Food Law General Counsel

Food manufacturing is a special industry that deserves its own special relationship with legal counsel. That special relationship starts with three foundational pillars: comprehensive expertise in regulatory and commercial food industry law; predictable billing that enables deep integration; and a temperament that invites every team member to seek the advice of counsel. Legal services with these characteristics can be delivered only through a general counsel relationship—an embedded arrangement that ensures continuous access, disciplined budgeting, and alignment with operations from the C-suite to the plant floor.

A good General Counsel for a food business needs to be two-thirds industry specialist and one-third business law generalist. One third of the specialist expertise requires command of FDA, USDA, and TTB regulation, as well as other oddball laws that affect manufacturing and labeling like California’s Proposition 65. These food-specific regulations will encompass labeling and claims, food safety compliance, and recall readiness. Another third of the specialist expertise requires mastery of the commercial deals that move food up and down the supply chain. This would include understanding co-packer and private-label agreement, broker and distributor agreements, and product-development agreements. The final-third is a mix of those sturdy general practice areas that all businesses need (not just food businesses). This includes trademark management and docketing, employment law and employee discipline, review of service, vendor, and customer contracts—the daily churn. With a balanced stack like this, a General Counsel can address about 95 percent of the legal issues a food manufacturer will face before going public.

The billable hour cannot practically deliver the integrated, comprehensive legal service a food manufacturer requires. Services that must embed across operations stall when every conversation is metered. Management will not unleash staff to consult counsel when monthly cost is a moving target. The six-minute increment is incompatible with the continuous collaboration needed to deliver comprehensive legal expertise. A general counsel model must be coupled with a flat fee structure that is both equitable for the attorney and predictable for the business.

The flat fee is the catalyst for vastly improved decision-making by team members. A fixed monthly legal line item unlocks early contact across departments. The flat monthly fee becomes a CEO-level tool placed at the team’s disposal. It empowers team members to make confident, timely decisions with an expert legal perspective. Trust rises, alignment tightens, and decisions consistently reflect the company’s best interests.

One of the most important aspects of a General Counsel for a food business is also the most intangible: temperament matters a lot. Legal skills and fee structure are meaningless unless people actually want to use legal counsel as a daily resource. Good food law counsel speaks “manufacturer.” Legal advice needs to align with industry norms and operational practice. General counsels don’t write law review articles – legal writing must be clear and intelligible to plant managers and marketing professionals. Contracts must be written in language that plant managers can understand and apply on the production floor. And it all has to flow at the speed of commerce – production and sales drive the company, and legal counsel needs to understand that it’s their job to facilitate commerce, never to obstruct it.

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