Embedded General Counsel support for organisations navigating growth, complexity and change

Carbon General Counsel provides embedded General Counsel support for organisations navigating growth, complexity and change.

Designed for the moment when businesses outgrow reactive legal advice but are not yet ready for a full-time General Counsel, Carbon GC provides the strategic legal leadership, commercial judgement and practical support often associated with an in-house General Counsel, delivered on a flexible basis.

As a fractional General Counsel solution, Carbon GC helps leadership teams make confident decisions, strengthen governance and manage legal risk while maintaining the flexibility needed to support growth.

Our Services:

Carbon GC delivers a practical, integrated General Counsel function shaped around how your business actually operates.

Our support includes:

Commercial Contracts & Negotiations: Drafting, reviewing and negotiating contracts that enable deals to progress while managing risk appropriately.

Governance & Decision-Making Frameworks: Establishing clear structures around authority, accountability and board-level decision-making.

Legal Architecture & Playbooks: Building contract frameworks, policies and repeatable processes that reduce dependency on reactive advice.

Risk Visibility & Regulatory Insight: Identifying pressure points across the business and providing clear reporting and forward-looking guidance.

Leadership & Stakeholder Support: Supporting founders, boards and leadership teams through complex decisions, investor relationships and internal challenges.

Transactions & Strategic Projects: Senior legal support on M&A, partnerships, restructuring and other high-stakes moments.

People, Culture & Internal Issues: Practical guidance on employment, organisational alignment and sensitive workplace matters.

Access to the Carbon Ecosystem: Seamless support across employment, litigation, regulatory, property and specialist areas whenever required.

Carbon GC ensures nothing falls between the cracks, providing one trusted relationship with the depth and breadth of the wider Carbon network behind it.

How We Work With You

Carbon GC provides flexible engagement levels designed to match your current needs, with the ability to scale support as your business evolves.

Advisory: Senior legal judgement on key decisions, contract review and governance support. Designed for growing businesses that need General Counsel-level thinking without the commitment of a full-time General Counsel.

Embedded GC: Regular involvement with leadership teams, commercial and governance support, legal architecture and ongoing strategic guidance. Our core embedded General Counsel and fractional General Counsel offering, designed for businesses navigating growth and requiring consistent access to senior legal expertise.

Strategic: Intensive support through transactions, disputes, restructures and significant periods of change. Built for clients facing elevated complexity or high-stakes activity requiring deep and sustained General Counsel involvement.

Carbon GC defines engagement by level of involvement, not task lists. This ensures support remains flexible and responsive to what matters most.

Project work outside the agreed scope, including M&A transactions, disputes or specialist matters requiring support from the wider Carbon ecosystem or external counsel, is quoted separately and transparently.

Senior General Counsel Experience

Carbon GC is supported by lawyers with significant senior in-house, General Counsel and leadership experience across a wide range of sectors and business environments.

Whether you require an embedded General Counsel, a fractional General Counsel or support through a specific strategic project, Carbon GC provides access to commercially minded lawyers who understand how businesses operate, scale and evolve.

Our network includes expertise in:

• M&A and transaction leadership (buy-side and sell-side)
• Complex commercial negotiations
• Intellectual property strategy and disputes
• Privacy, data and regulatory matters
• Board-level governance and stakeholder management
• Employment and people-related issues
• Business growth, restructuring and transformation

Through Carbon GC, clients benefit from commercially focused legal expertise backed by the wider Carbon network, ensuring support evolves alongside the needs of the business.

General Counsel Is in Our DNA

Carbon GC is not a standalone service.

It is built on a foundation of General Counsel and senior in-house experience that already exists across the Carbon network.

General Counsel thinking has always shaped how Carbon works, grounded in relationships, commercial judgement and real-world decision-making.

This experience runs throughout the firm, including:

• Michael Burne, Founder and CEO
• William Brewis and the wider leadership team
• Alison Mayfield, specialising in Financial Services and broader General Counsel support
• Rhodri Lewis, Head of Carbon Sport, bringing senior in-house and General Counsel experience within the sports sector

Carbon GC brings this collective expertise together into a clear, focused offering, giving clients access to strategic legal leadership and embedded General Counsel support backed by specialist expertise whenever required.

Why Choose Carbon GC?

Choose Carbon GC for legal support that works inside your business, not alongside it.

• Clear judgement, not just advice
  Practical direction that helps leadership teams make decisions with confidence.
  
• Embedded support
  Advice shaped by your strategy, your people and commercial reality.
• Built for growth
  Supporting scale with structure, governance and resilience.
  
• Senior experience when it matters most
  Calm, commercially focused support through complex and high-stakes decisions.
  
• Connected capability
  Access to the wider Carbon network when additional expertise is needed.
  

Carbon GC transforms legal from a reactive function into part of how your business operates, makes decisions and grows, providing the benefits of an experienced General Counsel without the commitment of a full-time in-house appointment.

Who Is This For?

Carbon GC is designed for organisations at a specific stage of growth.

Typically, our clients:

• Are scaling beyond 15-20 people
• Are winning larger or more complex work
• Are facing increasing governance, legal or stakeholder pressures
• Feel that traditional legal support is not joining the dots
• Need greater confidence in leadership-level decision-making

Common trigger points include:

• A contract negotiation that exposed a gap in internal capability
• A founder disagreement that nobody is addressing
• An investor or board asking harder governance questions
• A people issue that escalated because it was handled informally
• A transaction, partnership or expansion that needs senior legal involvement

If your business is moving faster than its governance – Carbon GC restore the balance.

Begin Your Journey with Confidence

If your organisation needs more than legal answers, if it needs strategic legal support, commercial judgement and practical leadership through growth, Carbon GC is here to help.

Whether you are looking for an embedded General Counsel, a fractional General Counsel or support through a critical business transition, Carbon GC can provide the expertise, flexibility and commercial focus your business needs.

Get in touch to discuss how Carbon GC can support your next stage of growth and connect you with the right expertise from across the Carbon network.