The Value of Fractional GC and HR Services

I spoke with Monica Winghart and Doug Luftman, the Founders of Velocity Edge Advisors, a San Francisco-based legal and HR services firm. We discussed the value of combining on-demand legal and HR services, the rising interest in fractional GC services, and the importance of understanding a client's business to exceed expectations.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to Reinventing Professionals,a podcast hosted by industry analyst
Ari Kaplan, which shares ideas,guidance, and perspectives from market
leaders shaping the next generationof legal and professional services.
This is Ari Kaplan and I'm speakingtoday with Monica Wing Hart and

(00:24):
Doug Lman, the founders of VelocityEdge Advisors San Francisco
based legal and HR services firm.
Monica Doug.
Great to see you.
Nice to see you.
Good seeing you as well.
Monica, tell us about your background andthe genesis of Velocity Edge Advisors.

(00:44):
I took the traditional route outof law school, went to some big
firms, some smaller firms, andthen was an in-house attorney.
Worked my way to a gc andalong the way you get to see
what works and what doesn't.
Within legal departmentsand legal services.
And one of the common things that asI started my own practice voltage law,

(01:06):
I started seeing was legal is the lastparty to the table a lot of times.
And so you don't reallyget the good value add.
And then HR services are a sisterand kind to that often left behind.
And I thought there'sgotta be a better way.
I'd met Doug, 20 years ago, and Penny,our other co-founder not quite as

(01:30):
long ago, but also about a decade ago.
And, we just kept talkingabout a better way.
We've got so much value that canbe delivered, and we're doing that
with philosophy edge advisors.
Doug, tell us about your backgroundand how Velocity Edge Advisors
differs from other fractionalGC and HR executive firms.

(01:53):
I've been in SiliconValley for over 25 years.
Started my career at Fenwickand West as outside counsel.
And quickly heard the call of goingin-house and had been a legal executive
at a variety of different startupcompanies and mid-size and large public
companies as well for that period of time.
Monica and I have been talking about,this endeavor for some time and where

(02:15):
we came to the realization that itwas something unique and different and
actually something that provided evengreater value was looking at the fractions
you see as well as other firms that wereout there and realizing that each of
these different types of firms didn'taddress what we bring to the table.
Monica and I think, aretwo Ps from the same pod.
We've got technical backgrounds, we'vegot basically a legal background.

(02:36):
We've got business forward focuson things, and that really is the
underlying structure of velocity Edgeadvisors, both from the standpoint
of VC services and HR services.
It's really intended to be a, allin operational type approach of
offering services to companies.
That's a turnkey solution thatmakes it easy for people to plug
us in at any stage of the company,whether it's small, medium, or

(02:59):
large, private public companies.
Monica, what types oforganizations does velocity serve?
My personal sweet spot isstartup to scale of companies.
I just think they really get the bestbang for the buck when they work with us.
But we're often a really great fitfor the large companies as well.

(03:20):
Their GCs have a to-do list that sitson the corner of their desk and that.
They can't ever seem to get to.
And they can hand thosekinds of projects off to us.
So we're really a great fit smallcompany just starting to large,
established global entities.
And we work well with VCs privateequity companies because they often

(03:42):
have a need for ad hoc, legal andhr. And again we just are legal
as a service, HR as a service, andwe're right there ready for them.
Doug, how are you leveraging alternativefee arrangements at Velocity?
Legal as a service and HR as a serviceis really our sweet spot, is that

(04:03):
what we provide is an on-demand legaldepartment, an on-demand HR department.
That's a turnkey solution.
So we operate similar to if you hadyour own internal legal department
or HR department, you would've aline item in your budget that says,
I need these services, and we providethose services over months, if not
years, that a company might need it.
And so that's the initial.
Premise behind it is operating in amuch more business friendly approach.

(04:27):
We also provide other business friendlyapproaches, which is project-based
billing, which is, if you have verydiscreet types of projects, we can
engage in those as well through ourseasoned group of legal executives.
And then lastly, if they want to goback to a traditional billing, which
is, the traditional law firm model,we can offer, billing rates or billing
by the hour as well if necessary.

(04:48):
Monica, what prompted the decisionto add on-demand HR services to
your portfolio of legal services?
I mentioned that Penny and I have knowneach other for about a decade, and I'd
often used her as a resource for a lotof my clients at Voltage because we
needed, in addition to employment law.

(05:10):
Counseling.
We really needed HR operations work, andsince that's what she has always done and
she was a, she's great at it I'd workedwith her in that capacity as an add-on
service to my existing law firm clients.
So it was just a naturalevolutionary step to bring on
HR as a service into our group.

(05:34):
Doug, how has your team grownsince Velocity launched?
Monica, I thought that this would besuccessful and grow incrementally over
time, but I think the response from whatwe're talking about really has reaffirmed
what we suspected, which was there was areally long-term need for this type of on
demand legal department, HR department.
So I would say we'realready cash positive.

(05:55):
We already have over 20, 30 clients and.
We are engaged in companiesat a variety of levels.
And so just even from the start of thelaunch, it's been it's been an exciting
ride and we're growing our team everyday and trying to be very meticulous
as it relates to the quality of thepeople that we bring in and what they
do, and making sure that we scale justlike a legal department or HR department
with scale very methodically and useOzzy technology to help us really

(06:20):
operationalize everything we're doing.
So we're efficient in delivering,top-notch Fortune 100 quality
legal and HR services.
Are there specific issues or trendsthat are driving this market growth?
I think the piece that's missing a lotof times if you're working with a firm
that's maybe a little more hands off isthat you don't understand the business.

(06:43):
You don't understand the flowof how they're making decisions,
what they're really facing, what'son their horizon from a business
perspective, and then often.
If they've gone with maybe a fractional GCwho's on their own they can't necessarily
handle everything and there's no backfill.
So we are that sweet spot.

(07:04):
We are all GCs.
We all have our own deeplevels of expertise.
Doug's intellectual property, I'mip, data Privacy, cybersecurity.
We have folks that are deepin employment and hr, deep in
corporate, deep in m and a.
Deep in healthcare.
So you start adding all of thosetogether and suddenly you have something

(07:27):
which is incredibly unique and I canbe your point of contact, or Doug can
be your point of contact attorney.
And if something requires deeperexpertise it's right here on our team.
No large law firm or smallerlaw firm has that same unique
ability and can add that value.

(07:48):
Hand in hand.
Arm in arm with a clientthe way that we can,
the reason why Monica and I got togetherwas this business forward vision of
basically delivering legal services.
And I think that is really thefoundational piece of some of the things
that are going on now is that often youhear that HR and legal is a cost center.
You often hear it's the tower of no.
You hear that basically lawyers arenot necessarily attached to basically

(08:11):
the business close enough, and thatis completely counter to everything
that Monica, I believe, regarding it.
Legal and HR should be a. Center ofbasically helping companies operationalize
scale and accelerate what they're doing.
We should be able to intimately be ableto talk about the p and l, talk about
basically the corporate objectives,talk about the product, the technology.
And as Monica, was suggesting I. Weba, we all may have our specialties

(08:36):
in that we basically have had variousdifferent experiences in life.
But generally we are alloperating as general counsels.
We all are able to do everythingfrom corporate to transactional to
ip to privacy, to data governanceand employment and the like.
And that's I think what makesus pretty unique is that often
attorneys as they get more seniorspecialized and are able to give very
specific advice as it relates to it.

(08:56):
And when you're in-house, you generally,especially as a general counsel,
you really are elevating yourself.
As a, as an executive to providebusiness and legal advice bundled
together, as well as really lookingat everything at, from a big picture.
And I think that approach resonateswith CEOs and CFOs and others and
investors and the like, because theywant another piece of value coming in.

(09:17):
When you're asking to bring anexecutive and paying them, top dollar
to basically execute, you expecttop value as it relates to as well.
And that's what we deliver istop value for what we deliver.
One of my favorite moments, is when aclient that has traditionally only asked
legal questions to me starts callingand saying, I need your wise counsel.

(09:37):
And it's not about a legal issue.
It's really about a business decisionthat the company is about to make,
and they are just checking in.
That's when I know I'm reallypart of the team and they rely
on my expertise and I'm really.
Helping guide them with legaladvice that we're giving.

(09:59):
That's my favorite time.
Doug, how do you see thelegal industry evolving?
I think it's what we're already seeing andwhat is really differentiating us to begin
with is the expectation that when youbring a seasoned legal executive in, or HR
executive or even just business executive,that you are bringing in business value.

(10:20):
And I think that's what I would expectto see in the legal industry going
forward is this greater and greaterexpectation that general counsels and
other attorneys are really helpingwith the return on investment and
really showing the value that's beingbrought with regard to the business.
And how are you reallyhelping the business succeed.
This is Ari Kaplan speaking with MonicaWing Hart and Doug Lman, the founders

(10:43):
of Velocity Edge Advisors San Franciscobased legal and HR services firm.
Monica, Doug, wishing you thevery best of luck, and thank you
so much for joining me today.
Thank you, Ari.
Thanks Ari.
Appreciate it.
Thank you for listening to theReinventing Professionals Podcast.

(11:03):
Visit reinventing professionals.com orari kaplan advisors.com to learn more.