In a recent Law360.com article, Rachel Rippetoe discusses the growing need for legal staffing platforms for small law firms. Through conversations with law firms and legal entrepreneurs, Rachel gives insight into the emerging field of freelance law.
Stephen Duane was working on a high-priority project for his small Florida law firm in 2017, feeling increasingly overwhelmed as it drew his attention away from another pile of work on his desk filled with still-urgent but slightly less pressing matters. “I felt like, ‘Man, I really wish I could hand this pile of work off and have somebody clear it off my desk,'” he told Law360 Pulse.
Stephen imagined many other small firms needed extra help on important work but didn’t have the money or time to hire another full-time attorney or paralegal. Having a network of freelance attorneys specializing in a range of practice areas who could help firms on a contract basis would solve that problem.
Erin Giglia met friend and Montage Legal Group co-founder Laurie Rowen when they were associates at Snell & Wilmer LLP. Erin tells Rachel how they quickly bonded because they were both pregnant, and as they moved through their pregnancies and the months after their babies were born, both realized that the traditional law firm life wasn’t going to work for them. But with their experience in BigLaw, Erin said the pair realized they had a marketable skill as freelance attorneys. “Our thought was, we’re very experienced, well-trained attorneys. We’ve done extensive amounts of very high-level substantive litigation. So at this point, we would be extremely valuable to a small firm that needed extra help from someone who really knew what they were doing.”
In her interview with Erin, Rachel learns “The reason why the smaller firms use Montage is essentially because they want to be more available to their clients, they want to be available to take on more client work, so they bring in outside folks that can be there during those busy times and who they are not really beholden to on a long-term basis.” Erin also adds “If the case settles and the matter closes or a deal closes, at that point, those freelance attorneys can go on their way.”
Montage Legal Group uses a unique business model to give law firms and legal departments access to a platform of independent contractor freelance attorneys that handle temporary or contract legal work remotely on an hourly or project basis. Montage handles administrative and billing tasks, allowing law firms and freelance lawyers to focus on legal projects. Whether a law firm needs law and motion work, business documents, or document review — or needs expertise in a specialty practice — law firms can turn to Montage to find the exact type of freelance lawyer they need.
Montage’s platform of freelance attorneys is the top of the “contract attorney market,” with impressive credentials from top law schools and prestigious law firms. Just as an artistic montage unites simple elements to create a beautiful art form, our “montage” of freelance attorneys unites with firms of all sizes to create excellent work product.
Stephen adds that this is one of the major draws to freelance work for small firms – the chance to get to work with experienced attorneys that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford as full-time hires. “There’s a stereotype that attorneys who choose to do freelance work are people who couldn’t get a job elsewhere or who don’t want to work very hard to open their own practice.” In reality, there are many reasons an attorney might want to be a free agent. He said many of the freelance attorneys in his network are semi-retired with 20 to 25 years of practice and are just freelancing for flexibility.
Erin said that when she and Laurie started their company, most of their freelance clients were women who needed flexibility to take care of their families. But she said that things shifted a few years ago. “We had people who needed the flexibility, but for other reasons,” she said. “They were GCs of startup companies, and they weren’t quite getting the work and the salary that they needed at the beginning, so they came to us to kind of fill in those gaps. Or brand-new solos, who had just started firms. They wanted a little security blanket of extra work while they were building their book of business.”
She said she also sees many lawyers who have moved on to other professions but want to keep their legal skills up – from authors and law professors to screen actors and yoga teachers. The pandemic also increased the number of people who wanted to be freelancers, as many people found themselves living outside the jurisdiction where they were licensed to practice law.
“You’re a lawyer living in Spain, you can’t just randomly get a law job in Spain,” Erin said. “So what they would do is they would call us and say, ‘Hey, I’m licensed in New York, but I’m living in Spain. Can I do legal work from here?’ And of course, the answer is yes.”
It can be an expensive and painful process to hire and train an associate straight out of law school, and for many small firms, it’s too expensive to hire a more advanced associate or partner, so freelance services like Montage Legal Group give firms the chance to pass things like writing motions, estate documents or contracts to attorneys they can feel confident will do a good job.
Thank you, Rachel Rippetoe, for interviewing Erin Giglia and featuring Montage Legal Group in this article.
For information about joining the Montage platform, please click here.
For more information about hiring a freelance lawyer, please email [email protected]
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