Ongoing Legal Support vs. One-Off Legal Services: Which Model Truly Fits Your Company?

In the business world, the real question is not whether you will need legal services, but when. Regardless of size, all companies face decisions that require legal analysis, risk management, and regulatory compliance.

Large corporations may have the capacity to maintain in-house legal teams. However, the reality of the business landscape is that most companies fall within the MSME segment (micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises), where maintaining an internal legal department is often not financially viable due to payroll and overhead costs.

In these cases, two common models of external legal support typically emerge: engaging a one-off legal service to address a specific issue as it arises, or relying on ongoing legal support as part of the company’s regular operations.

The purpose of this article is to objectively analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each model and help you determine which approach best aligns with your company’s operational reality.

One-Off Legal Services

A one-off legal service involves an isolated legal intervention aimed at addressing a specific, time-bound issue. It does not imply an ongoing relationship between the company and the lawyer, but rather the engagement of legal support when a particular matter arises.

This type of service is commonly used in situations such as labor disputes, negotiation of complex contracts, corporate amendments, or responses to requests from government authorities.

In these scenarios, the approach is largely reactive: a problem or project arises, and the objective is to resolve it efficiently and within a defined scope.

Advantages of One-Off Legal Services 

Hiring a one-off legal service is often the most intuitive option for businesses, as it is driven by the need to resolve a specific situation. The main advantages of this model include the following.

You Pay Only When the Need Arises

One of the most obvious advantages of the one-off model is that the company incurs legal costs only when a specific need emerges. This makes it an occasional expense, which can be managed as a one-time disbursement within the company’s operations. For businesses with infrequent legal needs or highly constrained budgets, this flexibility may be attractive.

You Address a Clearly Defined Issue

One-off legal services are typically based on a clearly identified need. The company knows what it requires, the objective of the engagement, and the expected outcome. This allows for a direct, solution-oriented approach that is limited in scope and easier to measure.

Access to Specialized Expertise

This model also makes it easier to engage a lawyer with specific expertise in a particular area of law, especially for unusual or highly technical matters that do not arise on a recurring basis. As a result, the company can obtain a high level of technical specialization without maintaining ongoing legal support.

Disadvantages of One-Off Legal Services

Despite being a common practice, one-off legal services often involve hidden costs and limitations that should be carefully considered.

Higher Costs and Lack of Budget Predictability

One-off legal services are generally more expensive than ongoing legal support. The lack of continuity and the need to intervene once a situation has already arisen often result in higher fees. Moreover, these expenses frequently occur at critical moments and are not always included in the company’s financial planning.

They Can Become Recurring Without Internal Legal Processes

When a company lacks clear internal policies, basic controls, or legal processes, the same issues tend to repeat themselves. In such cases, what initially appears to be an occasional legal expense can evolve into a series of recurring interventions, ultimately generating higher cumulative costs than a preventive, ongoing model would entail.

Legal Intervention Often Comes Too Late

One-off legal services are typically engaged after the risk has already materialized. This happens when a contract has been signed without prior review, a lawsuit has already been filed, or a corporate decision has already produced adverse consequences.

In these situations, the lawyer’s role is often limited to mitigating damage rather than preventing it. As a result, even with legal intervention, the company may still face negative outcomes that could have been avoided through earlier legal involvement.

Ongoing Legal Support

An alternative model of legal service for companies is ongoing legal support. Under this approach, the company pays a recurring fee to access continuous legal advice for its day-to-day operations, without assuming the costs associated with employing in-house counsel.

This model allows businesses to rely on legal input as part of their regular decision-making process—addressing questions as they arise, reviewing actions before they are implemented, and identifying risks that often go unnoticed when legal assistance is limited to reactive interventions or isolated projects.

Advantages of Ongoing Legal Support

Ongoing legal support appeals to companies for reasons that differ significantly from those driving one-off services. Its value lies in its preventive and comprehensive nature, which can represent a meaningful strategic advantage for businesses that adopt it.

Continuous Support and a Preventive Approach

An ongoing legal relationship allows the lawyer to develop a deep understanding of the company’s structure, operations, commercial dynamics, and specific challenges. This level of familiarity makes it easier to anticipate risks, address structural weaknesses early, and build a preventive legal framework that reduces the likelihood of future contingencies.

Predictable and Adapted to the Company’s Needs

This model transforms legal expenses into a stable and foreseeable cost. The company knows in advance how much it will invest in legal support, which facilitates financial planning and budget control. Additionally, the scope and cost of the service can be adjusted to the company’s size, stage of growth, and volume of legal needs.

Functioning as an External Legal Department

Ongoing legal support often operates as an external legal department, providing continuous assistance on corporate, contractual, and operational matters, without the labor and overhead costs associated with hiring internal legal staff.

Disadvantages of Ongoing Legal Support

Despite its advantages, ongoing legal support is not without limitations, and certain aspects should be carefully evaluated.

Recurring Cost Even During Periods of Low Use

Although it is a planned and predictable expense, ongoing legal support represents a monthly investment even during periods when legal needs are limited. This may create the perception that the service is unnecessary or underutilized in certain months.

Perceived Lack of Value During Low-Activity Periods

Related to the above, when business operations run smoothly, some companies may feel they are paying for a service they are not actively using. However, the true value of ongoing legal support lies precisely in preventing issues that would be significantly more costly if addressed only after they arise.

 

Challenges in Defining Scope and Cost

One of the main challenges of this model is clearly defining what is included in the recurring service and how legal resources are allocated. Without a clear structure, this can lead to misunderstandings.

In many traditional ongoing service models, fees are still based on hourly billing, which tends to be unpredictable and ambiguous for clients. Companies may not know in advance how many hours will be billed, whether those hours accurately reflect the work performed, or how they correlate with the value actually delivered.

In Summary

Both models—one-off legal services and ongoing legal support—offer advantages and disadvantages that may align differently with each company’s size, structure, and level of operational maturity. They are not mutually exclusive, as some companies may rely on ongoing legal support while still seeking specialized external advice for exceptional or highly technical matters.

This naturally raises a key question:Are there alternative legal service models for companies that do not fully identify with either of these approaches?

The AIE Model: A Practical Alternative to Traditional Ongoing Legal Services

At JG Lawyers, we have developed our own Comprehensive Business Legal Support Model (AIE) to provide clarity, predictability, and continuous value to companies through a legal credit system.

Sistema AIE por Créditos Jurídicos

The AIE Legal Credit System organizes legal services through a defined number of credits that the company may use according to its actual legal needs. This approach allows legal costs to be controlled, service scope to be clearly defined, and legal availability to be ensured—without the rigidity and uncertainty of traditional hourly-based ongoing services.

You can learn more about how this system works in our dedicated article on the AIE Legal Credit System here.

Advantages of the AIE Legal Credit Model

The AIE model was designed to deliver continuous and comprehensive legal support in a transparent, structured, and predictable manner, while minimizing the common drawbacks of traditional ongoing legal services.

Credit Predictability

The system allows companies to know in advance how many credits each type of legal service requires. This eliminates the uncertainty typically associated with traditional models, where scope and cost are often unclear until the work has already been performed.

Accumulation and Flexibility

Credits may be accumulated during periods of low legal demand or used in advance during periods of higher legal workload. This flexibility exceeds the limitations of conventional ongoing legal support and allows companies to adapt legal resources to their operational reality.

Preserving the Benefits of Ongoing Support While Reducing Its Weaknesses

The AIE model retains the core advantages of continuous legal support—such as in-depth knowledge of the company and ongoing legal availability—while addressing its main weaknesses through a transparent, measurable, and adaptable credit-based structure.

Final Considerations

There are multiple models for hiring legal services, and each may add value depending on a company’s size, structure, and risk profile. What ultimately matters is having a system that provides clarity, foresight, and legal support capable of anticipating issues before they become costly contingencies.

The AIE Legal Credit System operates under this logic. It may be compared to insurance: while it may not be used intensively at all times, its real value lies in the confidence of knowing that legal support is readily available and that business decisions are guided by specialized legal judgment. Just as insurance protects assets in the event of a claim, the AIE model protects a company’s structure and operations against legal risks that may affect its stability and growth.

At JG Lawyers, we designed the AIE Legal Credit System as a modern and efficient alternative focused on preventive legal management and comprehensive business protection, delivered in a timely, flexible, and transparent manner.

Learn more about the AIE Legal Credit System

FAQ

How do I know whether my company needs one-off legal services or ongoing support through the AIE model?

Depends on the company’s size, budget, internal structure, and level of activity. Businesses with sporadic legal needs may operate effectively with one-off services, while growing or operationally active companies typically benefit more from continuous legal support through the AIE model.

Can the AIE Legal Credit Model replace an in-house lawyer? 

In most cases, yes. The AIE model allows companies to access specialized legal support on a continuous basis without the costs associated with maintaining in-house counsel.

In very large organizations, however, having internal legal staff may still be advisable due to the level of permanent availability required.

What services are included in the AIE Legal Credit System?

As a core offering, the system covers corporate, commercial, labor, compliance, and debt collection matters. Depending on the selected plan, additional areas such as intellectual property, administrative law, and basic tax advisory services may also be included.