A major multi-national company headquartered in Canada was faced with a challenge when a significant portion of the legal department departed and at the same time as a new General Counsel was brought in. The recent departures left several gaps to fill and required urgent attention. The client requested resources with expertise and capacity to support various full and part time mandates, ideally equipped with industry experience, including pharmaceutical and life sciences, to cover off general commercial needs, in addition to employment, procurement, privacy, and corporate governance. These resources would support various business units while the legal department was rebuilt.

After the company’s General Counsel expressed interest in Caravel as a solution, and provided context into the company’s current operations and needs, Caravel began the matching process. With a quick turnaround, two Caravel lawyers stepped in as fractional support to the GC, fulfilling the Life Sciences, Pharmaceutical, and General Commercial needs. Both lawyers provided on-going support as integrated members of the company’s legal department, eventually winning the trust and confidence of the internal client departments. 

Within the initial months of the original engagement, additional Caravel lawyers were engaged to oversee specialized industry agreements, as well as facilitate a major procurement project. As the company’s engagement with Caravel has evolved, the relationship has grown to include the additional support of Caravel’s Corporate Secretarial resources, and a Privacy expert. 

Having Caravel resources to lean on meant that the company’s new GC could: 

1. Delegate larger portions of legal work to project experts with relevant experience that could operate independently and lead within the department.  
2. Get the lay of the land and focus on identifying company specific needs that would inform the long-term re-building of the legal department. 
3. Move past the triaging phase and begin building and improving the legal department, going above and beyond what it once had been.  

The company received flexible legal support as a significant volume of work and internal coverage gaps were filled. They were matched with lawyers who understood the business and had industry specific expertise, and those with transferable expertise that could bring a new depth to the department. To date, the company has multiple resources both embedded in the company and providing ad hoc support as needed. After several successful matches, and a consistently positive experience with Caravel, their GC is able to leverage resources at Caravel, as needed, to get quick, flexible, and affordable support!