From Serving Entrepreneurs to Becoming One. How I Made The Jump.

Having worked with over 40 clients in early stage markets, I learned a few things about what it takes to jump off a cliff and try to disrupt an industry. I knew in my gut that the way things have always been done in the legal world had to go by the wayside to make room for ideas that are scary.

Speaking of scary, I quit my job at a great law firm where I was on a wonderful career path. As a new mom with student loans and all the other responsibilities that pile on once you start a family, leaving this security behind was, personally, one of the hardest steps I’ve ever taken, but I knew it was the right one.

I quit my job to become outsourced general counsel

To make this work, I needed to find a handful of companies that wanted what my first client, Parchment, had — all the benefits of having general counsel without the huge price tag. To do this right, I needed to prove the model with a handful of companies, get feedback, iterate, and learn from the companies that took this leap of faith with me.

Then I killed the billable hour. Economically, it simply doesn’t make sense to consume hours, or parts of hours, at the level that these companies need once hitting a certain stage of growth. I plan to write a lot about the traditional billable hour model, so I won’t go too deep on that here. What I’ll say now is that this model doesn’t serve most clients today, and is ripe for disruption. That’s what we are doing at Auxana.

We killed the billable hour at Auxana

Finally, I took my vision to the local community. I knocked on doors and called down my contact list. I was betting big that other companies wanted the advantages of having outsourced general counsel. I knew I was on to something, but I didn’t know how catchy it would be. Within a few months I had reached my goal number of clients and was organically beginning to grow a platform for more and more companies in the growth stage to partner with competent outsourced counsel. The list of businesses that wanted service was growing, as was the list of attorneys that wanted to move away from the traditional legal services model.

100% of the companies we talk with choose our flat fee legal service

That’s when I had another aha moment. There are 300,000 companies in the US that need this kind of service. We’re closing 100% of the companies we talk to about our flat fee general counsel service. This might have legs.

Which brings us to Auxana today. A place for companies to find quality outsourced general counsel.

By fixing the economic incentives and inserting ourselves into the day-to-day operations of the company, we’re able to provide a level of service that hasn’t been an option for companies in this range before.

I’m so excited to bring Auxana to the market. The need is apparent and the time is right.

“Beth’s extensive knowledge of our industry and business helps us keep ahead of the ever-changing SaaS industry. Extremely efficient, business-oriented, and personable, Beth doesn’t fall back on legal jargon. Responsive to business requests, she’s a valued strategic partner to Sales, Marketing, Finance,   our customers—and played a significant role in our successful $55 million funding round. Her proactive counsel has proven invaluable and we cannot recommend Auxana Legal enough.” – Colleen Shannon, CFO, CampusLogic

Want to learn more about how we’re doing it? Ready to save money on legal services while getting better, more personalized service? Schedule a call with one of our expert attorneys.

Beth Lebowitz, CEO, Founder, and General Counsel