No. 1: Flexible Solutions
When you’re managing the associate talent pool for your firm, it’s natural that the firm’s need for associates is going to vary at different points in time. Having the ability to quickly staff up or down with associates can be crucial to managing your capital and minimizing overhead.
That’s why any size firm can benefit from adopting a multipronged approach to staffing their team with associates. Of course, your firm may need a core group of full-time, in-office associates to support the firm’s partners’ workloads. But you can supplement the core team with the flexibility of remote associates.
Working with a contract lawyer (aka remote associate) via outsourcing can be a smart staffing solution for a lot of reasons. First, outsourced remote attorneys don’t have overhead costs tied to them. There are no benefits, insurance, office space, equipment or salaries to commit to when hiring a contract lawyer, and the contract lawyer will only work when you need them to.
Additionally, a remote associate often allows you to connect with a seasoned lawyer who can do the legal work without training or hand-holding. Your law office — and your client — can benefit from the attorney’s years of experience and get them up and running fast.
The beauty of outsourcing is that you don’t have to worry about the natural fluctuations in your work volume. If the demands of the firm aren’t extremely heavy, don’t send any work to the freelancer(s). If you are slammed and pressed to meet certain deadlines, you can connect with multiple remote attorneys to get the immediate help you need.
No. 2: Time Is Money
Let’s face it: Traditional law firm hiring is slow. Most midsize firms rely on the traditional law firm hiring strategy to bring on a full-time associate — either a lateral hire or a first year. The process can be long and cumbersome, taking many months to find and hire the right associate.
A lateral hire can take 3 to 12 months because it depends on finding the right candidate at the right time. Perhaps you find an excellent candidate, but they are unable or unwilling to leave their current firm for a number of months due to an anticipated bonus or upcoming trial. The necessity to be discrete with this process adds to the time it takes to recruit a lateral associate.
First year associates are another common law firm hiring option. The majority of those entry level hires happen in the late summer months after law school graduation and the bar exam. Many firms need to hire now rather than spending months going through the recruiting process and waiting for a new attorney to pass the bar exam.
The amount of time and effort it takes to hire, in and of itself, is compelling enough of a reason why it is time for a fresh look at the law firm business model. Attorneys need a way to hire faster, but time is not the only challenge — the cost of a new full-time associate is just as challenging.
No. 3: Flexible, Accessible Talent
Attorneys with years of experience and deep expertise are choosing to leave the traditional law firm associate roles and instead chart a career as full-time professional contract attorneys or remote associates.
A significant reason is that the pandemic profoundly changed the way lawyers and law firms work. The Where Does the Legal Profession Go from Here? survey commissioned by the American Bar Association found that remote options are especially important to young lawyers, 44% of whom said they would leave their jobs for a greater ability to work remotely.
By considering remote associates, law firms can tap into a national or even global talent pool. This approach not only increases the chances of finding the right candidate but can also be more cost-effective, fast and flexible.
No. 4: Build a Diverse Team
Having a team of attorneys from a variety of backgrounds can be beneficial both to the firm and to clients because when you bring together a group of smart people, they learn about each other’s experiences and share knowledge.
But a lack of diversity is a challenge for many law firms and is even more pronounced among midsize law firms and law firms in more rural areas. These firms must actively seek out diverse candidates and provide opportunities for advancement into leadership and decision-making positions.
A remote associate often allows you to connect with a seasoned lawyer who can do the legal work without training or hand-holding. Your law office — and your client — can benefit from the attorney’s years of experience and get them up and running fast.
If your firm is lacking in diversity, support local, regional and national ethnic bar associations by sponsoring some of their events — they could be great avenues for recruiting diverse talent. Working with remote associates can also be a powerful way to find and integrate diverse attorneys into your law firm. Recruiting from a remote talent pool opens you up to a much bigger and more diverse array of candidates to join your team.
No. 5: Numbers and Sense
The economics of working with remote associates is similar to the in-office associate business model but with much lower overhead. Remote associates can be hired for many months or many years and are paid as 1099 contractors. This allows you to flexibly adjust to the needs of your team without incurring additional overhead. The speed and flexibility of remote associates are fantastic and so are the economics.
Here’s an example to illustrate the potential return on investment.
Let’s say your firm needs to hire a 3- to 5-year associate to supplement the workflow of one of your teams. The department chair estimates they could use around 100 hours of help from a remote associate each month. You find a talented candidate and agree to pay them $110 per hour. Based on their experience and qualifications (and your market) you determine you can bill their work to your clients at $350 per hour:
- Paying hourly associate: $110/hour
- Reasonable market rate: $350/hour
- $350 per hour x 100 hours of work billed to client: $35,000
- $110 per hour x 100 hours paid to associate: -$11,000
- Monthly profit to firm, no overhead: $35,000-$11,000 = $24,000
Maybe an extra $24,000 in one month is not earth shattering to your bottom line, but let’s consider if you kept that same remote associate on the team for a year. That would produce $288,000 in additional revenue.
SMART HIRING SOLLUTIONS
Midsize law firms can face a lot of challenges when it comes to hiring top talent. However, with the right approach, it’s possible to hire the best talent and create a strong competitive edge in the legal industry.
If your firm has ambitious growth goals for 2025, then winning the talent race will be key. A savvy way to get the flexible talent you need with little or no overhead is to include remote associates as part of your overall hiring strategy.
