Case Studies
Whale Communications (acquired by Microsoft)
“General Counsel Solutions’ business model made perfect sense for Whale, just as it does for many other companies. Dealing with law firms can be a frustrating and expensive experience, especially when law firms have their own idea of what a successful engagement means that does not necessarily match with their client’s ideas. General Counsel Solutions removes headaches instead of adding to them.”
— Arnon Maman, former CFO of Whale CommunicationsCompany
Whale Communications is a pioneer in secure application layer access and a technology leader since its establishment in 1998. Whale has helped Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies as well as government and public sector organizations around the world to extend their reach. Over two million employees, business partners and customers securely and easily access their critical business applications and resources through Whale’s Intelligent Application Gateway products. Whale was acquired by Microsoft.
Their Pain
Whale demonstrates the international versatility of our offering. Whale was based in Israel with a sales and marketing office in Fort Lee, New Jersey to handle North America. Whale’s original general counsel was leaving to pursue another opportunity, and it needed someone with the requisite level of experience to manage all of their worldwide legal affairs who could hit the ground running. A top multinational law firm was trying to position itself as being able to provide general counsel services, but their billing practices and approach made General Counsel Solutions the easy choice for Whale.
Our Solution
General Counsel Solutions initially provided a full-time, senior-level General Counsel to work on-site in New Jersey. Within a few months we were able to understand the business, function as general counsel, and assess the Company’s long term legal requirements. General Counsel Solutions then recommended that Whale itself hire a mid-level attorney to handle many of the day-to-day contract related issues and tasks that arose, with the GCS-Network General Counsel cutting his time to three days per week, with only one of those days being on-site. Once that mid-level attorney was on board and acclimated, we involved another attorney from our network in Israel, and the GCS-Network General Counsel stepped back to on as-needed role. As a result, the legal responsibilities for EMEA were handled by a GCS-Network Attorney in Israel and for North America were handled by the mid-level attorney in New Jersey, with GCS managing the process.
InfoHedge Technologies
“Making certain that we receive the legal services we need to protect our investors and better serve our clients and partners is of paramount importance to us. Outsourcing all of our legal needs to General Counsel Solutions does just that – it allows us to focus on our core business while receiving comprehensive top notch legal services without the high price tag.”
— Alexander Kouperman, President of InfoHedgeCompany
InfoHedge Technologies is a provider of IT services to the alternative investment industry. InfoHedge’s services include complete or partial outsourcing of systems and infrastructure management, disaster planning and recovery, compliance technology, tactical and strategic consulting, and financial technology integration and development.
Their Pain
InfoHedge Technologies needed the expertise of a senior-level attorney, but the requirements were not full-time, and the workload simply did justify paying the kind of salary or stock options that would be necessary to attract the right individual. In addition, the Company wanted to utilize law firms only if and when necessary.
Our Solution
General Counsel Solutions fulfills the general counsel role by providing a GCS-Network Attorney to manage the tactical and strategic legal issues that InfoHedge faces, including contract drafting and negotiation, general corporate work, employment and HR matters, and coordinating with outside counsel as necessary. InfoHedge also recognizes the value of having a single point of contact for all of their legal issues.
LogicLibrary (acquired by SOA Software)
“General Counsel Solutions’ global network of skilled attorneys provides us with top-notch legal services at a fraction of traditional costs. Having access to these attorneys on-demand, and knowing that General Counsel Solutions is managing the entire process, allows me to focus on my core responsibilities and sleep better at night.
General Counsel Solutions’ unique business model has not only met our legal and business needs, it has exceeded our expectations.”
— Mark Vernalis, former CFO of LogicLibraryCompany
LogicLibrary is a leading provider of software and services that help organizations manage their software development assets. The company serves Global 2000 enterprises that value application development – in-house or outsourced – as a competitive advantage, but also to increase productivity and reduce costs. LogicLibrary’s Logidex is a design-time metadata repository and registry that helps enterprises manage, reuse and govern their software development assets for use in service-oriented architectures and other application development initiatives. LogicLibrary was acquired by SOA Software.
Their Pain
LogicLibrary’s VP Sales contacted General Counsel Solutions because their standard contracts were causing delays to their sales process. The contracts were too long and one-sided, and too many deals were getting stalled in customer legal departments and were having to be written on customer paper because the customers balked at LogicLibrary’s standard agreements. The Company wanted a new set of contracts (e.g., software license, professional services, maintenance, nondisclosure, reseller, international distributor, etc.). Management was also concerned about having sales account executives getting too deeply involved in the contract negotiation process.
Our Solution
We met with the CEO, CFO and VP Sales to learn more about the company and its products and services, its thresholds for risk, recurring issues that their own clients had raised and the resolution of those issues, and the contract negotiation and review process which had previously existed, All standard company contracts were then rewritten to accomplish LogicLibrary’s objectives to have shorter more concise agreements which appropriately balance protecting the company while giving clients fair and reasonable terms. Because sometimes the Company lead with a professional services engagement and the software was purchased sometime thereafter, General Counsel Solutions created a new agreement to reflect this situation so that customers would not have to negotiate duplicate terms when subsequently making the software purchase; rather, a product schedule could be added to a services agreement instead of the customer having to enter into a completely new software license agreement. LogicLibrary was so pleased with the work that General Counsel Solutions had done, the GCS-Network Attorney was asked to become their deal negotiator in support of their sales and business development teams. This allowed account executives to become more productive, gave the company executives confidence that LogicLibrary’s interests were being protected for the long-term, and provided better insight into whether and when deals were going to happen and at what price. LogicLibrary generally required about 20 hours per month.
Tessman Technology Ltd.
“We were completely taken by surprise by the lawsuit against us, since we were the ones who were owed money! Our company was never even involved in a lawsuit before, much less in another country. From the start, General Counsel Solutions assumed responsibility for the entire process.
They identified a law firm that was right for us, kept legal fees down as much as possible, and served as a focal point for the tremendous amount of activities required during litigation. I felt like I had a business partner who was just as interested in our getting a successful resolution as we were.”
— Dr. Deirdre Tessman, Managing Director of Tessman TechnologyCompany
Tessman Technology is a contract research organization specializing in the management of oncology drug development. The company, which is based in Scotland, offers a range of services to the pharmaceutical industry including strategic planning, drug development, consultation, clinical trial clearance, conduct of phase I - III clinical trials including selection of investigators, post marketing clinical studies and preparation of registration documentation. Long-established collaborations with major cancer centers in the United Kingdom and Ireland allow for efficient placement of studies to ensure maximum patient enrolment within the shortest time frame. Members of staff have led oncology project teams which have been instrumental in obtaining parallel marketing authorization in the US and Europe.
Their Pain
Tessman Technology was named as a defendant in litigation by a publicly traded pharmaceutical company based in New York. It was believed that the lawsuit was initiated for the purpose of negotiating down the substantial fees and other compensation owed to Tessman Technology. Tessman Technology had no experience with litigation in the United States, and while very successful, it could not compete with the financial resources of a publicly traded company.
Our Solution
General Counsel Solutions provided access to a GCS-Network Attorney in New York to act as the project manager for the litigation. We were able to identify and introduce the client to a law firm with whom GCS has a relationship to handle the litigation at a discounted rate, with the GCS-Network Attorney acting as the single point of contact for both the company and the law firm in order to minimize the disruption to Tessman Technology’s management and to further help keep legal fees down. The case was ultimately settled prior to trial. The number of hours per month varied greatly depending upon the phase of litigation, typically ranging from 5 hours per month to 40 hours per month.
