How legal teams are tapping flexible talent amid tight budgets

Corporate legal departments have a wide array of work they must complete, but often lack the necessary internal bandwidth to carry out their growing number of responsibilities.

At the same time, many in-house teams have seen their budgets cut amid the uncertain economy, so they do not have the funds to hire additional headcount.

As a result, legal departments are increasingly tapping flexible talent to fill the gaps, according to Robb Hern, SVP of Enterprise Legal Services at Consilio.

Legal teams are able to outlay funds in this manner, he said, because flexible talent services are seen as external expenses that are variable rather than ongoing operating expenses.

Flexible professionals are also typically able to be onboarded more efficiently and affordably than new full-time hires.

“There's less red tape to go through in terms of acquiring new talent, so we can actually get them into the business faster,” Hern told Legal Dive.

New portal

To better support legal departments and law firms seeking out legal talent, Consilio recently announced the launch of its TalentConnect portal.

The portal allows companies to leverage Consilio’s Enterprise Talent Solutions’ database to review thousands of applicant profiles, Hern said.

Robb Hern

Courtesy of Consilio

Users can then directly reach out to potential candidates, which is a new functionality, or utilize Consilio’s talent fulfillment experts for assistance in filling open roles.

“It's all about getting the job done for the clients in the way that they desire,” Hern said.

Overall, more than 1,000 attorneys are actively engaged by clients via Consilio each day, and more than 7,000 legal and non-legal flexible positions are filled annually via its talent services.

Litigation support

One common way legal departments are tapping flexible talent, Hern said, is for assistance with litigation management.

These professionals can help develop case strategy and do pre-planning work prior to the engagement of outside counsel.

This approach, Hern said, allows in-house teams to save funds because it pushes back the time in which outside counsel is brought onto the case.

Additionally, these professionals can help in-house teams set themselves up for productive engagements with external counsel and often keep serving the in-house legal department as a case moves forward.

“They can come to the law firm with more information about what they want the strategy to be, so that way the firm can give them better and more effective representation,” Hern said.

Claims professionals

There has also been strong interest from legal departments in utilizing Consilio’s services to find flexible talent that can assist with claims management.

These professionals are often considered claims adjusters or risk managers, among other similar titles, Hern said.

They are being sought to assist with “auto claims to transportation claims to insurance claims and everything in between,” he said.

The demand for these professionals is trending upwards “evenly across the board,” Hern said.

Contracts

Commercial contracting is another common area in which legal departments are turning to Consilio’s TalentConnect platform to find external assistance.

Hern said new data privacy laws becoming effective is one reason in-house teams seek help with contract review and negotiation.

M&A deals also often create demand because the contracts from the companies being acquired typically need to be updated to align with the parent company’s policies and strategies.

Additionally, flexible talent can help with seasonal spikes in contracting workload.

“As a result, that's an area where being able to turn on and off the spigot and control those costs to ride up and down with volumes is very appealing, especially in this economic time,” Hern said.