Contract attorneys can save businesses time and money in many ways. One way is by reducing legal disputes and expensive litigation.
They can also manage contract renewals and ensure that contracts have a clear scope of work. They will research laws and previous cases to help you draft an enforceable agreement.
Building Client Value and Trust
Contract attorneys can help fill in knowledge gaps that can sometimes be overcome. They can also bring a unique perspective, often beneficial in solving complex legal issues.
Contract attorney Anthem AZ often specializes in real estate, regulatory & compliance, labor & employment, M&A deals, and intellectual property. They can perform many functions as associate or in-house counsel, including legal research, drafting and revising documents, and providing litigation support.
Maintaining positive working relationships with your contract attorneys or paralegals, as the success of their work directly correlates with their satisfaction in the role. Setting clear expectations about project parameters and performance objectives is helpful to ensure a productive relationship. It will ensure that you are only paying them for time that is being utilized.
Keeping Clients Happy
If your client has a personality that makes communicating challenging, you may have to spend significant time redefining expectations and setting boundaries. It can save your firm money and headaches if the matter goes sideways.
Contract lawyers may help you negotiate customary contract terms and prevent pitfalls that can be costly. For example, a contract attorney can identify a problematic clause and potentially subject to a legal challenge such as an anti-assignment clause.
Attorneys often bill more per hour than your full-time associates and paralegals, especially for 1099 or W-2 work. It can help you keep your fees competitive and allow you to implement alternative fee arrangements with clients. However, it is essential to consider the overhead costs and considerations of using contract attorneys, including any markup you may need to pass along to your clients, in light of ABA ethical rules.
Keeping Clients Retaining You
Attorneys specializing in contracts can check contracts to ensure they are legally suitable for professional business transactions involving one or more parties. When a dispute or litigation arises, it helps shield the company and its owners.
Business attorneys, by nature, are not tied down to a particular practice area and often jump between law firms and practices so they can explore various legal areas. It allows them to learn and grow as lawyers, whereas full-time associates may be stuck on the same assignments for years.
You can avoid spending money and time finding suitable permanent hires for your team by utilizing contract attorneys regularly. This “date before you marry” approach also saves your firm the risk, liability, and costs of a wrong hiring decision that can kill your team’s culture. By following a few best practices, you can ensure that your attorney provides your firm the maximum value and benefit for their hourly rate.
Keeping Clients Paying You
Contracts are a standard part of the legal industry, and a business attorney can be invaluable in reading and reviewing these contracts. They will know what the customary contract terms are. They can offer advice or write a business contract that pushes the boundaries in your favor- potentially saving you thousands of dollars.
Time and Cost Estimates
A contract attorney can help you keep your costs in check by helping you create project milestones and related deadlines. It will help you keep track of billable hours and clearly understand what is billed to the client.
While utilizing a business attorney requires time initially, this will pay off with a variety of less obvious profit opportunities and benefits to your operations budget, work culture, and team members’ mental health. With the ABA’s interpretation of Model Rule 5.4 permitting contract attorneys and many jurisdiction-specific opinions supporting this, it makes sense to utilize these attorneys to scale your law firm or legal department without a full-time employee’s associated risk and payroll burden.
