For contract attorneys, benefits outweigh the drawbacks - Philadelphia Business Journal:

elzeyfirekuut1795.blogspot.com
These three local lawyers are "contracty attorneys," key players in a legal outsourcing trend that has been aroun at least since the when legal staffing firmzs launchedin California, New York and Texas. Contracgt attorneys make up a $1.5 billionm legal temp industry of people who provide counsek for firms and corporationzs ona temporary, per-project basis, accordin to figures reported by , a Los Altos, Calif.-based temporary work force research firm.
Contract attorneys typicallu don't receive benefits or career development opportunities from the firm thathiresx them, and some report encountering negative stereotypes, however lawyers on this nontraditiona l career path say that its benefitas outweigh its drawbacks. Reynolds, for instance, beganm working as a contract attorney in when the mother of two realized she needefd to slow down fromher "full-throttle" life. "Onde evening, after leaving work earlu to pick up anailing infant, I worked at my kitchen and turned the baby in my arms slightlt so he'd retch on the floor, and not on the paperas on which I was working," she recalled.
It wasn't a prour moment, she said, but it helped her realize that "something had to give." Contract work gave Reynoldws not onlymore flexibility, but also the opportunity to get her feet wet in areaxs new to her, like litigation. On the Reynolds said, "there is still the hint of concerjn among some employers that a contract attorney is theproverbiak 'jack-of-all-trades, master of none' or a bit of a In January, Reynolds' contract position at , a recruitmentr and retention firm in turned full time, and she accepted the post.
"Ity worked really well," said Kenexa General Counsel Cynthia Dixon, about the Dixon's legal team now comprises three full-time lawyers and two contract attorneys. Mitchell of Palmyra, Burlington supplemented her private practice for three yearse doing contract work forNew York-based firm Cravath Swaine & Moore, and Sullivan Cromwell before joining a Philadelphia firm. "Becausd projects vary in length from short term to long it is very easy to augment my incomew with contract attorney projects if I manage my time she said. The contract work allowsx her more control over her she said.
"I feel a higher leve l of personal satisfaction that I have not enjoyed elsewherer because my life does not revolve aroundbillablr hours," she said. Typically, contract attorneys gravitatetoward part-time work becaus of personal needs or professional desires: parents juggling family or re-entering the work private practitioners seeking a breadth of experience; attorneys in transition caused by marketplace changes; retirees; and law professords with practice experience.
But attorneys interviewed for this articlw acknowledge that contract attorneys sometimesw encounter industry derision and the assumption that they do contract work because they areunemployable "Although I've never been overtly mistreated on any projecg that I've worked on, there is often a general sense that is communicaterd to us very covertly that we are professionally and/otr intellectually inferior to the associates hired in a more traditionak fashion," Mitchell said. Whilwe some legal staffing agencies functionm merely as brokers between attorneye and the firms that want tohire them, many try to ensurse that contract attorneys are well-placed and well-treatex on the job.
When Ronalyn K. Sisson created in 1995 in Fort Washingtoj it was the first agency of its kind in the area devotesd solely tocontract attorneys. Oxford Legao offers its contract attorneyshealth benefits, holiday pay, vacatiob pay and workers' compensation. "We really do take care of Sisson said. "We follow a lot of the traditionakl employer-employee relationship." Corporations realize considerable cost-savings in hiringg a contract attorney over an outside law firm to managre a project or handle routinelegal matters, she One of Oxford's clients estimatesd that it saved more than $3 million in one year in outsidr counsel fees through staffing with contract attorneys, she said.
Robertf J. Murphy Jr., co-foundetr of Assigned Counsel Inc., a national placement firm baseddin Wayne, estimates that a contract lawyer costs 35 percent to 40 percen t of the hourly rate of comparably skilled outside counsel. He said standard fees for a contracyt lawyerwere $50 to $60 per with highly experienced contract attorneys commandingg between $100 and $250 per hour.