

What an in-house lawyer handles every day

The director spends time on legal routine, even if they don't consider it legal. Contracts with suppliers and contractors, HR orders and employment contracts, responses to claims, control of receivables — all of this needs to be dealt with daily. An in-house lawyer takes these tasks on: reviews draft contracts, prepares HR documents, responds to claims, handles pre-trial work on debts and checks counterparties before a transaction.

Without such a specialist, documents are signed late or with risks, and debts hang in limbo. When an in-house lawyer is embedded in the processes, the director gets on with the business instead of signing off every piece of paper. Below is a typical scope of work handled by an internal lawyer.

Daily tasks of an in-house lawyer
Area	What the lawyer does	Result for the director
Contract work	Reviews drafts, agrees amendments, keeps minutes of disagreements	Deals don't stall, terms protect the company
HR documents	Prepares orders, employment contracts, policies, checks HR paperwork	Inspections and disputes with employees without fines
Claims	Reviews incoming claims, prepares responses, assesses the position before court	The dispute is resolved without court or with a strong position
Receivables	Handles pre-trial work: claims, negotiations, fixing the debt	Money comes back faster and without court
Counterparty checks	Reviews constituent documents, authority, risks	The transaction doesn't lead to contestability and losses

An in-house lawyer is an internal lawyer who works in the interests of one company.

An in-house lawyer on staff: how it works in terms of documents

A staff in-house lawyer is engaged under an employment contract in accordance with the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Their position is included in the staffing table, and the work is governed by the company's internal labour regulations. Such a specialist is based at the office and reports directly to the manager.

Unlike an in-house specialist, a seconded specialist works under a legal services agreement, which the company concludes with a law firm rather than with an individual. They are not on the payroll, but they handle tasks in the same way as an in-house lawyer. The choice between these formats depends on the volume of work and management preferences.

On paper, an in-house lawyer is tied to a specific position: an employment order, an employment contract, a job description and a department regulation. Their working day, leave and liability are determined by the company's internal acts, not by the terms of a deal with a counterparty.

An employment contract under the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan — for an in-house lawyer.
A legal services agreement with a firm — for a seconded specialist.
An in-house lawyer is included in the staffing table and the company's rules.
A seconded lawyer is immersed in the company's affairs but remains an employee of the service provider firm.

Seconded in-house lawyer: when an external one works as an internal one

A seconded in-house lawyer is a model where the lawyer is on the staff of a law firm but is assigned to your company: they take part in work chats and planning meetings, see correspondence on deals and get into tasks in real time. On paper, this is a legal services agreement between the company and the firm, and the lawyer remains an employee of the service provider. At the same time, in essence they handle the same day-to-day matters as an in-house lawyer: review contracts, prepare claims, answer legal questions from managers and the director.

An in-house lawyer works for you under an employment contract by virtue of the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, while a seconded one works for the service provider with which the company concludes a legal services agreement. This is not a formality: from 8 June 2026, paragraph 1-1 of Article 26 of the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan recognises an agreement as an employment contract if there is at least one sign of an employment relationship from Article 27 of the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is why a seconded lawyer is engaged through a firm rather than formalised under a civil-law contract with them personally. The working scope usually includes:

the company's work chats and correspondence on deals;
planning meetings and project meetings;
contracts and legal questions on a day-to-day basis;
claims and preparation of a position in disputes;
approval of templates and standard terms.

In-house lawyer and complex disputes: a single point of entry

A complex dispute almost never fits within a single practice area. A contract with a foreign supplier, subsidiary liability of a director, challenging a transaction in bankruptcy or a tax assessment following an audit require different preparation: sometimes procedural, sometimes industry-specific, sometimes work with expert evidence. An in-house lawyer, even a strong one, physically cannot keep all these areas at the same level.

A seconded in-house lawyer solves this problem differently: they remain your single point of entry, while within the practice they bring in colleagues specialising in the specific matter. The director does not look for a new contractor, does not retell the facts for the third time and does not coordinate different contractors with each other — the task is set once and to one person, who is responsible for the result to the company. What this gives in practice:

a single contractor for all matters, and in court — an advocate or legal consultant, as required by Article 58 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
specialist lawyers are brought in depending on the substance of the dispute;
a coordinated position without internal contradictions;
the case history and documents remain in one place.

In-house or seconded in-house lawyer: what to compare

To understand which in-house lawyer model suits the company, compare the two forms by key parameters: how the relationship is formalised, the degree of involvement in the work and access to narrow specialists. An in-house lawyer is tied to the company by an employment relationship under the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, while a seconded one is engaged under a legal services agreement which the company concludes with a law firm. Such a lawyer is assigned specifically to your company, takes part in its work chats and planning meetings and is therefore immersed in its affairs no less than an internal specialist.

Such a comparison shows that the difference is not in qualifications but in how the work is organised. An in-house lawyer is in the office every day and immersed in the day-to-day, but their competences are limited to one person. A seconded external lawyer handles the same tasks and, where necessary, brings in specialist lawyers within their practice — for example, on disputes or taxes. The choice therefore depends on the volume and variety of legal matters, not on the lawyer's formal status.

Comparison of in-house lawyer models
Parameter	In-house lawyer	Dedicated external lawyer
Formalisation of the relationship	Employment contract under the Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan	Service agreement with the firm
Involvement in processes	Permanently in the office, aware of day-to-day matters	Assigned to the company, in work chats and at planning meetings
Access to specialised professionals	Own competence only	Bringing in the right lawyers within the practice
Flexibility of workload	Fixed schedule	Volume tailored to the company's tasks

The model is chosen based on the volume and complexity of legal tasks, not on formal status.

In-house lawyer and contract work: how to speed up transactions

Contract work is where an in-house lawyer saves the company time and money every day. When a lawyer works inside the business, they maintain a single library of templates: supply, works, service, lease, NDA and supplementary agreements are already aligned with the company's position. A new contract is not drafted from scratch: the lawyer takes a ready template, adapts it to the transaction and immediately sees which terms the counterparty has changed.

The second layer is reviewing terms and protocols of disagreements. An in-house lawyer does not simply read the contract but looks at the risks: payment procedure, deadlines, liability, jurisdiction, grounds for termination. If the counterparty insists on its own amendments, the lawyer draws up a protocol of disagreements and handles the correspondence until an agreed version is reached. Response times within the company are also structured: a standard contract is approved quickly, a non-standard one follows a clear procedure.

A library of templates for the company's main transactions
Reviewing terms and recording risks before signing
Protocol of disagreements and correspondence with the counterparty
Procedure for response times for standard and non-standard contracts

In-house HR lawyer: the documents that get checked first

Employment disputes do not start with a dismissal but with documents that sit unchecked for years. An in-house HR lawyer first looks at employment contracts: whether the position, place of work and working hours match what actually happened, and whether there are the employee's signatures confirming familiarisation with internal acts. Most often a dispute breaks down over a discrepancy between the contract and the hiring order — the court reads both documents together.

The second risk zone is orders, schedules and remuneration policies. If the holiday or shift schedule is not approved on time, and bonuses are paid on an oral arrangement, the employee in a dispute relies on the actual practice rather than on the paperwork. An in-house lawyer builds the chain so that each document confirms the next: the order, the acknowledgement of familiarisation, the payslip.

The employment contract and additional agreements to it
Orders on hiring, transfers and disciplinary sanctions
Holiday and shift schedules with a note of familiarisation
The policy on remuneration and bonuses
The internal labour regulations

In-house lawyer and receivables: a claim before court

When a counterparty does not pay, the in-house lawyer first checks the primary documents: the contract, invoices, acts, delivery notes and correspondence. If a signature or a stamp impression raises doubts, this is clarified before the claim is sent. The evidence gathered determines what to write in the demand and what to rely on in court.

After the check, the in-house lawyer prepares the claim and negotiates a repayment schedule. If the debtor evades, preparation for court and subsequent enforcement through a private court enforcement officer begins. The in-house lawyer handles this entire path without passing the matter to an outside party.

As long as the debt has not been passed to a private court enforcement officer, the debtor still has an interest in reaching an agreement: an instalment plan or a deferral is often cheaper for both sides than enforcement proceedings. The in-house lawyer assesses the counterparty's ability to pay and proposes an option that actually closes the debt rather than postponing the problem.

review of the contract, invoices, acts and correspondence
sending a claim with a calculation of the debt
negotiating an instalment plan or a deferral
gathering evidence for court
support during enforcement by a private court enforcement officer

In-house lawyer and counterparty checks before a transaction

Before signing a contract, an in-house lawyer checks not only the partner's name but also its ability to perform its obligations. They look at registration data, the presence of licences and permits, tax arrears, enforcement proceedings and involvement in court cases. In Kazakhstan such information is available through open registers and services, so the check takes little time but removes some of the risks.

To avoid ending up with a problematic contract, the counterparty is asked for its charter, a certificate of state registration, the decision on the appointment of its head and a document confirming his or her authority. If the transaction is signed by a representative, a power of attorney with a clear list of powers is required. The contract includes representations and warranties, the termination procedure and liability for delay, and payments are tied to confirmed stages.

The charter and the certificate of state registration.
The decision on the appointment of the head and his or her authority.
Licences and permits, if the activity is subject to licensing.
Information confirming the absence of tax arrears and enforcement proceedings.

In-house lawyer in Almaty: how to organise interaction

To make sure the in-house lawyer works for results rather than building up a queue of tasks, set out a simple procedure. In it, describe which employees may assign a task directly and which may do so only through the director or the finance manager. Set priorities: urgent court cases and blocked transactions go ahead of the queue, routine contract reviews go by schedule. The response time for a standard request is 4 hours, a realistic benchmark for day-to-day matters; for complex topics the deadline is agreed separately.

Choose one or two communication channels so that correspondence does not spread across messengers. Usually this is work email for documents and a separate chat for short questions. Record the outcome in writing: a short legal position, the risks, what to do next. This order is stable and does not depend on who exactly is handling a particular task: the director can see at any moment which matters are in progress and which are already closed. Do not leave the procedure "in words" — put it in a separate document, so that a new employee or department head does not have to guess whom to approach with a contract or a claim.

One channel for documents, one for quick questions
Priority: courts and failed deals go to the front of the queue
Response to a standard request — within 4 hours
The outcome of a task — a short written position
The rules of engagement — in a separate document, not just words

Mistakes a director makes when hiring an in-house lawyer

The first mistake is hiring a lawyer with no corporate experience. Such a specialist may handle court cases confidently or advise individuals, but they do not know the company's contractual, HR and receivables routine. As a result, the in-house lawyer either shifts simple tasks onto the director or approves contracts at random, without seeing the risks.

The second mistake is not giving the lawyer access to processes. If an in-house lawyer only receives papers to review, they do not see how deals are concluded, who approves the terms and where deadlines are missed. The third and most costly mistake is cutting corners on counterparty checks before a deal.

A counterparty check seems like a formality until it turns out the partner has no assets and the director has signed a contract with a shell company. A certificate of state registration, court cases, enforcement proceedings and information about the director take little time, but they show whether the deal is worth starting at all.

Hiring a lawyer without corporate experience.
Not giving access to processes and deals.
Cutting corners on counterparty checks.
Leaving contractual work without oversight.

An in-house lawyer is needed not to sit on the staffing table, but to take contracts, HR matters and claims off the director's plate before they become a court case. Compare not the salary, but the volume of tasks and the speed of response.

Reviews

Reviews of in-house lawyer work

4.9

Google

4.9 · 128

Yandex

4.8 · 94

2GIS

4.9 · 156

Zoon

4.7 · 41

Merkury Trade LLP 4 September 2026

We were left without a lawyer at the worst possible moment — the previous one quit, and we had 34 contracts piling up, some of them urgent. We sat for a month without legal support, you know how that feels. They closed the urgent ones within a week, and in the end we stopped looking for an in-house lawyer — it works out cheaper and the coverage is wider.