Contract Attorneys

Facing ‘Unrelenting’ Price Pressures, Law Firms Turn to Outsourcing, Innovation

Law firms faced with “unrelenting” pricing pressures from clients are beginning to outsource basic legal work, create new categories of lawyers, and take a “loss leader approach” to pricing. In an article for the Am Law Daily, Dan DiPietro and Gretta Rusanow of Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group base…

Dec 13, 2010 11:30 AM CST

BigLaw Partner Cuts Aren’t Over, Survey Finds

There’s bad news for both partners and would-be associates in a new survey of leaders from the nation’s 200 largest law firms. Nearly 70 percent of the 124 respondents said their firms plan to ask partners to leave in 2011, and 31 percent told of plans to de-equitize partners, the…

Nov 30, 2010 1:45 PM CST

17,500 BigLaw Jobs Are at Risk Due to Cost Pressures, Consultant Says

As many as 17,500 associate and staff attorney jobs could be lost or shifted as a result of staffing changes driven by pressures for lower costs, a law firm consultant says. Writing for the blog of law firm consultant Hildebrandt, Lisa Smith makes an argument that outsourcing, efficiencies and increased…

Sep 27, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Federal Judge Revives Disparate Impact Claim re Covington & Burling’s Staff Attorney Policies

A federal judge has revived a once-dismissed claim by a former staff attorney at Covington & Burling that the law firm’s policies are discriminatory because they have a disparate impact on non-partnership-track lawyers. Relying on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that such alleged discrimination doesn’t have to…

Sep 9, 2010 11:39 PM CDT

A Funny Thing Happened to Alex Barnett’s Legal Career: In a Dismal Job Market, He’s Now a Comedian

Unemployment has had a humorous aspect for attorney Alex Barnett. Laid off by two law firms during 2008, the former class action plaintiffs lawyer now earns a paycheck by doing contract legal work for the city of New York. But his main gig is a new career launch as a…

Jul 21, 2010 12:38 AM CDT

Lawyer Sues Firm for Overtime Pay, Seeks Class Action Status

A New York attorney has sued a well-known plaintiffs’ class action law firm at which he formerly was employed as a temporary worker, contending that he should have been paid time-and-a-half for additional hours after he put in a 40-hour week. In a federal lawsuit filed today in Manhattan, plaintiff…

Jul 7, 2010 11:24 PM CDT

Law Departments Hiring More Contract Lawyers, and the Pickings Are Good

An increasing number of corporate law departments are hiring contract lawyers and sending them more projects, according to two principals with Pennsylvania legal staffing firms. James LaRosa, an owner of JuriStaff in Philadelphia, told the Legal Intelligencer that legal departments are hiring contract lawyers for stints of six months to…

Jul 6, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Law Firms Express ‘Growing Enthusiasm’ for Contract Lawyers

There isn’t much good news for associates in a new survey of leaders of law firms with more than 50 lawyers. Forty-four percent of the firms laid off associates last year, 53 percent reduced or discontinued hiring first-year associates, and 64 percent shrunk their summer associate programs, according to the…

Jun 22, 2010 2:37 PM CDT

Some Atlanta Law Firms See Business Uptick, and Associates Benefit

Some associates in Atlanta are benefiting as their law firms detect hints of a turnaround and increased business. Some examples, reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Labor and employment law firm Fisher & Phillips gave its associates a $10,000 pay raise, citing business from companies seeking advice on labor issues and…

Jun 14, 2010 2:11 PM CDT

Firms’ Layoffs of Part-Timers Is Shortsighted, Orrick Partner Says

The thinning of BigLaw’s ranks and firms’ focus on profits for partner even during these times has been well-documented. And the layoffs particularly impacted the ranks of minorities and women—hitting women in part by firms’ “reducing virtually anyone working on a part-time schedule” in their downsizing, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe…

Mar 1, 2010 6:41 PM CST

Ex-Staff Lawyer Can Proceed With Disparate Impact Claim Against Covington, Judge Says

A former staff attorney of Covington & Burling can proceed with her federal discrimination claim over the law firm’s policy of assigning work, based on a disparate impact theory. However, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton found that Yolanda Young had waited too long to bring a similar claim that the…

Jan 29, 2010 8:56 PM CST

EEOC Sues Kelley Drye, Says Pay Policy for Older Lawyers Discriminates & Seeks Sweeping Relief

In an action that is sure to make other well-known law firms sit up and take notice, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Kelley Drye & Warren over the firm’s alleged policy of de-equitizing partners at age 70 and thereafter “undercompensating” them for their work. The age discrimination…

Jan 28, 2010 9:55 PM CST

BigLaw Partners May Be Worth Top Pay, But What About Associates?

Amongst those at the top of the BigLaw ladder, partners at the 10 highest-grossing law firms in Washington, D.C., have been earning seven-figure annual incomes and some of the top players are billing over $1,000 an hour. Are they worth it? The answer may be yes, according to a lengthy…

Jan 5, 2010 11:55 PM CST

More BigLaw Firms Mull Expanded Use of Contract Attorneys

Major law firms in the United States and the United Kingdom are reportedly pondering new plans for making expanded use of contract attorneys to help keep legal costs to corporate clients under control. Among the possibilities being explored are the use by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer of a new London-based service…

Oct 29, 2009 9:10 PM CDT

Lawyer’s Lament: Pressure to Review 80 Docs an Hour, for $23 an Hour

A contract lawyer’s complaint about a directive to review 80 documents an hour is raising questions about whether quantity sacrifices quality. The lawyer, who was being paid about $23 an hour for the document review project, told the blog Temporary Attorney that the directive was in this e-mail: “Please pick…

Oct 21, 2009 1:52 PM CDT