Note: This article was previously published in the January 2025 issue of Legal Management, the magazine of the Association of Legal Administrators.
The legal industry is evolving at a breakneck pace, and for legal administrators staying ahead means adapting hiring strategies to meet the demands of a dynamic legal landscape. Between advances in technology, shifting client expectations, and an increasingly competitive job market for associates, securing the right talent in 2025 will require law firms to rethink traditional approaches.
Midsize law firms that only implement the traditional hiring methods are having a hard time finding talented associates. The traditional way of hiring takes forever and is getting more expensive every year. The good news is that outsourcing work to remote associates has become mainstream. Firms all across the US are finding success with a hybrid hiring approach that includes adding remote associates to their established team of in-office full time associates. Here are five advantages to consider as you evaluate outsourcing as part of your 2025 associate hiring strategy.
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 small, medium and big law firms can all benefit from adopting a multi-prong 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. 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.
You can have as many remote associates as you need to help you on a full-time or part-time basis. If your firm doesn’t have as much work in any given month, you’ll have no overhead as you would with a full-time employee. No salary, health insurance, retirement, or other benefit costs for contract lawyers.
Working with 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. Remote work arrangements really aren’t that different than having an associate face-to-face down the hall. Working from home (or wherever!) can cut down on commute time and allow the attorney to focus on the deep work you need them to do.
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.
Legal outsourcing has truly become mainstream and is a win-win with its flexibility.
2. TIME IS MONEY
Let’s face it: traditional law firm hiring is SLOW. Most mid-size firms rely on the traditional law firm hiring strategy is 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. In addition, most law firms are typically looking for specific skills and qualifications, which makes it even more difficult to hire quickly.
A lateral hire can take 3-12 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. And don’t overlook the fact that once you hire a new associate there will still be a large amount of training and hand holding to get them up and producing billable work.
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.
3. FLEXIBLE, ACCESSIBLE TALENT
Seasoned legal administrators know that to attract top talent, it is crucial to offer a competitive package that goes beyond salary. This can include flexible working hours, the opportunity for remote work, professional development resources, and wellness programs. Such benefits not only attract but also retain high-caliber professionals.
These are just a few of the reasons why 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.
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. At LAWCLERK, we have an incredibly deep talent pool of thousands of U.S. licensed remote associates. These associates are licensed in all 50 states and every imaginable practice area.
While we do have young attorneys with just a few years of experience these attorneys tend to be the exception, not the rule, to our talent. On average, the remote associates doing contract work via LAWCLERK have at least 12 years of experience. These are attorneys who have handled their own cases, counseled clients, taken depositions, chaired trials and managed large transactions. These are attorneys who are very intentionally choosing to take a different path for the next phase of their career to focus on doing high quality work for other firms as a contract attorney rather than managing their own clients/cases.
There are countless reasons why talented attorneys are making this change. 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.
ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross remarked that, “With the new survey findings, we are seeing how lawyers want to work — with flexibility playing a key role for many as they transition back into the workplace.”
Some notable findings from the survey include:
· Most lawyers reported that working remotely or on a hybrid basis has not adversely impacted the quality of their work, productivity, or billable hours.
· A majority of respondents said that courts should allow remote court-ordered mediations (82%), depositions (88%), pretrial hearings (93%) and even bench trials (64%).
Firms leveraging the talent of remote associates will have improved recruitment and retention when it comes to hiring exceptional talent.
4. BUILD A DIVERSE TEAM
Another challenge for mid-size law firms is to establish a hiring strategy that allows the firm to attract a diverse team of attorneys. 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.
Lack of diversity is a challenge for many law firms, but it is even more pronounced among mid-sized 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.
Inclusion is not about simply having diverse bodies within the firm; it’s about ensuring that all members feel welcome and valued for their individual contributions. To foster an inclusive workplace, develop policies that support work-life balance, flexible work arrangements, and accommodations for disabilities. Encourage team members to share their experiences and implement training programs to raise awareness and understanding of different cultures and perspectives in your work environment.
Knowledge and awareness are critical to the success of a DEI initiative. Regular training on unconscious bias, cultural competence, and inclusive language can significantly impact the firm’s culture and how cases are approached. Hold open discussions on diversity issues to keep the conversation going and the learning evolving. Consider giving employees the opportunity to participate in external training programs and encourage them to join ethnic bar associations. 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 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.
5. NUMBERS & SENSE
The economics of working with remote associates is similar to the business model you know well with in-office associates 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.
You may be wondering what’s the ROI on working with remote associates? Every dollar invested with a talented Remote Associate with LAWCLERK can easily become $3 of revenue. That’s right – $1 will become $3 or more.
These margins may seem similar to the billing rates of your traditional associates but keep in mind that outsourced remote attorneys don’t have overhead costs tied to them. There are no benefits, insurance, equipment, or salaries to commit to when hiring a contract lawyer, and the contract lawyer will only work when you need them to from their home office.
Here’s an example to illustrate the potential return on investment.
Let’s say your firm needs to hire a 3-5 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) = $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.
Now, consider if you added a remote associate under similar parameters to several different departments at your firm: litigation, real estate, appellate, and estate planning. Four remote associates working 100 per month for a year would generate $1,152,000 in revenue! Plus, this is a great way to relieve the pressure on your full-time in office team to reduce burnout and increase retention. Whether you are a firm of 20 lawyers or 200 lawyers, the equity partners would certainly value an additional seven figures of revenue without the traditional overhead expenses.
SMART HIRING SOLLUTIONS:
Mid-sized law firms can face a lot of challenges when it comes to hiring top talent. However, with the right approach, it is possible to hire the best talent for mid-size law firms and create a strong competitive edge in the legal industry.
LAWCLERK if one of many legal outsourcing solutions that offer several flexible solutions to help your legal team scale up (or down), depending on your needs. Whether you need additional legal support for long term engagements, short-term work, or for a high-volume initiative, we have solutions to fit your needs.
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.
