Legal Solutions, Inc. Sharpens Focus on Contract Attorney Market

Chicago, IL, August 07, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Chicago based legal recruiting firm Legal Solutions, Inc. (LSI) announced earlier this year the establishment of its contract attorney placement division. “This is a natural outgrowth of the services that we have provided our clients over the last 15 years,” said president Dave Thomas. “Our clients view us as a full-service firm, and we have been doing contract attorney and paralegal placement over the last few years. Now, we want to really concentrate on this area because we see the tremendous value added by contract professionals.”

Contract attorneys are fully licensed attorneys who, while employed by the contract attorney firm, work for limited periods of time in law firms or legal departments on either discreet projects or to provide extra assistance when workload demands require it. Thomas added: “A common misconception about contract attorneys is that they are not well-qualified. Nothing could be further from the truth. We only use contract attorneys with law firm and/or corporate legal department experience. Most contract attorneys graduated from good law schools and have excellent experience. Their choice to practice law on a contract basis is voluntary. Many people don’t like being tied down to one job and enjoy the variety that contract work gives them.”

Contract attorneys have increased in popularity in recent years for a variety of reasons. First-year associate attorney compensation increases ($160,000 in major markets) and associated billing rate increases make some work cost-prohibitive for law firm associates. Contract attorneys, who usually have more legal experience, can perform the same work at a fraction of the cost. This benefits corporate legal departments and law firms. Corporations pay lower legal fees, and law firms don’t burn out their associates on document reviews or other tedious work. Legal departments also benefit by hiring contract attorneys to assist with workload spike or to fill in for an attorney on leave, rather than farming out work to law firms. “We’ve only scratched the surface with what contract attorneys can do and how they can save money,” said Thomas.

###