A handful of firms across the country have taken the term "temporary" and applied it to the legal community. The Lawsmiths, founded in San Francisco in 1985 by principals Robert Webster and Eric Walker, is one such service, and its success is spawning other similar services. "Law firms and corporate legal departments had an initial reluctance to the concept, but acceptance is rapidly spreading. Once they understand what we offer, the service speaks for itself" says Webster, Users, such as law firms, corporate counsel, and sole practitioners, turn to an attorney temporary service for a variety of reasons: research, law and motion appearances, depositions, and trial preparation, to name a few. "There is no typical assignment," says Webster. "They can range from a half-day appearance in court to massive litigation which may take many months to a year."
Robert Weiner, president of Law/temps which is based in Northfield, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), tells us: "The idea of using attorneys on a temporary basis isn't new. Traditionally, when law firms needed supplemental lawyers, they would call up someone they knew; that's what changed-it has gone from the informal to the formal within a commercial context."
Attorney Andrew R. Jarett (now a principal at Law/temps) temped for two years prior to joining the firm permanently "Getting started in my own practice was very difficult because it is so highly competitive in the Chicago area. I needed to work to earn money and fill gaps in time while I was trying to establish myself, so I started to temp... It gave me the flexibility I needed." Temping opened Jarett’s eyes to the opportunities available to a temporary service with an attorney specialty. He saw there was both, a need and a ready supply, of potential temps. "We can fill a need, especially for small firms, and sole practitioners," says Jarett. "We can help their practices survive and expand." Is practicing law as a temporary attorney a positive experience? Jarett says yes. "Temping gave me great learning experiences. I got advice on new ways to expedite work and could test it out. I was able to explore and practice different types of law." Others in the field tell us there are some draw backs. By being a temporary, an attorney rarely gets the personal satisfaction of seeing a case through to the end, and some individuals miss the sustained client contact. Further, attorneys tend to be "status conscious." One temp, now a permanent associate, told us, "You may feel as though you are being condescended to... You are often judged by the firm you work for." Critics are concerned over the possibility of conflicts of interest when temporary attorneys have access to a wide variety of cases and firms. Still, the industry seems to be growing despite its flaws.
At the Lawsmiths, the service maintains a portfolio of over 150 attorneys. Ninety percent of its lawyers have had three or more years in practice; over half, six or more years, and nearly a third, over a decade of experience. (The Lawsmiths does not deal in paralegals, recent graduates, or researchers.) Temporary attorneys include independent individuals seeking new freedoms rather than the partnership track, women with families, lawyers in between permanent positions, and sole practitioners with cyclical business (in slow periods they may temp and in busy periods they may be the user). "The majority of our temps are motivated by the quality of their life rather than by big bucks," says Webster.
All the services in this field appear to offer in-depth screening and verification of credentials. An attorney will be sent to a firm, and the firm then inter views the temporary themselves for quality control. The major time-saver is having a roster of attorneys with various kinds of legal expertise at a firm’s fingertips. Firms are charged an hourly rate, which is negotiated prior to the beginning of an assignment. The temps can earn as much as $75 per hour. Most services say an attorney's earnings can be comparable to an associate s salary or more, depending on the individual's area of specialization and experience.
Robert Webster of The Lawsmiths predicts, "The future of our area of the industry looks good... It will become more and more economically desirable. Firms cannot add associates every year when business doesn't justify it."
Indian Chiefs
Not really, but that's how we've chosen to categorize the potpourri of professionals who make up this remaining area of temps. With a little bit of investigating, you can find services in almost any major specialty.
