by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - February 23, 2009 - Uncategorized
Lisa Solomon from the Questionoflaw.net and Legalresearchandwritingpro.com submitted some interesting posts to OFL concerning lawyers acting as independent contractors. As you all know, we are big fans of contract lawyers, virtual law clerks, and virtual paralegals. My favorite post submitted by Lisa is “A Contract Lawyer by any Other Name” which talks about how many contract lawyers are suffering in the economic downturn, staffing companies have gone out of business and a $35/hour virtual lawyer rate in New York and Washington isn’t cutting it.
Wow! That’s almost the rate we pay our law clerks! It’s hard for me to believe that contract lawyers in New York are taken $35 an hour for their work. My guess is that there are two types of contract lawyers. Those that existed in the pre-internet technology adoption, and the more recent contract lawyers that are popping up all over the country. The current iteration often makes more than the lawyers do in the law firm itself. They have the expertise to command a whopping 75-80% of the entire billing rate for themselves.
Will the pendulum of power swing toward talented independent contract attorneys? Only time will tell. But I can’t see why not.
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
