What does the monthly fee actually cover?

The scope set out in your chosen tier, executed by senior commercial attorneys. The fee covers our time, our judgement and our availability. It is not a deposit against hours. Disbursements (CIPC fees, sheriff and court fees, briefing of counsel where required) are billed at cost. VAT applies.

What happens if a matter falls outside the retainer scope?

We will tell you before any work begins, with an estimate and a clear basis for the fee. Typical examples include contested litigation, complex tax structuring or significant M&A execution. Embedded clients receive discounted rates on overflow work; Essential and Advisory clients are quoted at our standard commercial rate.

How long do I have to commit?

A one-month notice period after an initial three-month engagement. We are not interested in retaining a client who is not getting value, and the retainer is built to prove itself in the first quarter.

Who actually does the work?

A named primary attorney is allocated to your business and is your single point of contact. From Advisory upwards, a secondary attorney is named to provide continuity for leave, capacity and conflict cover. Junior support is used for administration only, never for advice.

How do you handle conflicts of interest?

We run a full conflict check before the engagement letter is signed. Where we act for businesses in the same sector, we will tell you upfront so you can decide whether to proceed. We will not act against a current retainer client, and we ringfence sensitive matters internally where appropriate.

Can I move between tiers?

At any time, with one month's notice. Most clients start at Essential or Advisory and move up as the business scales. We will also tell you when we think you are paying for more than you need - the retainer should match your business, not the other way around.

What is not included?

Court appearances, formal litigation, heads of argument, complex tax opinions, BEE verification audits and forensic investigations are not included. These are quoted separately or, for Embedded clients, managed at the discounted overflow rate.

An outsourced General Counsel.

Legal oversight of your whole business. One senior counsel function. Paid for the peace of mind, not the hours.

A legal function to meet you where you are & take you where you are going.

Locations

Cape Town · Johannesburg

Leadership

3 Senior Directors

Legal Oversight·Fractional General Counsel·Legal by Design·Fixed Monthly Fee·Senior Directors Throughout·Disputes Prevented, Not Repaired·Commercial Contracts·POPIA & Data Protection·Employment & CCMA·M&A Readiness·King IV Governance·B-BBEE Compliance·Legal Oversight·Fractional General Counsel·Legal by Design·Fixed Monthly Fee·Senior Directors Throughout·Disputes Prevented, Not Repaired·Commercial Contracts·POPIA & Data Protection·Employment & CCMA·M&A Readiness·King IV Governance·B-BBEE Compliance·

Legal by Design

Legal governance, made to measure.

The right agreements, policies and posture, shaped to your business before the risk ever arrives.

Oversight, not hours.

You buy legal peace of mind, not billable time. A senior counsel function holds watch over every area of your business, so risk is held in oversight, not repaired after the fact. You call before you act, and most problems never become disputes.

Fixed cost. Real savings.

One fixed monthly fee. No quote requests, no clock-watching. Your legal function is budgeted and paid for the outcome, and a single avoided dispute pays for a substantial portion of the year.

Senior throughout, tech-enabled.

Every area is led by a senior director, with no junior hand-offs. Senior judgement, accelerated by modern legal intelligence, delivered at the speed your business moves.

01 · The Mandate

Legal oversight,across every area of your business.

You are not buying hours. You are buying legal peace of mind. A senior counsel function holding oversight of your whole business, continuously, so that risk is held, rather than repaired after the fact.

INCLUDING

01Commercial contracts

02Employment & labour

03Data protection & POPIA

04Corporate governance

05M&A & transactions

02 · Areas of Oversight

Risk Mitigation Architecture

Strategic Risk Management

Regulatory compliance commandPOPIA & data protection governanceBoard advisoryPolicy architecture

Case Context

POPIA compliance framework for a FinTech scale-up in Cape Town, reducing regulatory exposure by 85%.

Transaction Velocity

M&A Readiness & Execution

Deal structuring commandDue diligence orchestrationM&A executionInvestor advisory

Case Context

M&A support for a PE-backed portfolio company in Gauteng — from readiness assessment to successful R180M exit.

Operational Legal Infrastructure

Commercial & Contract Advisory

Contract standards enforcementCommercial negotiation commandSupplier risk governanceTemplate architecture

Case Context

Full contract review and renegotiation for a logistics company managing 200+ supplier agreements nationally.

Workforce Governance

Employment & Labour

Employment contract governanceBCEA & LRA enforcementRestructure commandCCMA strategy & representation

Case Context

CCMA representation and workforce restructuring for a healthcare group with 1,200 employees across 3 provinces.

The Cost You Never Pay

The cheapest disputeis the one that never happens.

With oversight, behaviour changes. Management asks before it acts, and most problems are caught early enough that they never become disputes. These are the matters oversight is built to prevent.

01CCMA matters

02Contract disputes

03Bad terminations

04Unpaid invoices

05IP ownership problems

06POPIA exposure

07Poorly negotiated supplier and customer agreements

The maths

One avoided dispute.

Avoiding a single R100,000 dispute pays for a substantial portion of a year's retainer. Every dispute prevented after that is value returned, on top of the direct fee saving.

Meet your counsel

The people who will actually answer the call.

We are a small firm by design. When you engage Consilium, you work directly with the three of us and not a layers of associates.

Cape Town and Johannesburg hybrid.

05 · The Team

Senior Throughout

Deep commercial grounding and specialist areas. Every engagement is handled at director level.

Natalie Laurencik

Commercial & Data Protection lead

Commercial contracts, regulatory compliance, POPIA and data protection. Natalie leads on commercial advisory and the data protection practice, working directly with founders, executives and boards.

Lucy Phillips

Mergers & Acquisitions lead

Transactional advice, deal structuring, M&A readiness and execution. Lucy leads on all Consilium transactions from owner-managed exits through mid-market M&A to investor-led acquisitions.

Carla Koutroulis

Employment & Labour lead

Employment contracts, BCEA and LRA compliance, workforce restructuring, retrenchments, disciplinary matters and CCMA representation. The highest-frequency touchpoint for most businesses.

Each retainer client is assigned a primary director based on their dominant need, with full access to the team as matters require. A designated secondary director is named for cover. You are never without senior attention.

The Difference

You are buying legal peace of mind,not billable hours.

The old model bills you to fix legal problems after they arise. The oversight model holds your legal risk continuously, across every area. So most problems never become problems. Here is what that looks like, side by side.

Comparison

Ad Hoc

Traditional billing per matter

Subscription

Embedded outsourced counsel

Cost predictability

Variable, billed per matter

Fixed monthly fee, no surprises

Access to counsel

When you instruct, if available

Ongoing, call us before you act

Knowledge of your business

Briefed per matter from scratch

Deep, accumulated context over time

Risk posture

Reactive, fixes problems after they arise

Proactive, flags risk before it becomes a dispute

Response time

Standard turnaround per engagement

Priority, same-day attention

Relationship

Transactional

Embedded partnership with your team

Value measured in

Billable hours

Outcomes and prevention

Director involvement

Assigned per matter

Dedicated primary + secondary director

Contract review volume

One contract at a time

Unlimited within subscription scope

Strategic planning

Not included

Quarterly legal health reviews

Cost predictability

Variable, billed per matter

Fixed monthly fee, no surprises

Access to counsel

When you instruct, if available

Ongoing, call us before you act

Knowledge of your business

Briefed per matter from scratch

Deep, accumulated context over time

Risk posture

Reactive, fixes problems after they arise

Proactive, flags risk before it becomes a dispute

Response time

Standard turnaround per engagement

Priority, same-day attention

Relationship

Transactional

Embedded partnership with your team

Value measured in

Billable hours

Outcomes and prevention

Director involvement

Assigned per matter

Dedicated primary + secondary director

Contract review volume

One contract at a time

Unlimited within subscription scope

Strategic planning

Not included

Quarterly legal health reviews

03 · Investment

Three tiers. One standard.

Every tier is delivered at director level. The difference is the depth of cover, not the quality of counsel.

Essential

Build the right legal foundation.

R12,000

per month, excluding VAT

Core commercial contract templates and contracting standards

Day-to-day commercial and employment law guidance

Core POPIA policies and processing register

Employment contracts and essential workplace policies

Routine CIPC compliance and company secretarial oversight

Quarterly legal risk check-in

Priority access to the legal team

Best for: Owner-managed businesses that need a sound legal foundation and ongoing support.

Most chosen

Advisory

An actively managed legal function for a growing business.

R24,000

per month, excluding VAT

Everything in Essential, plus

Ongoing contract review, negotiation and lifecycle management

Employment strategy for disciplinary matters, restructures and CCMA disputes

POPIA programme management, staff training and Information Officer support

Founder, shareholder and governance advice

B-BBEE and sector-specific compliance mapping

Named primary counsel

Quarterly strategic risk review

Best for: Scaling businesses with regular contracts, employees and increasing compliance risk.

Embedded

Senior legal leadership across your business or group.

From R45,000

per month, excluding VAT

Everything in Advisory, plus

Group-wide legal oversight across multiple entities

Board and EXCO governance support

M&A, investment and transaction readiness

Intellectual property portfolio and licensing oversight

Legal integration of newly acquired businesses

Litigation strategy and management of external counsel

Dedicated lead counsel working alongside management

Preferential rates for major transactions, disputes and overflow work

Best for: Group companies and management teams preparing for investment, acquisition, expansion or exit.

Pricing is based on the number of entities, employee headcount, contract volume and regulatory complexity. Litigation, transaction execution, formal CCMA proceedings and substantial standalone drafting projects are scoped and priced separately.

04 · Why Consilium

The Consilium Mandate

Exclusive Director Oversight

Every matter is led by a senior director. No junior hand-offs. Your legal function is owned at the highest level.

Embedded Governance by Design

We do not advise from the sidelines. We embed into your operating fabric and govern your legal architecture, accumulating institutional knowledge that compounds in value over time.

Absolute Cost Certainty

Fixed monthly retainers for outcomes. No billable surprises. No meter running while you seek counsel. Your legal risk is budgeted.

Scalable Service Structure

Tiers engineered to scale with your enterprise. Move to transaction-grade governance when the stakes demand it. No disruption, no renegotiation.

Technology-Enabled Delivery

Senior judgement accelerated by modern legal intelligence. The same uncompromising standard, delivered at the speed your business requires.

South African Regulatory Certainty

Total command of POPIA, BCEA, LRA, CPA, Companies Act and the full regulatory landscape that mid-market enterprises must navigate.

05 · The Exception

We hold oversight.We will still do the one-off.

Our mandate is oversight, a senior counsel function holding watch over your whole business, paid for the peace of mind. That is the model we have built the firm around, because it is how legal risk is actually prevented rather than repaired.

We will still take on a one-off if you need it: a single contract, a once-off compliance question, a CCMA referral, a shareholder agreement drafted in a hurry. But the ad hoc model serves the lawyer more than the client. By the time a matter lands on our desk, the cost of fixing it is almost always higher than the cost of preventing it.

The oversight model lets us do the work we actually want to do: know your business, see the risk before it becomes a dispute, and hold continuous oversight of your legal function. It is how we form the longer, more meaningful relationships we believe legal work deserves.

Two ways to work with us

Ad Hoc

Scoped per matter. Billed per engagement. Available when you need a single piece of work done well.

Subscription

Ongoing senior counsel embedded in your business. Fixed monthly fee. The model we are building the firm around.

08 · Before we engage

Before we engage.

06 · Engagement

How It Works

Discovery

A 30-minute call to understand your business, your current legal exposure and your priorities. No obligation, no fee.

Proposal

A tailored proposal matching the right tier to your business, with a clear scope of service, onboarding plan, and standard work turnaround expectations.