Law Practice Management and Technology
The Bottom Line Volume 35, No. 4, October 2014
Content
- Message From the Guest Editor: Legal Process Outsourcing for Solo and Small Firms
- Contract Attorneys: a Trend for Solo Practitioners and Small Firms
- Guide to Procuring Lpo Services in the Philippines
- MCLE Self-Study Article Outsourcing of Legal Services
- Leveraging Lpo: How Small Law Can Compete with Big Law
- Outsourcing Is Not a Swear Word
- Message From the Chair
- Coach's Corner: Outsourcing Is In
Contract Attorneys: A Trend for Solo Practitioners and Small Firms
By Ralph G. Martinez, Esq.
A paradigm shift has occurred in our country for those hiring temporary attorneys and those attorneys seeking to be hired temporarily. The shift seems to have begun in the early 1990’s. In 1994 Amy Stevens of The Wall Street Journal wrote:
Debra Arron, an author of THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO CONTRACT LAWYERING,2 indicated that in 1988 a mere 1,300 attorneys were estimated to be involved in temp work around the country. She noted that only six years later in 1994, contract lawyer placement agencies were handling 10,000 lawyers, an eight-fold increase. However, with the 2009 economic melt-down, this trend appears to have skyrocketed.
For a sole practitioner, some of the advantages of using contract attorneys are: