There has been a shift to the idea of bringing in staff to cover work that needs to be completed, without resorting to new hires. ItsMyLaw has seen an upswing in the demand for lawyers working on specific contracts to provide the resources that are needed with out the firm incuring the cost of hiring new staff.

UK law firms are being pushed to reform hourly fee system which is coming under pressure from clients complaining of high fees at a time of soaring legal industry profits.

Many of the top firms are starting to offer alternatives to hourly rates and making more use of cost-cutting business practices, such as putting services offshore. 

ItsMyLaw is seeing a large number of firms retain our services to provide flexible, talented staff to help resolve the billing issues.  From the firms point of view this offers a way of controlling costs while maintaining exceptional quality.  While the talent pool is rewarded directly for the work completed. 

To find out more about the services on offer or the work available please contact John Cullen on 020 3239 9002.

So it is exciting to note that we have been instructed to find a number of lawyers to work freelance in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.  This represents an exciting opportunity for all concerned. 

Results just published are showing that trainee retention rates across the UK’s elite legal profession are holding steady, with many firms keeping hold of more than 90% of their intake despite a sharp dip in City lawyers’ overall business confidence.

Legal Week reports that:

The results come despite business confidence among the UK’s top lawyers recently faltering, as City partners anticipate the economic turmoil hitting the profession. Legal Week’s quarterly business confidence poll this week has shown just 30% of partners are expecting double-digit revenue growth over the next 12 months, down from last year’s high of 70%

They go on to report that

top national firms have shown the biggest rise in retention rates, with many of the firms which lost more than a fifth of their lawyers last year now maintaining more than 90%.

With magic circle partners sensing that the market direction is not clear for the coming months, firms are holding onto their talent. This is an ideal time to explore what ItsMyLaw can offer in terms of talent provision and risk mitigation.

Some say the popular belief that the life of a City lawyer is all about big bonuses, expensive holidays and flowing champagne is misguided and, in fact, the career is more likely to end in emotional or physical breakdown.

ItsMyLaw is pioneering a different route.  Having secured a number of prestigious roles from Magic & Silver circle firms we are looking to fill them with talented lawyers.  But he is the rub, these are all project based freelance positions.  We are seeking lawyers who want the challenging work, want to make a difference, want to make the money and want to have a choice.

The positions that we are filling are only for the most talented and very best, they cover a number of different areas and offer the lawyer a chance to secure contract work within the firm and also to take time afterwards to recover, recharge and enjoy a bit of life before we help them with the next project or contract.

So if this sounds interesting and you would like to know more please contact us and we will be happy to discuss this in total confidence.

Partnership remains the pinnacle of success in private practice.

But with only 3% of associates making Partner is some firms this does not mean firms should give up developing alternative career paths.

It’s My Law is offering career alternatives not alternative careers and is finding willing takers amoungst the top echelons of the Legal profession, both from senior partners and the law firms themselves.

Associates quoted in Legal Week said;

“The people issue is one of the biggest challenges for law firms at the moment – both firms and the individuals are struggling with it, as not everyone wants partnership and all that it entails. Trying to retain people that don’t want partnership is the biggest issue.  The profession as a whole needs to offer an alternative [to partnership].”

As the It’s My Law model becomes more widely accepted we will see a move towards addressing those issues, but the real difficulty in law is the progression from trainee to seven or nine years’ PQE to potentially qualifying as a partner.

One in 10 lawyers are already aiming for alternative career paths, according to Legal Week research that shows only a third of female assistants aspire to be partners at their own firm.

It is interesting to note the changes that are taking place in the legal world. The most important factor cited in this survey was work/life balance.  Something that we find again and again when speaking with lawyers. 

ItsMyLaw to officially launch the Career Alternative not Alternative Career service to the London market in early September.  This will allow lawyers to explore the opportunity to work in some of the best law firms and corporate’s on challenging and rewarding projects while have the opportunity to secure the work – life balance they are seeking.

This is not a service for the less ambitious, but for those who want to have more control over their work and lives.

The law is one of the most stressful professions in the City and clients are largely to blame, according to Marco Martinez, business development director of corporate services at The Priory.

Reflecting on his experience as a banker, Martinez said the legal profession was arguably more stressful. “It wouldn’t be uncommon for us to be sleeping at a lawyer’s offices over the weekend with a sleeping bag on the floor waiting for a deal to sign off,” he said.

“There aren’t too many other industries that I know where you have that kind of stress over, say, a weekend period and it is client led. It’s the old adage that when a client says jump you usually say how high.”

The more we hear about this the more we know that there is a growing demand for the career – lifestyle balance which will put the individual at the centre of the equation. 

This will not remove the stressful situations that occur in the final phases of a deal, but it will provide the individuals a say in how they control their time.  ItsMyLaw will continue to develop the market for top flight legal contractors and ensure that there is a steady flow of work for those who require it.

The Job Journal reports that the demand for temporary labor will grow three times as fast as openings in the permanent workforce over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Legal, computer and management jobs are likely to be the occupations most in demand, according to the 2007 Temporary Jobs Guidebook, produced by Staffing Industry Analysts, a provider of market studies for the contingent labor industry.

“From our analysis, we predict that over the next decade, corporate America is likely to face a distinct challenge to find highly skilled workers to help them achieve their business objectives,” asserts Barry Asin, chief analyst for SIA.

In other words, the coming labor shortage will force employers to rely on temporary staffers for the skills they can’t find in permanent hires.

The list is long and includes:

1. Dehumanising hours.
2. The yawning gap between lawyers intelligence and the mind-numbing nature of their work.
3. The distance between the ideals of those entering the profession and the reality of the profession.
4. The cumulatively lowering nature of the work, becoming competitive, aggressive, judgmental, analytical, adversarial, emotionally detached, paranoid of being sued and, worst of all, pessimistic.
5. The vortex of hatred that envelops them entirely.
6. The self-inflicted nature of their suffering.

But human misery isn’t relative, and these problems could be solved.  All City firms need to do is take a moment or two to look at what ItsMyLaw is starting to offer and realise that they have new options starting them in the face.