Five obstacles your law firm can overcome to use NexaConnex freelancers
Law firms considering using freelance solicitors for the first time may face an uphill struggle to convince colleagues that bringing in outside help is the right thing to do for their business.
In the current economic climate, outsourcing certain aspects of legal service delivery may not only be desirable – it could also be vital to your firm’s success.
As lots of mid-sized law firms have found recently, their desire to grow, or even maintain, current profits are hampered by the tight labour market. The fierce battle for the right talent prices many firms out of the market altogether.
Here are the top five “reasons why not” – obstacles our clients at NexaConnex (our freelance offering for law firms) often have to overcome internally to convince everyone to give freelancers a go.
Reason 1
It will be too expensive.
Reality
On the contrary, no salary to pay means no National Insurance contributions and no pension costs so that significant savings can be made when compared with the cost of a direct hire (there are also no recruitment costs). Because our services are so flexible, we don’t ask our clients for a long-term commitment so they can scale down their support as soon as it’s no longer necessary. In addition, at NexaConnex we always aim to deliver a margin for our law firm clients on the rates charged to their own clients.
Reason 2
Freelancers will be low quality lawyers who can’t get other jobs.
Reality
There are many reasons why solicitors are choosing the freelance route – it’s now a genuine alternative career path for lawyers seeking flexibility. Many of our lawyers are from top 100 firms, with impressive experience that they bring to their assignments.
Reason 3
The lawyers won’t be present in our offices – how will we manage supervision?
Reality
Hybrid working is here to stay with most firms having embraced some remote working so it’s not that different. Cheap and easy to use technology such as Zoom enables all our freelancers to stay closely connected to the client law firm and their staff.
Reason 4
The lawyers won’t be used to our systems – it will take too long and we don’t have the resources to get them up to speed.
Reality
All our lawyers have experience of multiple systems and will have used something similar in the past. Even if some brief on-boarding is required, this can be done remotely and our freelancers learn fast!
Reason 5
We can’t monitor how much work the lawyers do.
Reality
Our freelancers can record their time for your review in whatever way you prefer – on a timesheet or on your own systems. We are always willing to put in place bespoke billing arrangements for our law firm clients and are happy to innovate, just talk to us about your requirements.
Conclusion
Of course, we understand that brining in new people and trusting them with your clients’ work is a potentially daunting idea and we work hard to make sure all our law firm clients are re-assured about every aspect of our service. Our management team is highly accessible to our clients and fully transparent in everything we do, we’ll work with you to put in place solutions that meet your particular needs.
We’re pleased to say that once the solutions to these imagined “problems” have been explained and law firms have taken the initial leap, they discover that using freelancers not only solves lots of headaches, it also brings many benefits!
Ready to find out more?
To find out more about NexaConnex and how it could help you and your law firm, take a look at our brochure here.
Or get in touch with Matthew Dunne or Daniel Jenkins, NexaConnex Leads, for a confidential, no obligation chat about how we can support your law firm.
–Matt Dunne, Partner & NexaConnex Lead