Doing More with Less through Flexible Staffing

By Jennifer Evans, President of Davidson Staffing
Davidson Staffing is a Member of the Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and San Francisco Chapters of CAPROS.

Originally published in the August 2009 edition of The Bottom Line, the official publication of the State Bar of California Law Practice Management and Technology Section.

As a staffing executive for more than two decades now, I've been through my fair share of recessions and economic downturns. Staffing agencies are in the unique position to be among the first to feel the beginning and the end of a recession. So what, from our perspective, is currently happening in the legal talent market?

Legal Employers are Reducing Full Time Hiring

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that we have seen a significant decrease in full-time hiring. In 2001, large law firms were relatively immune to the recession, but that has certainly not been the case this time around. This year has felt like Doomsday for the legal community. According to the ABA Journal, more than 10,000 lawyers and staff have been laid-off nationally in 2009. Our services span the State of California, and we saw the majority of our clients reduce headcount in the beginning of the year. The good news is that the death spiral has stopped, and we do anticipate a slow return to full-time hiring.

Large firms are looking at a variety of cost cutting measures - from offering four-day work weeks to voluntary leaves of absence, cutting back on "perks," reducing contributions to retirement plans, and re-evaluating their current benefit plans - all in an attempt to avoid any more layoffs and cutting deeper into their already diminished talent pool. They continue to be conservative in their hiring projections for 2009 with a large percentage of firms reporting that they are holding off on making any long-term hiring decisions for now.

Flexible Staffing is an Option to Consider

While the number of direct hire jobs has declined over the past year, there appears to be an increase in temporary/contract hiring. This may be an early indicator that the economy is recovering or a sign that large firms are facing a long-term decline in their needs for full-time attorneys. The reality is that no one really knows when things will return to "normal" (or whether this is the "new normal").

In this uncertain economic business climate, firms should strongly consider flexible staffing options. For example, contract attorneys can be brought in on a project-by-project basis, which allows firms time to evaluate their long-term needs and increase their billables in the short-term. Hiring temporary and/or contract attorneys can also help firms handle short-term changes in work flow or the availability of employees, such as those caused by layoffs, hiring freezes, or medical leaves of absence. Out of a necessity to do more with less, law firms that have never before considered hiring contract attorneys or paralegals, for instance, are discovering the value and cost-savings of this approach.

As law firm consultant Peter D. Zeughauser explained in his May 2007 article, "Does Your Law Firm Have What it Takes to Be Recession Resistant?" in The American Lawyer:

As recently as five years ago, white-shoe firms shunned temporary attorneys out of fear that they would reduce quality. Today they rely heavily on temporary and contract attorneys to meet short- and even midterm fluctuations in demand. This leads to a much more flexible, productive and profitable talent mix. Flex staffing is a proven business tool for dealing with economic cycles, and it will serve the legal industry well the next time the economy weakens. Firms that are already adept at it stand to benefit greatly when the economy slows.

Zeughauser refers to the use of contract employees as "talent mix," and it's a strategy that firms of all sizes should consider employing.

Potential Assignments for Temporary/Contract Lawyers

The first step in employing a flexible staffing strategy is to identify work that is suitable to be hired by contract, part-time, or temporary attorneys and paralegals. Traditionally, the quintessential example of such work was a large scale document review project. Likewise, many in-house law departments have hired paralegals on a contract basis. In today's environment, however, employers are using temporary and contract attorneys for an increasing variety of projects, including brief writing, court appearances, negotiating contracts and managing specific transactions. The range of potentially appropriate projects is large, so long as the work is discrete. Temporary and contract assignments work best when the project has a natural beginning or end.

Finding Temporary and Contract Attorneys

The second step to implementing a flexible hiring strategy is to reach out and identify suitable candidates. Technology has greatly expanded law firms' abilities to do this. Specifically, websites such as Craigslist and Monster.com are increasingly being used to hire temporary and contract employers. In addition, some bar associations manage temporary hiring services.

In addition, there are temporary staffing companies like ours. Without sounding too self-serving, the advantage of such agencies is that they maintain a large pre-qualified database of potential lawyers and paralegals. Thus, they are able to staff large projects quickly. For example, in one recent discovery dispute, we were able to identify ten attorneys in 48 hours for a large document dispute. Similarly, we were able to identify lawyers who spoke and read Japanese for another client. Click for additional case studies.

Prospects for the Future

There is one certainty: corporations and law firms of all sizes will continue to look at creative, cost-saving solutions to help them manage their businesses. The single largest expense for most law firms is the cost of personnel. Thus, whether you seek to hire your own temporary or contract lawyers and paralegals or use an outside agency, almost every one in the legal industry should consider employing a flexible hiring strategy.

Jennifer Evans is a veteran of Davidson Staffing who joined the company in 1991. She has two decades of experience in the staffing industry.