Lateral Link Announces Staffing Division & Lists 6 Questions To Ask When Selecting A Staffing Company

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Craig Brown is the Managing Principal of Bridgeline Solutions, Lateral Link’s staffing division, which places contract attorneys from 14 offices nationwide and overseas. A pioneer in the contract attorney industry, Craig established many of its best practices. Craig practiced law as a litigation and antitrust associate with Kaye Scholer and as a litigation and sports law partner with McLaughlin & Stern.

First, I’m thrilled to announce Lateral Link’s temporary legal and compliance staffing arm, Bridgeline Solutions.  While Lateral Link has made dozens of contract placements over its 12-year history — and has amassed an extensive database of attorneys seeking such placements — it has never before had a team specializing exclusively in such placements.  With the introduction of Bridgeline Solutions, we are now more than ever truly a full service legal staffing and placement firm.

There are dozens of staffing companies out there, and most large eDiscovery companies have their own staffing divisions.  How to choose?  Below, I list 6 questions to be asked when you, as either a prospective client or contract attorney, are selecting a staffing company.

1. Do You Primarily Place Contract Attorneys for Document Review Projects?

Most agencies primarily place contract attorneys on document review projects, often fairly large-scale, and do not often staff positions in other areas, such as corporate, derivatives, finance, litigation, privacy, real estate, and tax.  Other agencies focus on placing attorneys or “secondees” in positions unrelated to document review, and, a few others, like Bridgeline, specialize in both areas.  To avoid wasting your time by working with an agency that is ill-suited to assist you, you should ask the agency what percentage of its placements are for document review projects and what percentage are for all other contract placements.

One of our recent projects is illustrative.  As we discussed in a recent posting, this project involved placing a team of exceptional litigators to review and grade appellate briefs as part of the $100,000 Law School Challenge. We fulfilled this need with a team of stellar contract attorneys, including former federal judicial clerks, law professors, AUSAs, and associates/partners with major firm experience.  Had we specialized in exclusively staffing document review projects, we would not have had these exceptional litigators in our database and would have been unable to staff this project.

2. How Do You Prevent Attrition on Document Review Projects?

Clients are concerned about attrition, particularly on deadline-sensitive document review projects.  Should contract attorneys leave a project early, it can delay the project, thus raising costs as replacement contract attorneys then have to join the project midstream.

In light of this, prospective clients should ask about attrition rates.  Also, you should ask about any measures taken by the agency to mitigate attrition, so you can be assured that those who start a project complete it.

We at Bridgeline have designed an anti-attrition program that all but eliminates attrition on document review (and other) projects.

3. Are You an Independent Staffing Company or Part of an eDiscovery Company?

This question is relevant for two reasons:

First, it helps answer Question No. 1, as it’s a tell-tale sign of the company’s area of specialization.  By definition, eDiscovery companies help clients meet their eDiscovery needs, so their staffing arms focus on staffing document reviews.

Second, clients should consider whether it makes sense to retain the same company to perform both the eDiscovery functions (hosting and processing data) and the document review.  The first function is to reduce the data via technological means as much as defensibly possible and the second function is to review the data that’s been culled and winnowed.  The conflict arises because the review phase is typically MUCH more profitable than the culling phase, thereby creating a disincentive to reduce the data as much as possible.  To protect against this conflict, a best practice is to hire a separate, independent staffing company to handle the document review component.

4. What Is the Quality of Your Contract Attorneys and How Do You Vet Them?

Candidates and clients alike should consider the quality of the attorneys placed by the staffing agency —  candidates, because you will be considered as being a representative member of the agency’s candidate pool, and clients, because you want to use the most qualified lawyers for the task at hand.

For document reviews, attorneys should be tried and true contract attorneys who have excelled on prior projects and met the requirements for both speed and accuracy.  For projects unrelated to document reviews, it should be attorneys with applicable experience as an associate or partner with a prominent law firm.

Vetting is vital. An attorney should not be eligible for placement until he or she has been sufficiently screened.  Clients and candidates need to ask how the agency’s attorneys are vetted.  Proper answers should include reference checks and confirmation of Bar admission, good standing, lack of disciplinary issues, lack of criminal history, work history, education, and degrees.

5. What Is the Background of Your Staffing Personnel?

For both candidates and clients, the most important employees of the staffing agency are those persons who perform the matchmaking function, i.e., matching the appropriate contract attorneys with the appropriate jobs.  The background of those individuals is crucial, to ensure they make an ideal match.  Are these staffing executives former practicing attorneys?  Have they been associates with prominent firms or in-house counsel with major corporations?

The reason for these questions is obvious.  If, for example, you (as a candidate) are seeking a part-time litigation position with a litigation boutique, it helps that you are represented by an attorney with a similar background, so he or she can best understand your background and needs to make the best match possible.

6. What Will the Agency Pay the Contract Attorney?

Last, but certainly not least, is the applicable pay rate.  Clients and candidates alike need to know whether the agency is paying the contract attorneys at market rate or above.

Candidates need to know for obvious reasons, as you want to maximize your rate and may not want to be associated with an agency known for underpaying its contract attorneys.  Also, candidates should ask whether the agency offers any other incentives.  These days, many contract attorneys travel for projects, particularly well-paying ones, so it’s important to ask whether the agency will cover some or all of your travel and/or lodging costs.

Pay rate information is vital to clients as well.  If the pay rate is too low, the quality of the project may suffer and attorneys may jump ship in the middle of a project for a better paying one.  These factors end up costing the client more than any initially apparent “savings.”

If you have a possible need for contract attorneys or want to be considered for contract positions, please do contact me at cbrown@bridgelinesolutions.com

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Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click ::here:: to find out more about us.