Fractional CLO services, employment advisory, governance, and risk management for companies scaling faster than their legal function. Senior counsel, embedded in your business — without the cost of a full-time hire.
Clearfork gives you a seasoned legal leader on demand — the judgment of a chief legal officer, scoped to what you actually need, when you need it.
Senior legal judgment applied to the decisions that move your business. Engage one area or all four — the work scales with you.
Embedded legal leadership for the issues a board and CEO actually face: risk, contracts, people, and transactions.
Deep, practical guidance on the workforce questions that carry the most exposure — from policy to investigations to disputes.
Policies, boards, ethics frameworks, and the operating discipline that keeps a scaling company out of trouble.
Contracts and transactions handled with commercial judgment, not just legal review — so deals close on terms that protect you and still get done.
Clearfork Strategic Counsel was built on a simple observation: most growing companies need senior legal leadership long before they can justify hiring it full-time. The result is risk handled too late, or expensive outside counsel engaged for work that calls for an embedded partner.
Clearfork closes that gap. We bring the perspective of a chief legal officer — someone who has sat on the inside, owned the outcomes, and answered to a board — at the scale a growing company can actually use.
James McBride is a Texas attorney whose practice spans employment and labor law, governance, and the work of in-house legal leadership. Before founding Clearfork, he practiced with an international employment law firm and went on to serve in senior in-house roles, leading HR operations and legal work for a large, multi-state enterprise.
That combination — outside-firm rigor and inside-the-business accountability — shapes how Clearfork works: advice grounded in what it takes to run a company, not just what the law allows.
Clear guidance on the legal questions growing companies actually face — written for leaders, not just lawyers. No jargon for its own sake; just what it means and what to do.
Policy, compliance, and people-risk explained in plain language.
Board, ethics, and compliance for scaling companies.
Commercial terms worth understanding before you sign.
When and how to bring senior legal leadership in-house.
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