The Basics of Hiring A Contract Attorney

What to Consider In the Beginning

The old adage, 'The best defense is a good offense,' invariably proves true in so many situations that it's not surprising that it applies to the business process of hiring contract workers ' regardless of whether those workers are attorneys or other office staff, or even managers.

So, assessing key factors from the beginning allows the hiring personnel to exert effective project management from the start. A point to ponder is that although this approach is often discussed, it's frequently side-stepped or given short shrift in the ever-pressured office suites and conference rooms of the commercial and professional sectors, but don't give in, because slowing down, buckling down and paying attention from the start is the best way to guard against catastrophe at or near the end.

Questions to Ask

The essential questions that must be asked are determined by:

• The kind of work that is involved, including the degree of knowledge and experience in e-discovery matters that candidates require;
• The structure of the firm that is or will be hiring the contractors, and
• The applicable jurisdictional rules, and subsets of them such as production formats and timetables, that will apply to the work.

Specifically, the most basic questions involve timing and location. For instance:

• How much work does the firm need to accomplish?;
• What's the deadline by which the work must be completed?; and
• A bottom-line logistical consideration: Where should the project take place and whether it will be conducted at more than one location, including an off-firm document room?

The answers to these questions determine how many contractors the firm needs to hire for the project and will help hiring personnel determine the most accurate figure for the projected number of hours that will be needed to finish the work. And because deadlines often must be bent to accommodate unpredictable variables, or work must be accelerated to meet a deadline that can't be bent, firms should consider overtime as well.

Space Considerations

Of course, a consideration to throw into the equation here is that paying overtime requires fewer contractors, but can lead to a significant cost increase. Space also influences these decisions. For example:

• Does the firm have adequate space at its headquarters or other location, or should the project take place off site and if so, where?
• If the project must be done partly or entirely off site, will the law firm or firm hiring the contract attorneys use its own facilities, a client's ' such as the client or clients involved in the work being done ' or will space have to be leased or rented?
• How much will leasing or renting extra space cost, and how will those costs affect the project?

This article addresses basic hiring steps, and so won't go into details of logistics or specialized e-discovery concerns, but they are important factors that must be addressed by those charged with reviewing, overseeing and resolving these concerns.

Special Knowledge

After weighing these considerations, principals involved in the work must weigh the type of project being tackled, which will guide them to the next step ' does the project involve an impending merger, document-intensive litigation that will or may include e-discovery issues ranging from native-file review and conversion to isolating particular data on backup tapes, or some kind of specialized filing? The answers to these questions dictate deciding whether contract candidates need specialized experience, and in which disciplines or techniques. If they do, then the specific qualifications the candidates should possess must be sorted out and clearly defined. For example, if a firm needs contractors to review documents for a telecommunications merger or regulatory investigation, with which relevant procedures, regulations, antitrust statutes or rules of evidence do qualified candidates need a familiarity, or will a general legal background suffice? Hirers must also consider whether the candidates need prior document-review experience, because sometimes, prior experience can speed the completion of the project, but at other times, seasoned reviewers' broad experience may present a conflict for them working on a specific case, and they must be excluded from consideration.

The Lay of the Land

The type of project to be done also raises jurisdictional concerns. Jurisdic-tion, for example, determines what code of ethics applies to the case or project. Rules vary by jurisdiction, so where the project takes place matters a great deal.

Consider: The District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that attorneys doing contract work within the jurisdiction need to be admitted to the DC Bar. This holding required contract attorneys to waive into the DC Bar within 90 days of practicing in the District. This holding characterizes practicing law to include document review, so contract attorneys hired to do document review for a firm in the Washington metropolitan area must waive into the DC Bar. Determining the applicable jurisdictional rules will guide a firm's search for candidates because the rules dictate the appropriate bar status required of any attorney hired for the project who might handle applicable duties. But keep in mind that bar status doesn't always affect the project. Sometimes, for instance, non-barred attorneys or attorneys barred anywhere are sufficient to do the work, though knowing up front the jurisdictional rules will prevent problems during the project, and preventing them, it should go without saying, usually means smoother sailing than having to meet them ' and sometimes, determine them ' once work has begun.

Where to Look

After deciding on the basics as outlined above, recruiters will be
confronted with the quite-relevant question of how to find the contract attorneys needed. Two options exist:

1. Hiring contractors independently; or
2. Using a staffing agency. Hiring independently will use firm resources, for sure, but it also allows management to exert a little more control in the hiring process.

Remember, too, that the type of project and the amount of direct contact with the contractors influence the decision of how to hire the contract lawyers.

The benefits of using a staffing agency are discussed below.

As with any work, the type of project also influences the type of technological support that will be required. Making sure that the firm's network can sustain the amount of use necessary will prevent crashes that can slow the project. Security is also an important concern. Providing Internet access poses a risk to the network, for instance. As for other technology concerns, if the project requires litigation support, popular document-review programs include Summation, Concordance, DT Search Desktop and Introspect.

Another security concern: What level of access will contract workers have to firm data, or to data involved in the project? Also, will contract workers have total or some type of specific limited access to the facility or multiple sites where the project is being done? And during what times will that access be permitted? Helping to ensure security will likely involve working with IT personnel so that the appropriate levels of access and security can be put in place and monitored, and then parameters changed, if necessary, after the project is completed. Also ' what if some, or all, of the contractors must return to the office, or to a site, to continue or begin another phase of the project that was anticipated for another date, or to begin a part of the project that hadn't been anticipated because it couldn't have been?

Answers to questions above that any particular project may demand be asked will guide the search for creating the contract-staffing situation best tailored to the needs of the firm and the project at issue. Remember that old adage as it echoes through the halls of your firm as you plan any project: Accurately assessing the situation from the beginning will aid in creating cost-effective staffing solutions for the entire project.

Benefits of Using a Staffing Agency

Instead of investing your firm's time and energy conducting a candidate search, using a staffing agency allows experts to look for the qualifications that a particular business endeavor requires. A staffing agency provides a built-in screening process and should ensure that each candidate has the minimum qualifications. Staffing agencies work from an existing pool of candidates, but also have the capability to recruit specialized candidates using various search engines and other recruitment tools. Additionally, staffing agencies provide the benefit of managing the contract attorneys while they are on the project, which entails taking care of payroll and scheduling ' a major break for the hiring firm.

Making a decision about which agency to use requires some investigation. Legal recruiting is a specialized field, but each agency can offer slightly different services. Some agencies screen candidates better than others, which means that they are doing more to verify the credibility of their candidates. Some agencies, for instance, do reference and background checks, and verify every candidate's degree and bar status. But some agencies check only an applicant's references. It's also important to confirm that the staffing agency meets and interviews each candidate who is registered with the agency. Similarly, recruiters at some firms choose to meet with the potential contract employees and conduct another interview. The staffing agency can coordinate this process and ensure that all of the necessary information about each candidate is provided.

Some agencies can also offer litigation support in-house, which is an important amenity if space is an issue. In this sort of situation, the staffing agency will provide the workspace for the project, the technical support and the contract attorneys. This setup is ideal for firms for which space and extra support staff are in short supply. It allows firms to grow their business without having to grow their physical location. If the placement agency provides space, then the fees increase to cover overhead, but this arrangement provides a low-maintenance way to conduct additional business, and requires the client to do little or no legwork.

Another crucial factor to consider is pricing. Pricing often determines the feasibility of the business venture from the beginning. Determining the hourly market price for contract attorneys, then, is critical. The most efficient way to do this is to compare the bill rates of several placement firms. For instance, in the Washington, DC, market the pay rate for DC barred or bar-pending contract attorneys varies. The bill rate then varies by agency. Paying overtime varies, too. Typically, contract attorneys are compensated at the set hourly rate for the first 40 hours they work each week. Any additional hours are billed as overtime.

Factors that increase an hourly rate per attorney include bar status and the number of years of the attorneys' experience. As one might guess, hiring barred attorneys is typically more expensive than hiring non-barred attorneys. There's also an increased hourly rate when hiring a contractor with years of substantive experience. Similarly, the specified field ' antitrust or family law, for instance ' affects the bill rate. An inside track to hiring contractors is that it also provides a way for firms to test
candidates who may later end up as permanent employees.

Working with a staffing agency also presents an opportunity to develop a business relationship. When deciding which staffing firm to work with, clients should consider the reputation of the firm in the legal community, and the level of customer service provided to clientele. Often, projects requiring contract staff develop suddenly ' projects that a firm hadn't considered fall into their laps, and they must ramp up quickly to handle them. Working with a staffing agency whose personnel understand the urgency of a client's business needs leads to better customer service all around. Agencies that put this business principle into practice can provide firms with qualified candidates in a timely fashion ' and that's one of the first measures of that ounce of prevention rule.

Sometimes, a business just doesn't have the people power to meet some demands that may come up unexpectedly, or that were anticipated from the start. This situation can arise for a number of reasons, from increased business to expansion to mergers.

When the demand for more minds and hands develops, such as when the invariably complex electronic discovery project arises, using contract staff provides businesses with a flexible staffing alternative. Contractors allow for a temporary, and sometimes indefinite, expansion of the workforce for a particular project. Occasionally, contractors join the staff as permanent employees ' whether to sustain new business demands, to replace staff lost by attrition or otherwise or to fulfill new duties brought on by additional business.

Law firms use contract attorneys to aid in large-scale document reviews such as those often required in e-discovery, and for mergers, internal audits and other matters that require an influx of temporary help. Of course, the subject matter involved in these wide-ranging projects varies, which makes contractors an ideal solution for dynamic business. If a project requires that attorneys or other workers who are or may be involved have a specific background, then law firms, or the agencies they hire, may well be better positioned using temporary workers who also may be making a specialty of the work required, such as the search, classification and other specific functions required in e-discovery. And often, projects require only a general legal background, which makes finding candidates far easier. But whatever the situation that demands looking for short-term or long-term employees ' for staff positions or contract work ' firms should consider the key factors when hiring contract attorneys.

What to Consider In the Beginning

The old adage, 'The best defense is a good offense,' invariably proves true in so many situations that it's not surprising that it applies to the business process of hiring contract workers ' regardless of whether those workers are attorneys or other office staff, or even managers.

So, assessing key factors from the beginning allows the hiring personnel to exert effective project management from the start. A point to ponder is that although this approach is often discussed, it's frequently side-stepped or given short shrift in the ever-pressured office suites and conference rooms of the commercial and professional sectors, but don't give in, because slowing down, buckling down and paying attention from the start is the best way to guard against catastrophe at or near the end.

Questions to Ask

The essential questions that must be asked are determined by:

• The kind of work that is involved, including the degree of knowledge and experience in e-discovery matters that candidates require;
• The structure of the firm that is or will be hiring the contractors, and
• The applicable jurisdictional rules, and subsets of them such as production formats and timetables, that will apply to the work.

Specifically, the most basic questions involve timing and location. For instance:

• How much work does the firm need to accomplish?;
• What's the deadline by which the work must be completed?; and
• A bottom-line logistical consideration: Where should the project take place and whether it will be conducted at more than one location, including an off-firm document room?

The answers to these questions determine how many contractors the firm needs to hire for the project and will help hiring personnel determine the most accurate figure for the projected number of hours that will be needed to finish the work. And because deadlines often must be bent to accommodate unpredictable variables, or work must be accelerated to meet a deadline that can't be bent, firms should consider overtime as well.

Space Considerations

Of course, a consideration to throw into the equation here is that paying overtime requires fewer contractors, but can lead to a significant cost increase. Space also influences these decisions. For example:

• Does the firm have adequate space at its headquarters or other location, or should the project take place off site and if so, where?
• If the project must be done partly or entirely off site, will the law firm or firm hiring the contract attorneys use its own facilities, a client's ' such as the client or clients involved in the work being done ' or will space have to be leased or rented?
• How much will leasing or renting extra space cost, and how will those costs affect the project?

This article addresses basic hiring steps, and so won't go into details of logistics or specialized e-discovery concerns, but they are important factors that must be addressed by those charged with reviewing, overseeing and resolving these concerns.

Special Knowledge

After weighing these considerations, principals involved in the work must weigh the type of project being tackled, which will guide them to the next step ' does the project involve an impending merger, document-intensive litigation that will or may include e-discovery issues ranging from native-file review and conversion to isolating particular data on backup tapes, or some kind of specialized filing? The answers to these questions dictate deciding whether contract candidates need specialized experience, and in which disciplines or techniques. If they do, then the specific qualifications the candidates should possess must be sorted out and clearly defined. For example, if a firm needs contractors to review documents for a telecommunications merger or regulatory investigation, with which relevant procedures, regulations, antitrust statutes or rules of evidence do qualified candidates need a familiarity, or will a general legal background suffice? Hirers must also consider whether the candidates need prior document-review experience, because sometimes, prior experience can speed the completion of the project, but at other times, seasoned reviewers' broad experience may present a conflict for them working on a specific case, and they must be excluded from consideration.

The Lay of the Land

The type of project to be done also raises jurisdictional concerns. Jurisdic-tion, for example, determines what code of ethics applies to the case or project. Rules vary by jurisdiction, so where the project takes place matters a great deal.

Consider: The District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that attorneys doing contract work within the jurisdiction need to be admitted to the DC Bar. This holding required contract attorneys to waive into the DC Bar within 90 days of practicing in the District. This holding characterizes practicing law to include document review, so contract attorneys hired to do document review for a firm in the Washington metropolitan area must waive into the DC Bar. Determining the applicable jurisdictional rules will guide a firm's search for candidates because the rules dictate the appropriate bar status required of any attorney hired for the project who might handle applicable duties. But keep in mind that bar status doesn't always affect the project. Sometimes, for instance, non-barred attorneys or attorneys barred anywhere are sufficient to do the work, though knowing up front the jurisdictional rules will prevent problems during the project, and preventing them, it should go without saying, usually means smoother sailing than having to meet them ' and sometimes, determine them ' once work has begun.

Where to Look

After deciding on the basics as outlined above, recruiters will be
confronted with the quite-relevant question of how to find the contract attorneys needed. Two options exist:

1. Hiring contractors independently; or
2. Using a staffing agency. Hiring independently will use firm resources, for sure, but it also allows management to exert a little more control in the hiring process.

Remember, too, that the type of project and the amount of direct contact with the contractors influence the decision of how to hire the contract lawyers.

The benefits of using a staffing agency are discussed below.

As with any work, the type of project also influences the type of technological support that will be required. Making sure that the firm's network can sustain the amount of use necessary will prevent crashes that can slow the project. Security is also an important concern. Providing Internet access poses a risk to the network, for instance. As for other technology concerns, if the project requires litigation support, popular document-review programs include Summation, Concordance, DT Search Desktop and Introspect.

Another security concern: What level of access will contract workers have to firm data, or to data involved in the project? Also, will contract workers have total or some type of specific limited access to the facility or multiple sites where the project is being done? And during what times will that access be permitted? Helping to ensure security will likely involve working with IT personnel so that the appropriate levels of access and security can be put in place and monitored, and then parameters changed, if necessary, after the project is completed. Also ' what if some, or all, of the contractors must return to the office, or to a site, to continue or begin another phase of the project that was anticipated for another date, or to begin a part of the project that hadn't been anticipated because it couldn't have been?

Answers to questions above that any particular project may demand be asked will guide the search for creating the contract-staffing situation best tailored to the needs of the firm and the project at issue. Remember that old adage as it echoes through the halls of your firm as you plan any project: Accurately assessing the situation from the beginning will aid in creating cost-effective staffing solutions for the entire project.

Benefits of Using a Staffing Agency

Instead of investing your firm's time and energy conducting a candidate search, using a staffing agency allows experts to look for the qualifications that a particular business endeavor requires. A staffing agency provides a built-in screening process and should ensure that each candidate has the minimum qualifications. Staffing agencies work from an existing pool of candidates, but also have the capability to recruit specialized candidates using various search engines and other recruitment tools. Additionally, staffing agencies provide the benefit of managing the contract attorneys while they are on the project, which entails taking care of payroll and scheduling ' a major break for the hiring firm.

Making a decision about which agency to use requires some investigation. Legal recruiting is a specialized field, but each agency can offer slightly different services. Some agencies screen candidates better than others, which means that they are doing more to verify the credibility of their candidates. Some agencies, for instance, do reference and background checks, and verify every candidate's degree and bar status. But some agencies check only an applicant's references. It's also important to confirm that the staffing agency meets and interviews each candidate who is registered with the agency. Similarly, recruiters at some firms choose to meet with the potential contract employees and conduct another interview. The staffing agency can coordinate this process and ensure that all of the necessary information about each candidate is provided.

Some agencies can also offer litigation support in-house, which is an important amenity if space is an issue. In this sort of situation, the staffing agency will provide the workspace for the project, the technical support and the contract attorneys. This setup is ideal for firms for which space and extra support staff are in short supply. It allows firms to grow their business without having to grow their physical location. If the placement agency provides space, then the fees increase to cover overhead, but this arrangement provides a low-maintenance way to conduct additional business, and requires the client to do little or no legwork.

Another crucial factor to consider is pricing. Pricing often determines the feasibility of the business venture from the beginning. Determining the hourly market price for contract attorneys, then, is critical. The most efficient way to do this is to compare the bill rates of several placement firms. For instance, in the Washington, DC, market the pay rate for DC barred or bar-pending contract attorneys varies. The bill rate then varies by agency. Paying overtime varies, too. Typically, contract attorneys are compensated at the set hourly rate for the first 40 hours they work each week. Any additional hours are billed as overtime.

Factors that increase an hourly rate per attorney include bar status and the number of years of the attorneys' experience. As one might guess, hiring barred attorneys is typically more expensive than hiring non-barred attorneys. There's also an increased hourly rate when hiring a contractor with years of substantive experience. Similarly, the specified field ' antitrust or family law, for instance ' affects the bill rate. An inside track to hiring contractors is that it also provides a way for firms to test
candidates who may later end up as permanent employees.

Working with a staffing agency also presents an opportunity to develop a business relationship. When deciding which staffing firm to work with, clients should consider the reputation of the firm in the legal community, and the level of customer service provided to clientele. Often, projects requiring contract staff develop suddenly ' projects that a firm hadn't considered fall into their laps, and they must ramp up quickly to handle them. Working with a staffing agency whose personnel understand the urgency of a client's business needs leads to better customer service all around. Agencies that put this business principle into practice can provide firms with qualified candidates in a timely fashion ' and that's one of the first measures of that ounce of prevention rule.