ELSIE BROTHERTON
Fractional in-house counsel · Strategic support

Legal counsel and strategic support for growing companies.

I advise founders and leadership teams on legal and commercial matters, and help advance important company initiatives. My work combines legal training with firsthand experience building and operating a multi-location business.

Elsie Brotherton
Emory J.D. · Federal judicial clerkship · Founder and CEO
Georgia-admitted attorneyEmory J.D. · federal clerkship
Founder & CEOBuilt Highland Yoga since 2015
Multi-market builderBrand, growth, contracts, systems
Operator perspectiveLegal advice grounded in execution
Services

Legal counsel and strategic execution.

Support can be scoped around recurring legal needs, a defined business initiative, or a combination of both.

01 / LEGAL

Fractional in-house legal support

Ongoing, practical counsel for companies that need an experienced legal partner before a full-time hire makes sense.

  • Commercial agreements and negotiation
  • Vendor, customer, and partnership terms
  • Legal issue triage and risk analysis
  • Legal workflows and outside-counsel coordination
  • Confirming scope and coordinating specialist counsel when needed
02 / STRATEGY

Strategic and commercial support

Focused analysis and execution support for a consequential decision or growth initiative—not a generic strategy deck.

  • Assessing a partnership or new offering
  • Market expansion and pricing questions
  • Business cases and practical options
  • Founder and leadership special projects
03 / WORKFLOWS

AI-enabled workflow advisory

Practical assessment and pilot design for repeatable processes where existing AI or automation tools may help.

  • Map the current process and bottlenecks
  • Identify bounded, lower-risk use cases
  • Design human review and escalation controls
  • Define test criteria before expanding a pilot
Who I work with

Experienced support for lean, growing teams.

A strong fit for founders and leadership teams that need practical legal judgment, an operator’s perspective, or help moving a defined initiative forward—without adding a full-time executive or lawyer.

01 / COUNSEL

No in-house legal team

You have recurring commercial questions, agreements to negotiate, or legal work to coordinate, but not enough volume for a full-time counsel hire.

02 / DECISIONS

A consequential choice

You are weighing a partnership, new offering, market expansion, or other decision that needs clear options and an executable next step.

03 / WORKFLOWS

Processes that should work better

Your team relies on repeated manual handoffs and wants to assess whether better process design, automation, or a carefully scoped AI pilot could help.

Professional background

Legal training and firsthand operating experience.

I bring legal analysis together with the perspective of a founder accountable for business outcomes.

I earned my J.D. at Emory Law, edited the Emory Law Journal, served as a federal judicial clerk, and practiced commercial litigation. In 2015, I founded Highland Yoga and grew it from one Atlanta studio into a regional, multi-location business. My responsibilities included market expansion, real estate and leases, pricing, brand, hiring, partnerships, and operating systems.

I also created and sold Training Collective, a consumer fitness marketplace. That experience informs how I approach legal work: advice should account for commercial objectives, available resources, and the practical demands of implementation.

I currently provide fractional in-house counsel support to a startup and am building a practice focused on helping companies address legal needs and high-priority business questions as they grow.

View my LinkedIn profile ↗

Legal trainingEmory J.D. · Law Review editor · federal judicial clerkship · commercial litigation
Founder and operatorBuilt Highland Yoga from one Atlanta studio into a regional, multi-location business
Venture creationCreated and sold Training Collective, a consumer fitness marketplace
AI-enabled operations

Agentic workflows require defined scope and oversight.

I have introduced CRM, automation, and AI-enabled processes into an operating business. My current work is focused on workflow assessment, process design, and carefully scoped pilot planning—not custom model engineering or unattended decision-making.

Depending on the tools and scope, I can help map a process, identify a bounded use case, design human review and escalation, and define how to test a pilot. If a project needs substantial software engineering or production integrations, that work should be separately scoped with a qualified technical partner.

For legal-adjacent workflows, the goal is to improve support and consistency while keeping legal judgment and accountability with people.

Common starting points

Bring a defined question—or help define one.

These are examples of the kinds of scoped work we could discuss, not promises of a particular result or descriptions of confidential client matters.

01 / COMMERCIAL

Assess a partnership

Clarify the business objective, key terms, risks, negotiation priorities, and when specialist legal input is needed.

02 / GROWTH

Evaluate a new initiative

Compare a new offering or market opportunity, surface assumptions and tradeoffs, and outline practical steps to test the idea.

03 / WORKFLOW

Scope a responsible pilot

Map a recurring process, identify a bounded automation opportunity, define human review, and set measures for a limited pilot.

How an engagement works

Clear scope before the work begins.

Engagements can be ongoing legal support, a defined strategy project, or a workflow assessment. Scope, availability, deliverables, and fees are agreed up front.

01

Discuss the need

Start with the company, the issue, and what a useful outcome would look like. Please avoid sending confidential details before an engagement is established.

02

Confirm scope

For legal work, conflicts and authorized scope are confirmed before a written engagement agreement. Strategy and workflow projects use a defined scope and deliverables.

03

Deliver and adjust

Work proceeds against agreed priorities, with clear communication about open questions, decisions, and next steps.

Frequently asked questions

A few practical details.

What kinds of companies do you work with?

I work with founders and growing teams that need practical legal support, help with a consequential business decision, or a thoughtful review of a recurring workflow. We can use an initial conversation to determine whether the need and scope are a fit.

What legal work can you handle, and where are you admitted?

I am admitted in Georgia. Legal services are limited to matters I am authorized and competent to handle. We confirm jurisdiction and scope before legal work begins; matters requiring specialized or additional counsel can be separately scoped or referred.

How are engagements scoped and priced?

Work may be structured as ongoing monthly counsel or as a defined strategy or workflow project. Scope, availability, deliverables, timing, and fees are agreed in writing before work begins.

What does AI workflow advisory include?

It can include process mapping, use-case selection, human-review and escalation design, and a plan for testing a limited pilot with appropriate tools. It is not custom model engineering or unattended legal decision-making; technical implementation beyond the agreed scope should involve a qualified technical partner.

Does an inquiry create an attorney-client relationship?

No. An email or introductory conversation does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential information before conflicts are checked and a written engagement agreement is in place.

Contact

Discuss a potential engagement.

Share a few general details about your company, the kind of support you are seeking, and your timing. I’ll follow up to determine whether a conversation makes sense.

Before you contact mePlease do not include confidential or sensitive information in this inquiry, email, text message, or voicemail. These channels may not be secure. Contacting me does not create an attorney-client relationship; representation begins only after conflicts are cleared and a written engagement agreement is in place.

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