General counsel of all corporate varieties are seeking greater flexibility in their legal staffing and budgets. Many also prefer experienced veterans for more complex matters, lawyers who have encountered a range of legal scenarios in their careers.

Melding these needs into a tailored solution can be tricky. A Big Law firm isn’t affordable or necessary in many instances, while a traditional alternative legal services shop may not field the experienced talent a GC prefers.

Hoping to fill this perceived gap, a new ALSP called NomosFIT launches Thursday with a roster of on-demand senior and mid-career lawyers who can tackle complex legal needs. The company has recruited around three dozen attorneys, many of them having retired as GCs, chief executives and private practitioners.

NomosFIT is led by Chief Executive Ellen Tenenbaum, a former partner and commercial litigator at McDermott Will & Emery in New York.

“We thought there was a real market demand for very experienced lawyers who are able to parachute in, understand the context and complexity of clients’ needs and in a short time frame successfully address those needs in collaboration with the client, and then do all those things for amounts that are manageable within an in house law department's budget,” Tenenbaum told Legal Dive Tuesday.

The firm seeks “to bridge the gaps in the market by offering this premium on-demand legal talent platform for dynamic and more complex business needs.”

The ALSP industry has grown substantially over the past two decades, with firms like Axiom, Consilio, QuisLex and ZentLaw. While cost and speed are typically the primary factors when selecting an alternative legal services provider, “NomosFIT prioritizes quality expertise for more complex matters and fit at a cost substantially less than large law firms,” she said.

The NomosFIT platform’s name combines the Greek word for law, nomos, and the acronym for flexible interim talent. Among its target clients:

• Startups that require fractional legal service for their growth
• Private equity firms seeking interim GCs or other senior lawyers for their portfolio companies
• Companies that need lawyers to help handle business surges and intellectual property issues

The interim legal staffing business has been driven partly by large law firms’ escalating rates, especially for the expertise of more senior partners. There’s also been innovation in the legal services field spurred by technology, with AI-driven firms like Avantia and new virtual firms like Omnus Law.

KPMG, the accounting and professional services giant, is seeking permission to open a law firm, KPMG Law US, in the state with a decision by the Arizona Supreme Court expected later this month. KPMG Law already offers legal services in more than 80 global jurisdictions, with nearly 3,800 employees. 

Under its alternative business structure rules, Arizona is one of the few states that allow non-lawyers to own law firms. Axiom, for example, founded its own firm, Axiom Advice & Counsel, in Arizona in 2023.

Much of this innovation in interim legal services “really is driven by the difficulty that businesses have encountered managing large law firm rates,” Tenenbaum said.

NomosFIT is recruiting lawyers to work as independent contractors to take assignments and projects, but may expand into a full-time employment model later in 2025, she said. “The folks that are retired want flexibility, first and foremost, and then they want compelling and interesting legal work,” she said.

The company is owned by LSS Strategic Partners, part of Alvarez & Marsal Inc., the parent of the global consulting firm. NomosFIT hopes its “value proposition will resonate with” A&M consultants, she said. “We hope they will recognize the benefits of our services and introduce us to clients where we can best serve their interests,” Tenenbaum said.

NomosFIT’s billing model will depend on the type and length of projects, with flexibility in terms of billing by the hour or day, or setting an interim salary for the firm providing a client a full-time GC for a certain period.

“We do expect to expand the platform to include lawyers that we will be able to put together in teams to serve clients in-house in a substantial fashion,” Tenenbaum said.