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General Counsel Services

Trusted. Your first call.

Because the C-suite can sometimes be a lonely place, decision makers need business advisors who they can trust to act as their collaborators and go-to problem solvers โ€” someone reliable, their first call. Members of our General Counsel Services (GCS) team invest time to deeply understand each clientโ€™s business to earn their trust and build lasting relationships with their leadership team.

As outside advisors to your team and operating as โ€œdeep generalists,โ€ we strive to counsel each client from a place of trust and common understanding, with a view toward the opportunities and competitive dynamics shaping their industry. Our approach not only enhances client business knowledge; it also creates greater efficiencies in helping you navigate potential roadblocks and achieve key strategic objectives driving the companyโ€™s success.

We believe that a trusted legal advisor is an essential asset and competitive edge for our business clients.

Many growing companies inevitably outgrow their in-house and outside advisers, reaching a point where status quo thinking, combined with most attorneysโ€™ extremely low risk tolerance (contrary to most of their clientsโ€™ risk appetites), places unnecessary checks on and impediments to the forward progression of the business. Our GCS attorneys differentiate themselves from the prevailing legal services delivery model by being:

  • Strategic in focus
  • Proactive in identifying risks and opportunities
  • Getting our clients to โ€œyesโ€ in equipping and empowering business operations
  • Identifying and leveraging risks for opportunity, not just focusing on eliminating or reducing all risks
  • Acting as a trusted business advisor, not just an outside legal specialist that you sporadically contact for various transactions

It all starts with, and hinges on, the deep, trusting relationships we forge with clients. You will find that our GCS attorneys invest significant non-billable time up front, building a trusting relationship with your team and a studied understanding of your businessโ€™s challenges and opportunities. We then provide timely access, where advantageous, to our firmโ€™s deep bench of legal specialists, who will assist in providingย  pragmatic advice, along with practical tools and resources to address and resolve dynamic issues.ย 

General Counsel Services Team

Get a fresh, informed perspective on your business. Connect with a GCS team member today.

Beth Schneider Naylor Profile Image
Beth Schneider Naylor

Member

Cincinnati, OH

E. Todd Wilkowski Profile Image
E. Todd Wilkowski

Member

West Chester, OH

Mekesha H. Montgomery Profile Image
Mekesha H. Montgomery

Industry Team Leader

Nashville, TN

Eric J. Beecher Profile Image
Eric J. Beecher

Senior Associate

Cincinnati, OH

West Chester, OH

Gregory S. Shumate Profile Image
Gregory S. Shumate

Office Member-in-Charge

Florence, KY

Maureen A. Bickley Profile Image
Maureen A. Bickley

Vice Office Member-in-Charge

Cincinnati, OH

Courtney Gahm-Oldham Photo
Courtney B. Gahm-Oldham

Member

Houston, TX

Jordan S. Blask Profile Image
Jordan S. Blask

Office Member-in-Charge

Pittsburgh, PA

Brian Cooper
Brian Michael Cooper

Member

Houston, TX

Jesse D. Wilson Profile Image
Jesse D. Wilson

Counsel

Indianapolis, IN

Yazan S. Ashrawi Profile Image
Yazan S. Ashrawi

Member

Columbus, OH

Kelly W. Schulz Profile Image
Kelly W. Schulz

Member

Louisville, KY

Alan S. Meek Profile Image
Alan S. Meek

Member

Lexington, KY

Lucas T. Elliot Profile Image
Lucas T. Elliot

Member

Nashville, TN

Houston, TX

Jared M. Tully Profile Image
Jared M. Tully

Practice Group Vice-Chair

Charleston, WV

Edward W. Moore, Jr. Profile Image
Edward W. Moore, Jr.

Office Member-in-Charge

Dallas, TX

Katie Capito
Katherine Brings Capito

Member

Charleston, WV

Unique Value Proposition

We do more than simply tend to your legal needs. Learn about our distinctive approach.

Leveraging Risk

There is risk associated with every move your business makes. If you want to grow, we will assist you in thinking about how to achieve your growth while leveraging (not just reducing or eliminating) risk. Compared with some legal advisors who are adept at saying โ€œnoโ€ and primarily tell their clients why they shouldnโ€™t engage in a particular business activity, we understand risk correlates to reward and is a necessary element for increased profitability and growth. We do not mind risk; however, we prefer calculated risk that can be leveraged to allow for additional opportunity and sustainable growth. We listen to your desired objectives and focus on โ€œgetting you to yesโ€ to empower your business.

We know that a companyโ€™s growth requires hiring and retaining new talent, acquiring strategic targets, and expanding into new markets with new products and customers. We, along with our firmโ€™s industry teams, are committed to helping you and your team identify the most profitable or damaging risks associated with any move your company contemplates. This allows us to better assist you in developing processes and strategies to overcome roadblocks and progress toward sustained, profitable growth.

Strategic, Big Picture Perspective

Many of our GCS team members have regularly counseled and/or served in companiesโ€™ executive leadership teams across a variety of industries. We function as โ€œdeep generalists,โ€ bringing to bear the strategic viewpoint needed to diagnose a wide range of potential issues. We also appreciate the dynamic daily changes, โ€œfire drills,โ€ and opportunities inherent in running a business and can quickly and strategically assess how one apparently isolated decision can significantly impact the companyโ€™s overall operations.

We bring both passion and an avowed commitment to only providing value-added advice and services that empower, not impede, your strategic growth and development objectives. We never learn on your dime. Rather, we invest the time to understand the business, identify areas where we can add value, and only start the clock when providing actionable legal advice or resources.

Act, Do Not React

Our GCS attorneys are proactive, not reactive, problem solvers that work collaboratively with your team to develop customized and readily implementable solutions based on years of experience in creatively advising businesses in entrepreneurial and high-growth industries. We see a lot of deals and are exposed to lessons learned/best practices with myriad clients, and we share that experience with you. Foremost, we are resourceful and determined in helping you achieve your goalsโ€”with the requisite skills and foresight, honed through experienceโ€”to help you vet important decisions and ensure that all potential positive and adverse impacts are factored into the decision calculus.

Rich Resources

Our GCS team is a cross-practice group that contains former general counsel/chief legal officers and senior level in-house counsel and other talented lawyers who share a common denominator: we focus on being โ€œa businessperson that happened to go to law school,โ€ not the kind of lawyer who cannot see the big picture or is overly obsessed with risk to the detriment of your commercial success. We have tremendous resources within our firm, including more than 500 legal specialists (many with a focus on specific industries) across nine states and Washington, D.C., as well as an established outside network of trusted advisors in all disciplines. Should an issue warrant supplemental support, we can engage these specialists to timely and effectively deliver practical, tried and true value-added advice and outstanding โ€œready to useโ€ work product.

Supporting Evidence

Explore our latest insights on the legal issues impacting your business.