Your legal department,on retainer.
Most growing companies need a General Counsel long before they can justify one. Our Fractional GC model gives founders and management a named partner who knows the business, answers the same day, runs the contract desk, keeps the compliance calendar and reports to the board, for a predictable monthly fee, across the UAE, India and the USA.
Between the first hire and the first in-house lawyer, companies typically run legal work through a patchwork of ad-hoc firm engagements, template contracts and founder judgment. The result is predictable: inconsistent contracts, missed regulatory deadlines, employment issues handled late and diligence at the next funding round that surfaces problems investors price in. A fractional General Counsel closes that gap with continuity rather than transactions.
The model is simple. RPLC UAE becomes your legal department. A founding partner acts as your GC, supported by our team, on a monthly retainer scoped to your volume: contract drafting and negotiation, commercial and vendor terms, employment across the UAE Labour Law and Indian labour codes, policy suites, corporate housekeeping, regulatory monitoring across the jurisdictions you operate in, board and shareholder matters, and the triage of anything unusual to the right specialist. We sit in your tools, your Slack and your management meetings.
Led by Raunak Rane, who has run companies as well as advised them, the practice is built for technology and financial businesses operating between the UAE and India: the same team that advises on VARA, PDPL, DPDPA and cross-border venture becomes the team that reads your customer contract on a Tuesday afternoon. Clients scale the retainer up as they grow and, when the time comes, we help hire and hand over to a full-time GC.
Every mandate is staffed by a founding partner and a small, dedicated team. Where formal representation before UAE courts or authorities is required, we instruct and coordinate registered Emirati advocates so that clients receive one accountable file across legal consultancy and formal representation. Cross-border work between the UAE, India and the USA is run from the same file, with local counsel engaged where applicable law requires.
A founding partner as your General Counsel with defined response times, a monthly scope of hours or matters, direct access for management and attendance at leadership and board meetings.
Drafting, review and negotiation of customer, vendor, SaaS, partnership, NDA and services agreements, with template suites, playbooks and fallback positions so that sales can move quickly.
Employee handbooks, IT and acceptable-use policies, privacy and data-protection policies, anti-bribery, whistleblowing and code of conduct, maintained as the business and the law change.
UAE Labour Law and free-zone employment rules, Indian labour codes, offer letters and contracts, remote and cross-border employment, performance and termination processes and dispute prevention.
A single calendar of corporate, licensing, tax-coordination, data-protection and sector-regulatory deadlines across the UAE, India and the USA, with monitoring of regulatory change that affects you.
Board and shareholder resolutions, registers, UBO and ESR-related filings coordination, licence renewals, cap-table maintenance and investor reporting support.
Vendor due diligence and contract standards, trademark and IP portfolio management, insurance coordination, incident response and litigation-risk triage.
Scaling the retainer through funding rounds and market entries, support for fundraising diligence, and structured hiring and handover to a full-time General Counsel when the business is ready.
The work, on record.
Client names withheld under counsel duties; details rendered indicative.
Fractional GC for a HealthTech scale-up across UAE and India
Fully outsourced legal function on a monthly retainer: contract desk, policy suite, health-data compliance coordination, employment across Dubai and Pune, board reporting and regulatory monitoring through a Series B.
Contract desk and playbook for a B2B SaaS company
Built the customer-contract suite, negotiation playbook and DPA templates for a Dubai SaaS company selling to GCC enterprises, reducing average contract cycle time from six weeks to nine days.
Interim GC through licensing and Series A
Acted as interim General Counsel for a payments fintech during its CBUAE licence application and Series A: regulator correspondence, investor diligence, employment build-out and the hiring and handover to a full-time GC.
Outsourced legal department for a trading and distribution group
Monthly retainer covering distribution and agency agreements, employment across 200 staff, corporate housekeeping for eight entities and dispute triage for a UAE–India family-owned group.
Fractional General Counsel
Reading, between the codes.
Speak to the practice.
A discreet, no-obligation first conversation, usually within one working day. Urgent matters are triaged the same day.