What does a good in-house lawyer actually do? A breakdown for non-legal teams

If your company is growing, you’ve probably wondered:

‍Do we need to hire a lawyer?

It’s a common question for founders, COOs, and CFOs at small and mid-sized businesses. Legal work starts to pile up—contracts, policies, compliance requests—but hiring a full-time in-house lawyer can feel like a big leap.

To make that decision, it helps to understand what in-house lawyers actually do. Not just what they studied in law school, but the real, day-to-day work they handle inside companies like yours.

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In-House Legal: More Than Just Contracts

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At its core, the role of an in-house lawyer is to help a company operate legally, responsibly, and with as little risk as possible. That means understanding the business, identifying legal obligations, and making sure the company meets them.

Here are the five key areas most in-house lawyers manage:

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1. Contracts and Commercial Work

Drafting and reviewing customer, vendor, and partnership agreements
Negotiating terms that protect the company and keep deals moving
Managing templates and contract workflows across departments
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2. Compliance and Risk

Ensuring the company meets data protection, employment, and corporate requirements
Responding to audits, regulator questions, or due diligence requests
Maintaining internal policies and tracking obligations
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3. Internal Legal Operations

Organizing legal documents and policies in a central, auditable way
Managing legal workflows and approvals
Maintaining up-to-date records for risk, compliance, and contract obligations
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4. Stakeholder Engagement

Advising leadership on legal risks in business decisions
Supporting teams like sales, HR, and product with legal insight
Coordinating with external law firms when needed
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5. Ongoing Monitoring and Management

Staying on top of changing regulations
Managing legal timelines, renewals, and obligations
Creating systems to keep legal work efficient and error-free
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These responsibilities require more than legal knowledge—they require process, judgment, and integration with the rest of the business. That’s why experienced in-house counsel are so valuable—and also why they’re expensive to hire.

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Why This Work Still Needs to Be Done—Even Without a Lawyer

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Even if you don’t have a legal department, most of the work listed above is still happening. It’s just distributed across the business:

The COO is reviewing contracts.
The CFO is responding to data privacy assessments.
The founder is writing policies from scratch.
The sales team is following up on redlines or NDAs.

These tasks take time, introduce risk, and often fall outside team members' expertise. Without a legal background or supporting systems, it’s easy to miss important details or slow down business operations.

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Veraty: An In-House Legal Team in an AI Platform

Veraty is designed to take on the same core responsibilities as an in-house lawyer—without the cost or complexity of hiring one.

With Veraty, non-legal teams can:

Identify the correct legal workflows for contracts, policies, and compliance
Create tailored legal documents in seconds, not days
Review and complete complex forms, DDQs, and questionnaires
Manage legal data, documents, and obligations in one place
Engage with stakeholders and external counsel when needed

By combining AI agents with a unified legal data foundation, Veraty makes legal work repeatable, auditable, and fast—even for non-lawyers.

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When to Hire vs. When to Automate

Hiring an in-house lawyer can make sense when:

You’re operating in highly regulated industries
You need constant legal input on business decisions
You’re managing complex litigation or global compliance

But for many SMBs, the majority of legal work is repeatable, document-driven, and can be automated with the right system.

Veraty gives growing businesses access to the same legal support large companies rely on—without the overhead. It’s the missing layer between doing everything yourself and hiring a full legal team.

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Explore What Veraty Can Take Off Your Plate

If your team is already doing legal work without a legal background, it’s time for a better system.

👉 Start your free trial to see how Veraty can help your team manage legal work with speed, accuracy, and confidence—just like a great in-house lawyer would.

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