Erin Giglia and Dennis A. Stubblefield presented a CLE for the Orange County Bar Association’s Small Firm and Solo Section about the varied practice models used by solo practitioners and small firms to deliver legal services in a rapidly changing marketplace. The panel “It’s Your Choice: Alternative Practice Models for Today’s Solos/Small Firms,” was incredibly successful, with attendance numbers close to double what the OCBA section usually sees at CLE presentations. Erin Giglia, co-owner/founder of the freelance attorney network, Montage Legal Group, explained how using freelance lawyers can help a small firm grow its practice and become more competitive in the legal market. Unlike the inexperienced contract attorneys of the past, Erin Giglia explained that today’s freelance attorney is frequently an extremely experienced lawyer, trained at a large law firm, who simply made a lifestyle choice to have more work life balance.
“Fortunately for all of us here, the days of the bottom of the barrel contract attorney who could not find a job to save their lives – those days are done,” said Giglia. “There are a lot of people now, young and more senior attorneys, who just because of lifestyle choices, have decided they do not want to be at a big firm. They do not want to be billing 250 hour months, month in and month out, for the rest of their lives. That’s a choice that so many make….These are folks that are now floating around out there who are trained and…able to assist small firms and solos with their growing practices.”
Erin also spoke about the pros and cons regarding the use of freelance/contract attorneys, and briefly spoke about the ethical issues that are applicable to both the law firm and independent contractor attorney when a firm uses a freelance lawyer. If you missed this CLE presentation, please see the video clip of Erin Giglia and Dennis A. Stubblefield below.
Montage Legal Group lawyers, Carolyn McKitterick, Kim Bick, Erin Giglia, Laurie Rowen and Christina Johnson were among the many lawyers who attended the April 21st CLE presentation in Newport Beach.
Dan Nguyen (http://californiaentrepreneurattorney.com/) commenting on Erin Giglia’s presentation.