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.

This has been coupled with a upswing in the number of talented lawyers seeking a career alternative.

If you would like to know more about how we are helping fill the gaps, please contact John Cullen on 020 3239 9002

There’s only one story anyone is interested in at the moment: the goings-on at Clifford Chance. Yesterday the firm announced that it was axing up to 80 associates and putting 880 London lawyers in consultation.

The effects of the current market conditions are being felt everywhere and the law firms are not being spared.  In a survey by “The YouGovCentaur” its results show that the uncertainty has spread down all levels with only 9 per cent of associates felling strongly that they would be able to find another job easily.

Worryingly the ­figure slumped to just 6 per cent of those at firms with turnovers of between £25m and £50m, which roughly equates to the bottom half of the top 100 firms.

Jitendra Valera writes in Legal week that knowledge and experience management is one of the top four most important strategic challenges faced by the UK’s leading law firms. This was identified following a recent survey of the UK’s 125 largest firms, 73% of those surveyed rated it as either a ‘very important’ or an ‘important’ issue.

Retaining and exploiting the knowledge and experience within a firm, and being able to use it to the greatest competitive advantage, has always been a key management challenge. Its importance in recent years is heightened as the level of churn among qualified lawyers increases.

• How do you ensure that the knowledge and experience of departing lawyers is not entirely lost to the firm when they walk out of the door for the last time?
• How do you ensure that the knowledge and experience of those who replace them is marshaled and maximised as quickly and effectively as possible?

The article identifies a three pronged approach

1. Look at how law firms can best retain and exploit knowledge and experience when staff turnover cannot be avoided. Innovative technology has a huge role to play here.

Ensure that internal attitudes to the sharing of knowledge and experience are supportive. If information is not shared, is not used or is not regularly updated, it is valueless.

2. Firms must take measures to try to reduce staff turnover. This is an area which law firms have grappled with for many years, often unsuccessfully.

The importance of retention is where ItsMyLaw comes in, with the concept of contracting and providing experienced staff to fill the gaps, or a flexible approach to the work that ensure that the talent can be retained, while the work life balance maintained.

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.

The work-life balance of the UK’s lawyers has come under scrutiny as part of a Law Society review to see why record numbers appear to be leaving the profession.

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.

What the top flying corporate associates want for Christmas is a partnership.  A quick straw poll of group of hot young things is met with a resounding ‘yes’.  They all admitted, whether overtly or in a more subtle way, that partnership has and will always be, their career goal.

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.

We have had a fantastic response from senior partners to the proposition of deploying a range of contract lawyers who can work on some of the challenging projects while remaining independent of the firm itself. 

On the flip side of this we have been inundated with enquiries regarding the work which is available. 

Watch this space as we get into October and are able to open the doors officially.