Small Law Firms

The Pros And Cons Of Using Freelance Attorneys: Perspectives From A Hands-On User

To hire freelance or not to hire freelance?

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Freelance lawyering isn’t a new concept. Lawyers who perform work for other lawyers on a freelance basis have been around for decades, as evidenced by successful contract lawyers like Lisa Solomon of Question of Law or Jami Kohn of Why Hire an Associate — not to mention the publication of The Complete Guide to Contract Lawyering: What Every Lawyer and Firm Needs to Know About Temporary Legal Services first published in 1994. Likewise, process outsourcing — generally overseas — for ongoing document review or preparation of bankruptcy, immigration forms or patent applications have been around for nearly as long.

But what has changed over the past decade is the ease with which freelance services can now be procured for individualized and smaller scale projects through curated networks on online platforms. MontageLegal, founded in 2009, roughly marks the start of what I call FreelanceLawyer 2.0, but since then numerous companies have followed on Montage’s heels.

Custom Counsel and Intermix Legal — which also employed a curated attorney model — came shortly thereafter and no longer appear to be in business, but by my count, there are at least ten more companies operating in this same space (note — there may be others that I inadvertently missed):

Aggregate Law, Book It, Lawyer Exchange, Legal Bee, Now Counsel Network, Hire an Esquire, Legably, Law Clerk.Legal, Law Trades and Legis One (there’s also PowerUp Legal, my own proof of concept marketplace for on-demand energy counsel — but I wouldn’t place it in the more generic category because of the curated and specialized nature of the services).

Many tout the benefits of freelance lawyers in theory. But if you search the Internet, it’s difficult to find much commentary from those who have actually used these platforms for real projects. Having placed roughly a dozen projects with some of these sites over the past few years, here are some of the pros and cons:

1. The Pros of Freelance Sites

Well Qualified, Low Cost Candidates for Generic Matters

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In my experience, freelance sites work best for more generic matters: a motion to compel in federal court, preparation of a straightforward dispositive motion or appellate brief on more well-settled and less complicated matters in family law, employment law or breach of contract, researching a narrow issue or drafting a template contract. For these matters, it’s not difficult to find skilled attorneys with a decade or more of experience who can handle the task within a price range of $75 – $125/hour. In fact, many of these freelance sites are so oversubscribed with attorneys that you could probably find someone to take on the work for as little as $30 or $40 an hour — but at those rates, you’d take a risk on both the quality and timeliness of the finished product.

Strong Quality Is Out There — But You Still Need to Pay for It

Many lawyers are wary of using freelance sites, fearing that the lawyers they can find are less than desirable. But that’s not necessarily true — many well-qualified lawyers opt for freelance work to earn money while spending time with family or to support themselves while transitioning into a new practice area. That said, if you want high-quality, reliable, file-ready work, you’ll want to use one of the more curated sites that vet applicants (like Montage or Now Counsel Network) and you should expect to pay between $125-$200/hour. If you can bill the costs to a client with a markup, those rates will still save you money — but if the work isn’t billable, your costs can add up quickly.

Potential for Profit — But Also on the Hook for Costs

All jurisdictions with the exception of Maryland and Texas allow lawyers to mark up the cost of fees for contract lawyers. As a result, it’s possible — at least in theory — for lawyers to turn a profit off of work performed by contract attorneys. On the other hand, hiring lawyers are on the hook for the cost of freelance attorneys — even if the hiring attorney is stiffed by the client. Moreover, because freelance attorneys may need time to come up to speed on a file, the hiring attorney may need to write off some of the costs. In short, while freelance lawyers are undeniably a benefit for overworked attorneys, when all is said and done, they’re not necessarily the profit center that they’re made out to be.

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Easy, Breezy Payment

For me, the best benefit of most of the freelance platforms is that payment is easy. The freelancer is required to complete invoices regularly and they’re paid automatically unless the hiring lawyer fails to approve the invoice. Since I prefer to automate all of my payments rather than sending out checks, the auto-payment features make the hiring process more efficient and seamless.

2. Cons of Using Freelance Sites

No Quality Control

One of my biggest beefs about some of the newest freelance platforms is the lack of quality control — which is getting worse, rather than better with time. When I first used one of the sites almost four years ago, I quickly found several reasonably priced qualified applicants. More recently, however, the crop of candidates who responded to a posting was reminiscent of my experience on Craig’s list: typo-infested, form cover letters or analytically-bereft writing samples. Message to freelance platforms: a little quality control might inspire more confidence in the attorneys who use the site for hiring.

A Paucity of Schveyr Arbiters

Whenever one of my sisters or I brought home a suiter who was a little too laid back or not particularly ambitious, my parents would sigh and lament that that he’s not from the schveyr arbiters (hard workers). That incomparable Yiddish term is kind of how I’d sum up my experience with many of the lawyers I found at the freelance platforms. Few, if any, are willing to work nights or weekends. Some sit on projects for days before responding with an update. Others turned around product that was clearly rushed and largely deficient. While more recently, my experiences have been more positive, I nearly stopped using the freelance sites entirely because frankly, I didn’t want to hire someone who works less hard than I do. Plus, isn’t urgency the reason that one would seek out freelancers to begin with?

A Lot of BYO For the Price

One of the dirty little secrets of today’s freelance platforms is that they’re largely “bring your own.” In other words, the hiring attorney is expected to provide access to commercial legal research like LEXIS and Westlaw along with malpractice insurance. Though this isn’t a problem for me since I can grant freelancers access to relevant subscriptions, some hiring attorneys may not have the ability to do so — or may use research tools that the freelancers aren’t accustomed to using.

No Way to Distinguish Services

As with law practice management platforms, today there are so many freelance sites that it’s difficult to distinguish them. And while it’s great to have competition and choice, at the same time it’s also too easy for lawyers who botch a project or receive a poor review at one site to simply move to another.

Final Thoughts

Despite my mixed experiences, I’m still bullish on freelance lawyer platforms and welcome the stream of new entrants. Moving forward, I’d love to see sites that offer guaranteed turn-around time, night and weekend labor, and better quality control. Yet even with those improvements, I just don’t see how these stand-alone freelance sites are sustainable in the long run, at least without long-term corporate or large firm contracts (e.g., maternity or disability placements) or some kind of ongoing subscription services. My hunch seems consistent with the apparent fate of the now-shuttered Counsel Connect and Intermix and consistent with my own experience with PowerUp Legal (in full disclosure, while PowerUp Legal has been a nice bonus source of revenue, it doesn’t yet generate enough revenue to enable me to quit my day job and still pay two private college tuitions plus, finding enough qualified lawyers to staff specialized energy projects has been a challenge). Moreover, whereas the high-end freelance sites need longer contracts to survive, it’s also possible that the lower-end sites — that serve many solo and small firm lawyers on generic matters — can or will eventually be displaced by AI-enabled research, motions or brief writing. It’s only a matter of time.

If you’ve ever used a freelance legal research platform as a hiring attorney or freelancer, I’d love to hear your experience or your prognostications for the future. Drop me an email at elefant@myshingle.com and send me your thoughts. I’d love to write a follow-up column on this topic.

Carolyn ElefantCarolyn Elefant has been blogging about solo and small firm practice at MyShingle.comsince 2002 and operated her firm, the Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant PLLC, even longer than that. She’s also authored a bunch of books on topics like starting a law practice, social media, and 21st century lawyer representation agreements (affiliate links). If you’re really that interested in learning more about Carolyn, just Google her. The Internet never lies, right? You can contact Carolyn by email at elefant@myshingle.comor follow her on Twitter at @carolynelefant.

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