A lawyer reserved for your team, for as long as you need
We are not selling you a lawyer on their own: we deliver legal capacity with a partner supervising and the whole firm answering for every deliverable. For cover, projects, workload spikes and gaps with an end date.
Four situations with a beginning and an end
What defines this service is not the size of your team or the length of the engagement, but that there is a concrete need to cover and an in-house legal function leading the matter.
Cover for an absence
Sick leave, parental leave, extended holidays, or the gap while you recruit a permanent hire. It is the most frequent case and the most sensitive: the inbox cannot be left without an owner, and a fixed-term hire for three months is rarely the right answer.
Projects and workload spikes
A due diligence, an M&A deal, a compliance or data tender, a mass contract migration. Work with a start and an end date that does not fit within your team's installed capacity.
Defined specialism gaps
Your team is generalist and you need personal data, consumer protection, criminal compliance or intellectual property for a set period —to implement Law 21,719 before it takes effect, for example.
Overflow with reserved availability
You are permanently behind on standard contracts and the firm's capacity alone is not enough: you need guaranteed availability. It is quoted as fixed part-time dedication with a service level, with hours reserved for you every week.
What sets us apart
It is not lawyer placement, it is a service of the firm
The difference from flexible legal talent providers is substantive: they place people, we provide a professional service that we answer for.
Continuity, not headcount
A freelance lawyer arrives without context and leaves with it. Here what we learn about your operation is documented within the firm and remains available when the engagement ends, or when you need us again.
The firm's guarantee
Every deliverable is reviewed by a partner before it goes out and engages the firm's professional responsibility. It is not a lawyer acting on their own: it is a Cubillos Lama service.
Realistic speed
A profile proposed within 48 business hours and a start between 5 and 10 days, depending on the seniority the engagement requires. Starting in under a week carries an urgency premium.
Credited if you later move to the OGC model
If after the engagement you decide to take an OGC retainer, a percentage of what you paid is credited against the first quarter. It is written into the contract from the outset.
The profile is set by the engagement, not by the discount
The smaller your in-house team, the more senior the lawyer we assign: they will have less structure around them and more direct exposure to general management.
Supervising partner
Always included. Leads the engagement technically and reviews the deliverables before they go out.
Senior lawyer
Over 8 years' experience, preferably in-house. This is the profile we assign when the lawyer will be operating with little internal counterpart.
Lawyer
Between 3 and 7 years. Works well where there is an established in-house legal function leading the matter.
Legal analyst
For document volume: mass review, organising contract repositories, support in due diligence.
Frequently asked questions
My head of legal is going on leave for three months. What fits?
The temporary dedicated service. Cover is a need with a beginning and an end, so we assign a dedicated lawyer for that period, with a partner supervising and the firm answering for the deliverables. The size of your team does not matter: all cover comes through this service.
We are a small team. Is the temporary dedicated service for us too?
Yes. It is aimed at legal functions large and small. All we need is that an in-house legal function exists to lead the matter and that the need has a beginning and an end. In fact an absence hits harder in a team of two than in a team of twenty, because half the capacity is lost at once.
What exactly are we contracting?
A professional service from Cubillos Lama, with a defined scope and term. You are not contracting loose hours from one person: you are contracting the firm to take responsibility for a set of matters over a period, with an assigned lawyer doing the work and a partner supervising it.
If it is cover for an absence, how is the engagement described?
By its matters and deliverables, not by the job title or by the person who is away. We define what is covered —the contract inbox, the employment matters arising in the period, whatever applies— and at what service level. That way both sides know what to expect and how to measure it.
We are small and have nobody to coordinate the lawyer day to day. Is that a problem?
No, because we do the coordination. The assigned lawyer and the supervising partner hold a meeting at a set frequency, and that is where the week's priorities are set. You set the objectives and the urgencies; we organise the work to meet them.
Who is answerable if the work goes wrong?
Cubillos Lama. Every deliverable is reviewed by a partner before it goes out and engages the firm's professional responsibility. That is the difference from engaging an external lawyer yourself, where you carry the quality risk.
What if we want to hire the lawyer assigned to us?
You can, subject to a conversion fee agreed in the contract. We do not block the hire; we simply compensate the search, the training and the loss of the resource.
How long does it take to start?
A profile proposed within 48 business hours and a start between 5 and 10 days, depending on seniority. Starting in under a week carries an urgency premium.
We are smaller — does it cost us less?
Not necessarily, and it is worth saying so plainly. In a small team the lawyer we assign has to be senior, because they will operate with little internal counterpart and will speak directly to general management, and partner supervision is more intensive. The price reflects the profile the engagement needs, not the size of the company.
If what you are missing is permanent rather than a need with an end date, the fit is our ongoing support services. And if you have no in-house legal function, it is the OGC model.
Do you need to reinforce your team for a period?
Tell us what you need to solve and for how long. We propose a profile within 48 business hours and can start within 5 to 10 days.
Tell us what your business needs.