Skip to Main Content.

Outside General Counsel Services

Trusted. Your first call.

Sometimes the C-suite in small to medium-sized companies can be a lonely place. Owners and decision makers need trusted business advisors to act as their consiglieres and go-to problem solvers — someone highly responsive, practical and focused on getting them to “yes.” Our Outside General Counsel (OGC) Services team members invest time to deeply understand each client’s business to earn their trust and build lasting relationships with their leadership team.

As outside advisors to your team operating as “deep generalists,” we strive to counsel each client from a place of trust and common understanding, with a keen understanding of your “risk appetite” and a perspective recognizing the opportunities and competitive dynamics endemic to your industry. Our approach not only enhances trust and practical advisory services; it also creates greater efficiencies in advising you on navigating potential roadblocks and achieving key strategic objectives driving the company’s success.

A trusted legal advisor is an essential asset and competitive edge for growing businesses.

Many growing companies inevitably outgrow their outside lawyers, reaching a point where the lack of responsiveness, status quo thinking, and most attorneys’ extremely low risk tolerance (contrary to most of their clients’ risk appetites) becomes an impediment to, rather than a facilitator of, the growth of the business. Our OGC attorneys differentiate themselves from the prevailing lawyer paradigm by being:

  • Strategic in focus.
  • Proactive in identifying risks and opportunities.
  • Getting our clients to “yes” in equipping and empowering business operations.
  • Identifying and leveraging risks for opportunity, not just focusing on eliminating or reducing all risks.
  • Regularly acting as a trusted business advisor, not just an outside legal specialist that you sporadically contact for various transactions.

The OGC approach emphasizes and hinges on the deep, trusting relationships we continue to forge with our clients. Our OGC attorneys invest significant non-billable time upfront, building a strong relationship with your team and a deep understanding of your business’s challenges and opportunities. We help diagnose the potential problem/opportunity and then provide timely access to our firm’s deep bench of attorneys in all disciplines, who will assist in providing pragmatic advice, along with practical tools and resources to address and resolve dynamic issues. This ensures that we never “learn on your dime” and meet your deadlines for advice and work product.

Outside General Counsel Team

Get a fresh, informed perspective on your business. Connect with a OGC team member today

A smiling person with blond hair wearing a black blazer and a blue shirt against a white background.
Beth Schneider Naylor

Partner

Cincinnati, OH

A man wearing a business suit with a tie is smiling at the camera against a white background.
E. Todd Wilkowski

Partner

West Chester, OH

A woman with long dark hair is wearing a red blazer over a leopard print blouse and smiling at the camera.
Mekesha H. Montgomery

Practice Group Leader

Nashville, TN

A person is dressed in a gray suit, white shirt, and patterned tie, smiling against a plain white background.
Eric J. Beecher

Managing Associate

Cincinnati, OH

West Chester, OH

A person wearing a suit with a striped tie poses for a professional portrait against a light background.
Gregory S. Shumate

Office Partner-in-Charge

Florence, KY

A woman with long brown hair is smiling while wearing a black top and a necklace.
Maureen A. Bickley

Vice Office Partner-in-Charge

Cincinnati, OH

Courtney Gahm-Oldham Photo
Courtney B. Gahm-Oldham

Partner

Houston, TX

A man with glasses, gray hair, and a beard is wearing a plaid suit jacket, light blue shirt, and burgundy tie, posing against a plain white background.
Jordan S. Blask

Office Partner-in-Charge

Pittsburgh, PA

A well-dressed individual with a beard is smiling and posing against a white background.
Yazan S. Ashrawi

Office Partner-in-Charge

Columbus, OH

A person with curly hair is smiling and wearing a grey blazer over a blue ruffled blouse against a white background.
Kelly W. Schulz

Partner

Louisville, KY

A bespectacled individual with a beaming smile is dressed in professional attire featuring a dark suit and a red patterned tie.
Alan S. Meek

Partner

Lexington, KY

A person wearing a business suit with a tie poses against a white background.
Lucas T. Elliot

Partner

Nashville, TN

Houston, TX

A smiling individual wearing glasses, a dark suit, and a red striped tie poses against a white background.
Jared M. Tully

Practice Group Vice-Chair

Charleston, WV

A smiling individual wearing a beige blazer and a tie against a plain background.
Edward W. Moore, Jr.

Office Partner-in-Charge

Dallas, TX

Unique Value Proposition

We do more than simply address your legal needs through our unique "Get to Yes" approach.

Leveraging Risk

Risk is associated with every move your business makes. We will assist you as you grow in thinking about how to achieve your growth objectives while leveraging (not just reducing or eliminating) risk. Compared with some legal advisors who are adept at saying “no” and primarily tell their clients why they shouldn’t engage in a particular business activity, we understand risk correlates to reward and is a necessary element for increased profitability and growth. We’re not intimidated by risk; however, we prefer calculated risk that can be leveraged to allow for additional opportunity and sustainable growth. We listen to your desired objectives and focus on “getting you to yes” to empower your business.

We know that a company’s growth requires hiring and retaining new talent, acquiring strategic targets, and expanding into new markets with new products and customers. We, along with our firm’s industry teams, are committed to helping you and your team identify and leverage the most profitable or damaging risks associated with any move your company contemplates. This allows us to better assist you in developing processes and strategies to overcome roadblocks and continue progress toward sustained, profitable growth.

Strategic, Big Picture Perspective

Many of our OGC team members have regularly counseled and/or served in companies’ executive leadership teams across a variety of industries. We function as “deep generalists,” operating from a strategic viewpoint needed to diagnose a wide range of potential issues. We also appreciate the dynamic daily changes, “fire drills,” and opportunities inherent in running a business and can quickly and strategically assess how one apparently isolated decision can significantly impact the company’s overall operations.

Our OGC team brings both passion and an avowed commitment to only providing value-added advice and services that empower, not impede, your strategic growth and development objectives. We never learn on your dime. Rather, we invest the time to understand the business, identify areas where we can add value, and only start the clock when providing actionable legal advice or resources.

Act, Do Not React

Our OGC attorneys are proactive, not reactive, problem solvers that work collaboratively with your team to develop customized and readily implementable solutions based on years of experience in creatively advising businesses in entrepreneurial and high-growth industries. We see a lot of deals and are exposed to lessons learned/best practices with myriad clients, and we share that experience with you. Foremost, we are resourceful and determined in helping you achieve your goals—with the requisite skills and foresight, honed through experience—to help you vet important decisions and ensure that all potential positive and adverse impacts are factored into the decision calculus.

Rich Resources

Our OGC team is a cross-practice group that contains former general counsel/chief legal officers, senior-level in-house counsel, and other talented lawyers who operate from a common paradigm: we focus on being “a businessperson that happened to go to law school,” not the kind of lawyer who cannot see the big picture or is overly obsessed with risk to the detriment of sustainable growth. You will have ready access to a tremendously talented and deep bench in our firm, including more than 600 attorneys (many with a focus on specific industries) in 17 markets across the U.S., as well as an established outside network of trusted advisors in all disciplines. Should an issue warrant supplemental support, we can engage the right subject-matter practitioners to timely and effectively deliver practical, tried and true value-added advice and outstanding “ready to use” work product.

Related Insights

Digital global business network connection and people walking in the city with technology design
Unexpected Trouble Ahead: Questions Arise at the Intersection of the Corporate Transparency Act and ...

December 11, 2024 | Corporate Transparency Act

As many have already heard, on December 3, 2024, a federal district court in Texas issued an order g...

Beautiful blurred background of an empty courtroom.
Texas Federal District Court Enjoins Corporate Transparency Act Reporting Nationwide – What’s Ne...

December 6, 2024 | Corporate Transparency Act

*This article was updated on Dec. 12 in response to new guidance from the Financial Crimes Enforceme...

Wes Scott Joins Frost Brown Todd’s Nashville Office

November 20, 2024 | Press Releases

Frost Brown Todd welcomes Wes Scott as a partner in its Nashville office. Joining the firm’s Busin...

FTC Announces Final Rule on HSR Premerger Notifications: Overview of Changes and Impact on M&A ...

October 29, 2024 | Publications

Nearly 16 months after announcing proposed changes to the rules governing premerger notifications un...

Several chess pieces are arranged on a reflective surface, with a prominent king piece in focus and a bright, abstract background.
Navigating Section 1202’s Redemption (Anti-churning) Rules

September 30, 2024 | Blogs

Section 1202 provides for a substantial exclusion of gain from federal income taxes when stockholder...

Stack of papers in front of computer
Corporate Transparency Act Reporting Deadline Approaching

September 6, 2024 | Corporate Transparency Act

Attention business owners: Under the federal Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), corporations, limited...

Kentucky state of United States flag on flagpole textile cloth fabric waving on the top sunrise mist fog
In the News:
Q&A Guide to Non-Compete Laws in Kentucky

Publication: Thomson Reuters | Practical Law

Publish Date: August 30, 2024

Authors: Thomas P. O’Brien, III

business people walking in a financial district, long exposure,click here to view more related images:
Texas Court Pulls the Plug on FTC’s Non-Compete Ban: Rule Set Aside Nationwide

August 21, 2024 | Publications

On August 20, 2024, a Texas federal court set aside the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Final Rul...

Chess pieces standing on the stacked coins.
FTC and DOJ Request Information on Serial Acquisitions and Roll-Up M&A Activity

August 21, 2024 | Publications

In a rare move, the federal antitrust enforcement agencies, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and t...

Beautiful blurred background of an empty courtroom.
Federal Courts Divided over FTC’s Non-Compete Ban Final Rule

August 7, 2024 | Publications

Only a few weeks after a Texas federal court found the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Final Rule...