Counsel fees are only part of the burn. Funders who model "external only" miss the internal line items that decide whether Tranche 2 is viable.
Belongs in the budget model
- In-house legal & compliance time — hourly or FTE allocation.
- Project management — war room, tasking, vendor orchestration.
- Data room & IT — hosting, OCR, access control, forensic images.
- Translation & local counsel coordination — especially cross-border.
- Board & executive review — often underestimated in group claims.
What we exclude from "internal"
Ordinary business operations unrelated to the dispute should not be loaded into the litigation budget—unless they are incremental because of the case.
Illustrative only. Not legal or accounting advice. Your counsel should map line items to jurisdiction and evidence rules.
Related: The true cost stack.