It is not difficult to find attorneys within law firms to serve as outside counsel to small businesses. But eventually, companies grow to the point where it is more cost efficient to utilize an in-house counsel legal team to address their immediate compliance, contracts, employment law and other legal service needs.
“The challenge for the executive management team is finding the right person for the job,” says Nick York, president of Major Legal Services.
“Companies today need more than legal acumen and expertise,” says Deborah Peters, COO, at Major Legal Services. “They need to go beyond the resume to find someone who fits within the culture of the company.”
As technology advances and generational dispositions change, the practice of law is changing. Competing for top talent in today’s market requires companies to be more cognizant of those trends and find the best candidate who can solve very specific problems and do so cost effectively.
Smart Business spoke with York and Peters about an outsourcing solution to acquiring legal talent for organizations of any size in any industry.
What are the new trends in regard to how legal services are provided and paid?
The concept of legal consulting, in which companies rely on outsourced legal professionals to tackle specific initiatives, is growing. For instance, a company may have a highly specialized problem with a particular deal or piece of litigation. It’s not something that merits or would support a long-term hiring investment. So companies are assembling teams in law and technology to manage e-discovery projects, mergers and acquisitions and other document-intensive legal assignments that interact with the business objectives of companies. That’s the main driver of the outsourced model —utilizing experienced professionals who are focused on specific areas of law.
Companies also are looking for alternatives to traditional pricing. As they recover from the recession, they may have stricter budgets and find legal consulting offers cost-effective lawyers to help with specific assignments.
How can smaller companies with limited resources get the legal help they need?
Many companies have long-term relationships with law firms, but sometimes they find themselves in a situation where they need a team of lawyers with experience and background that their current firm doesn’t have.
A specialized legal recruiter works with companies of all sizes to provide individual attorney consultants and teams on a full- or part-time basis, leading to the desired results without the investment of searching for, identifying and hiring permanent lawyers when that may not be what is needed.
Going this route can help provide a bridge to in-house legal counsel, offering the expertise of professional legal counsel without the expense of a permanent person, until such time that hiring a permanent placement becomes the appropriate thing to do.
Situations in which a lawyer transitions from temporary to full time gives a company flexibility with its budget, allowing it to maintain its financial position and still get the needed legal expertise.
How do recruiting firms help businesses better identify and use legal resources?
There are a lot more options for acquiring legal talent today than in the past. Outsourcing on a project basis is gaining in popularity. Some recruiting firms throw resumes at the proverbial wall and hope something sticks. Others take a consultative approach to match talented and experienced professionals to the circumstance. These firms work to understand what expertise is needed, but also the culture of the organization to fit a lawyer who can interact well with a company’s business side.
A recruiter’s comprehensive screening of a candidate’s skills saves lots of time for a company. The time it takes to recruit the right talent is time consuming, which costs money and encumbers resources when it’s done in-house.
A recruiter can quickly help identify top talent, taking that burden of searching away from a company’s HR department. Specialized search firms strive to ensure that their clients are getting the most innovative ideas, the highest quality professionals and the best services for their dollars spent in a timely manner. ●
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