Contract Attorney & Of Counsel Services
Outsourcing work is nothing new in the legal community. Contract attorneys have been around for many years, typically retained by large law firms to conduct document reviews in response to a subpoena duces tecum or a request for production of documents. In such projects, contract attorneys review tens of thousands, if not millions, of pages of documents and mark them as responsive to a particular request, or protected as attorney work product or under the attorney-client privilege.
Nowadays, however, there is an increasing need for the expanded roll of the contract attorney, particularly as the practice of law has become more sophisticated and specialized. Many small to medium sized law firms can benefit from the use of contract attorneys in fields other than litigation. Many national temp agencies recognized this need and have created legal temp divisions that regularly advertise in local bar journals. Often the problems with these temp agencies are their higher prices, unwanted marketing and sales presentations, unsolicited telephone calls, commission-based sales force, not to mention the quality of the work product by the ever-changing group of contract attorneys. These attorneys are often recent law school graduates awaiting bar results, or those unable to secure regular employment for various reasons. And, if you have success with a contract attorney and want to retain them for an extended period of time, you have an obligation to pay an enormous commission to the temp agency.
To avoid these temp agencies, many law firms have direct marketing campaigns in local bar journals or on popular internet sites like Craigslist. The problem with this approach is the law firm often expends numerous hours in administration, calculating pay checks or risking independent contractor status which may or may not be appropriate. The senior attorneys also spend hours interviewing candidates.
How We Serve Our Clients
Having represented both emerging and established businesses in their most important business transactions, from start-up through raising capital, mergers and acquisitions, and beyond, our attorneys have the depth of experience to provide both contract and of counsel services to other firms in corporate and transactional matters. We also provide sophisticated investigative services for high-profile securities and class action litigation. Most importantly, our services and rates are flexible so they can be tailored for the needs of each individual law firm. For more information about our contract and of counsel services and how we can serve your law firm's needs, please contact us.
