Find out how to use freelance attorneys to manage your overflow work, handle special projects, and shore up support during peak periods. Learn about ethical considerations, fees, and much more!

1. Lean Law Firm: How to Use Freelance
Attorneys to Grow Your Practice
Leila Kanani – Intermix Legal Group
February 21, 2015

2. Why Outsource Work?
— You may not be ready to hire a full time attorney
with the ebbs and flow of work, but you don’t want
to turn work away
— Outsourcing work is a great tool to keep your firm
lean and stay competitive

3. Benefits of Outsourcing
Work
— Have access to a pool of experienced attorneys
— Save on overhead
— taxes, office, other employee costs
— Add to your bottom line
— Most jurisdictions you are able to add a surcharge to
the rates charged

4. Benefits of Outsourcing
Work
— Low hourly rates
— Substantive work product
— Usually very little revision needed
— Available as-needed
— Work will ebb and flow
— Freelance attorneys are available on-demand to help
you only when you need it

5. When to Outsource Work?
— Have too much on your plate
— Trial coming up
— Spend more time on BD
— Need a specific expertise for a case
— Overflow work
— Have too much work but not enough to hire full time
— Anytime you feel like you are about to turn work away,
outsource, don’t turn away the work!

6. Who Are Freelance
Attorneys
— Hired by other attorneys to handle legal work on a
temporary contract project basis
— In the business of helping other attorneys
— Focus on a niche practice area and offer their
expertise to other attorneys needing help with a
large case, transaction, appeal, or some other
unique project

7. Who are freelance attorneys
— Relationship between the hiring attorney and the
freelance attorney premised on flexibility
— Hiring attorney uses the services of the freelance
attorney only when needed to handle additional
projects without hiring another full time employee
— Freelance attorney provides the necessary support
and quality end product
— Flexibility in scheduling and working hours

8. Who Are Freelance
Attorneys
— Provides work product that the hiring attorney uses
as part of his or her representation of the direct
client
— Ghost writing
— Hiring attorneys, not freelance attorneys, are
ultimately responsible for the client’s
representation and related ethical obligations

9. Difference With Contract
Attorney
— Contract attorney is usually referred to an attorney
employed by an agency to review documents for a
low hourly wage
— In contrast, a freelance attorney is a skilled and
experienced attorney who can independently
research legal issues, draft briefs, manage
discovery, or even consult on litigation strategy

10. Who Becomes a Freelance
Attorney
— Usually with at least 4 years of practicing law
— Established within the profession
— Want flexibility not available in most traditional
career tracks in the legal profession
— The need for a more flexible schedule can arise
from a variety of personal and professional
situations
— Attorney moms
— Hobbies

11. Who Are Freelance
Attorneys
— Seek out freelance work as a way to continue
practicing law on their own schedules
— The advances in technology during the past few
years are driving force fueling the growth in
freelance work: attorneys can work remotely on
projects, anywhere and anytime
— Taken advantage of new technology and used it to
maximize their professional freedom

12. Types of Work Freelance
Attorneys Handle
— Litigation
— Transactional

13. Litigation
— At every stage of the litigation process
— Assessing the viability of claims, to writing motions,
to taking on appeals
— Help before you ever take on a file
— Can help you dig into some facts or do a bit of legal
research so you can tell whether a claim or defense is
viable
— Help with pleadings by drafting a complaint or
answer for you

14. Litigation
— Discovery
— Discovery work lends itself easily to being divided and
managed into small projects for a freelance attorney
— Review existing documents, and help you develop or
respond to discovery requests
— Reviewing the basic pleadings will provide enough of
a foundation to understand the parameters for
discovery

15. Litigation
— Depositions
— Deposition preparation
— Take depositions
— Deposition summaries
— Outline and exhibits for upcoming depositions

16. Litigation
— Motion practice
— can include doing some or all of the legal research
needed, marshalling factual support, and drafting the
motions themselves, depending on your needs.
— Prepare motions in limine as well as jury
instructions
— For court trials, can prepare trial briefs, proposed
findings of fact and conclusions of law, and
proposed orders, along with post-trial motion

17. Appeals
— Appeals:
— Research and drafting needed for strong appellate
briefs
— Offer a fresh look at facts and the law
— Take over an appeal entirely, as some freelancers
specialize in appeals

18. Transactional
— Commercial drafting
— Due diligence
— Business formation
— Corporate Governance
— Technology licensing

19. Transactional
— Estate Planning
— estate documents to final accounting
— ILITs, GRATs, or QTIPs
— will, trust, preparing a fiduciary income tax return
— IP
— Patent prosecution
— Trademark prosecution
— Copyright

20. Malpractice Insurance
— Regardless of whether a freelance attorney carries
malpractice insurance, law firms are ultimately
responsible for the work product and must review a
freelance attorney’s work product before submitting it to
the client or to a court
— Some freelance attorneys carry insurance
— Insurance policies allow a law firm to add a freelance
attorney to its policy without additional premiums
— Most insurance policies state that anyone doing work for
the firm is automatically covered

21. Overview of a Few Ethics
Rules
— Always check your jurisdiction for state-specific
rules

22. Disclosure to Client
— Is disclosure to the client required when working
with a freelance attorney?
— In ABA Opinion No. 88-356 (1988) the American
Bar Association concluded that the client must be
advised that a temporary lawyer will work on the
client's matter and the consent of the client must
be obtained, if the temporary lawyer is working
without the close supervision of a lawyer associated
with the law firm.

23. Disclosure to client
— However, if the temporary lawyer is working under
the direct supervision of a lawyer associated with
the firm then there would not have to be any
disclosure to the client

24. Disclosure to Client
— The ABA Opinion further stated that if a law firm
"simply pays the temporary lawyer reasonable
compensation for the services performed for the
firm and does not charge the payment thereafter to
the client as a disbursement, the firm has no
obligation to reveal to the client the compensation
arrangement with the temporary lawyer."
— However, always a good idea to fully inform client

25. Conflicts of Interest
— Prohibits attorney from accepting or
continuing to represent client if there is a
conflict or potential conflict

26. Conflicts of Interest
— Firm and temporary attorney should
routinely monitor conflicts
— Freelance attorneys maintain accurate
records of their actual conflicts so
they can properly clear conflicts for
every matter

27. Confidentiality of
Information
— Supervising lawyers have obligation to make
reasonable efforts to ensure that temporary lawyer
conforms to the rules of professional conduct
— Including those governing the confidentiality of
information relating to representation of a client
— When a law firm uses a freelance attorney,
disclosure of confidential information may be
necessary

28. Confidentiality of
Information
— Freelance attorney bears the burden of non-
disclosure regarding secrets learned in the course
of representation
— The law firm has the obligation to screen the
freelance attorney from client secrets unnecessary
to a particular project

29. Fees
— In most jurisdictions, hiring firm/attorney
can add a surcharge to freelance attorney’s
rates for work done and then bill the client
as legal services

30. Fees
— ABA 00-420 When costs associated with legal
services of a contract lawyer are billed to the client
as fees for legal services, the amount that may be
charged for such services is governed by the
requirement of ABA Model Rule 1.5 that a lawyer’s
fee shall be reasonable

31. Fees
— ABA 00-420 A surcharge to the costs may
be added by the billing lawyer if the total
charge represents a reasonable fee for
services provided to the client

32. Fees
— ABA 00-420 When legal services of a
contract lawyer are billed to the client as an
expense or cost, in the absence of any
understanding to the contrary with the
client, the client may be charged only the
cost directly associated with the services,
including expenses incurred by the billing
lawyer to obtain and provide the benefit of
the contract lawyer's services

33. Fees
— ABA 00-420 No duty to disclose the surcharge
when the work of the contract lawyer is supervised
or, absent supervision, when the work of the
contract lawyer is adopted as the work of the
retaining lawyer

34. Giving Projects to FA
— Decide what you need help with
— Locate FA with relevant experience
— Delegate Work
— Keep track of time
— Bill your client
— All while you are saving money and adding to your
bottom line

35. Questions?
— Leila Kanani
— leila@intermixlegal.com
— 312.612.9180
— www.intermixlegal.com
— Twitter.com/Intermixlegal