Law Firm Growth During an Uncertain Legal Climate, Part I: How to Ethically Use of Counsel Relationships
| Publication year | 2020 |
| Author | By Erin Giglia & Laurie Rowen |
By Erin Giglia & Laurie Rowen
Erin Giglia and Laurie Rowen are the co-owners/founders of Montage Legal Group, LLC, a freelance attorney company comprised of former prestigious law firm freelance lawyers who work on a project basis for law firms that need help with overflow and specialty areas of law.
Prior to founding Montage, Erin and Laurie both practiced litigation at Snell & Wilmer LLP in Orange County, California. Laurie and Erin have been featured in Forbes.com, the ABA Journal, and The Atlantic, and have received numerous honors in connection with their work with Montage. To contact Laurie and Erin with questions on freelance attorney ethics, please email info@montagelegal.com.
Law firm lawyers nationwide face the same daunting issue—time, and the lack of it. Time is how lawyers earn a living, but time is our most finite resource. Billing hours, developing business, and growing a practice can be difficult (or impossible) to do simultaneously. Lawyers, like all people, also need time for life, family, and health. How can a law firm lawyer squeeze it all in when there are only so many hours in a day?
The "Great Recession" of 2008-2010, combined with improving technology, shaped the options available to lawyers who want to grow their practices. An uncertain economy resulted in law firm downsizing, and gave rise to excellent boutique firms hoping to create value for corporate clients with limited legal spending. Rapidly improving technology has allowed these small shops to thrive, but many continue to struggle with lack of time, a persistent foe. An uncertain economy is upon us once again. Law firms may need to pivot, and will need to seek creative solutions to meet client needs, grow, and thrive. With luck, a law firm will have enough work to go from comfortably busy to feeling too busy to get everything done.
Once a firm has crossed into "too busy," law firms have several options that can offer immediate relief: (1) bring in an outside lawyer to become "of counsel" to the firm; (2) hire a contract/freelance attorney periodically on an hourly or flat fee basis; or (3) refer matters to lawyers outside the firm, possibly in exchange for a referral fee. Each of these arrangements is permissible, but different ethical rules apply to each situation.
In this article, Part 1 of a two-part series on creative ways to grow your practice, we discuss applicable ABA...
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