Using Contract Attorneys for Document Reviews

Using Contract Attorneys for Document Reviews

There are numerous law firms and in-house legal departments using the services of contract attorneys for their document review work. The advantages of doing so are numerous. In the following lines, you will find out more about what the attributions of a contract attorney are and what you should expect when working with such a professional.

What do Contract Attorneys Do?

Some of the common tasks assigned to a contract attorney are:

• conduct document review work
• draft agreements, settlements, various contracts and other legal documents
• perform the work of an associate that is out of the office
• document review work with the use of specialized skills, such as knowledge in a foreign language or expertise in a particular field
• legal research on particular legal issues that are of interest to the company hiring the attorney
• offering support for teams when they prepare for litigation
• preparing reports on an annual basis
• providing assistance in migrating to upgraded software
• reviewing employee manuals and making suggestions for improving them
• engagement with the laws of another state
• assisting in the discovery stage of a particular case

In short, the position of a contract attorney involves a wide range of tasks, and such professionals need to be properly prepared before starting. The nature of the tasks and attributions assigned to a contract attorney also vary according to the firm for which he or she works, which may be a small firm, a corporation, a company in collaboration with the government or an in-house counsel.

How Much do I Need to Pay for the Work of a Contract Attorney?

Most contract attorneys should be paid by the hour of document review work. However, there are some professionals who prefer to charge a flat rate. For the best results and to save costs, it is best that you discuss your case in advance and provide all the information such a professional needs to establish a quote. Set a rate up front, and you will avoid any unpleasant surprises.

Depending on the scope of the project and the complexity and the contract attorney's level of experience, hourly rates can range from $25 per hour to over $100 per hour. 

Rahul D. Yodh is a Principal of Link Legal Search Group, a boutique legal search & staffing firm that provides lateral attorney recruitment and contract attorney services to organizations nationwide. For more information on Link Legal Search Group, please visitwww.linklegalsearch.com

Legal Departments & Law Firms Depending More on Temporary Attorneys

Gina Passarella recently wrote this in the GC Mid Atlantic:

In an era when cost predictability reigns supreme, corporate law departments are increasingly using project- or contract-based attorneys to help handle an increased workload on a shrunken budget.

And their business-minded approach has law firms thinking about doing the same thing.

James LaRosa, an owner of staffing firm JuriStaff in Philadelphia, said the use of skilled attorneys on a project basis is nothing new to law departments, but the number of departments looking at this option and the amount of projects available has definitely increased in the last year.

General counsel are donning their business hats and looking at how they can handle a growing workload in an more highly regulated environment without adding to their permanent headcount, he said. Bringing on specialized, experienced attorneys for six months to a year to handle one set project in their area of expertise has become the solution.

Project attorneys are a more viable answer to the budget problem in part because there are so many skilled lawyers out of work due to layoffs at AmLaw 200 firms and the consolidation of legal departments prior to the economic downturn, which led to cuts in those departments as well, LaRosa said.

"The pool of contract attorneys right now is exceptional," he said.

A typical candidate right now would have experience at either an AmLaw 200 firm or a specialized boutique, and oftentimes will have law department experience as well.

"What they are getting typically is an attorney with a lot more relevant experience and a lot more real life practice experience," LaRosa said.

Technology has also bolstered the trend. Legal departments in rural areas looking for a specialized attorney don't have to be limited to a regional search, where such expertise may not be readily available.

"So a legal department in Tennessee or Kentucky that needs a specific IP attorney and might not be able to find the best candidates within 50 miles of their office in their rural setting, if they are open to the contract model, they basically then have the whole country or the whole world, in essence, to find the perfect candidate," LaRosa said.

The average project for a contract attorney in this setting lasts about six months to a year and is more or less full time. LaRosa said some attorneys will work just 20 hours a week on a certain project, freeing them up to handle another matter somewhere else as long as conflicts aren't an issue.

He currently has a contract lawyer working at two different pharmaceutical companies. Each company had to know about the dual role and clear it.

Pharmaceutical companies are big users of this model because they have specialized practice areas within their groups and may need to fill gaps in shrinking departments with attorneys who have experience in those areas, he said. In terms of practice areas where project attorneys are most often used, it depends on the department.

LaRosa said there is often a lot of activity on the corporate contract side, as well as labor and employment and intellectual property, both in terms of prosecution and litigation.

Law departments tend to look for temporary help on litigation matters when it comes to document review and e-discovery needs, but LaRosa said they are opening up to bringing on more skilled project attorneys to handle research and writing on the litigation side.

Valerie Esposito of McAnney Esposito & Kraybill Associates in Pittsburgh said she has seen a "huge upswing" in the contract attorney market because of the recession. She said she was surprised to see the bulk of the hires in that area were on the corporate side, which was hardest hit in terms of permanent placements.

Esposito said, however, that as the economy starts to stabilize, she is starting to see the permanent hiring rebound.

"As confidence has grown and the financial outlook has remained stable, I think they are leaning back toward permanent hires rather than contract hires," she said of law department hiring trends.

LaRosa said there was a high propensity for these positions to turn into full-time gigs in better economic conditions. He said it remains to be seen whether budgets will allow for that trend to continue in the current economy.

As law departments start to look at full-time hires, contract attorneys have filled, and continue to fill, an important role in a tough economy. There is always work to be done in a recession, but there is a fear of permanent hiring, Esposito said. Project lawyers were a partial solution to those concerns.

And the positives seem to outweigh the negatives.

Law departments get the benefit of hiring specialized attorneys at a price LaRosa said is almost always lower than what outside counsel would charge. He said the average rate for project attorneys is between $75 and $150 an hour, with perhaps a higher hourly rate for more specialized attorneys. The downside, he said, is that they may leave before the project concludes. But that can happen with any attorney at a law firm, and the ability to find a replacement project attorneys is generally easy in this market, he said.

A TWIST ON THE MODEL

Steve Feder, co-founder of start-up GenCounsel, said he too has noticed a growing need from general counsel who feel they are "boxed in" between increasing workloads, hiring freezes and budget crunches that prevent significant use of outside counsel.

Feder said he found it to be a "disturbing trend," however, that contract attorneys are being brought into law departments on week-to-week engagements and are being paid "embarrassing" rates for their experience level. Feder said GenCounsel is selling its services in a different way, but essentially selling into the same marketplace.

The company provides what he hesitantly calls part-time general counsel. The primary focus initially was on small companies with no in-house lawyers who needed temporary help at an experienced level -- all of GenCounsel's 11 attorneys are either, or both, former senior level law firm partners or former general counsel of large companies.

Interest has expanded to include small companies who already have an in-house team but need help in clearing a backlog or working on a specific project. The GenCounsel attorney comes in for a three-month period to start and then can continue on month by month. Feder said no one has stopped after three months yet, but the general counsel also know this isn't a rent-to-own situation and there is no pressure to keep the attorneys on board.

GenCounsel's lawyers typically help with commercial work related to vendor contracts, a large client contract or even acquisitions; human resources work related to consolidating employee handbooks after an acquisition, general HR support and building infrastructure in that area; and overall strategy through sitting in on management meetings or advising whether to do a deal.

One general counsel recently told Feder about a secondment experience in which the GC asked the outside firm to send someone over to fill the role of the associate general counsel who was on maternity leave. The attorney would have to handle HR matters, new product development initiatives and customer contracts. The law firm sent over a third-year litigation associate. The GC sent her back to the firm within a month. Feder said that is exactly the type of problem his company was designed to solve.

GenCounsel attorneys sometimes come in one day a week to help with backlog or come in full time to help on an acquisition. Feder said they don't bill by the hour but instead charge a fixed fee or monthly retainer that is significantly lower than a large law firm would charge but higher than a staffing agency might charge.

About a third of GenCounsel's referrals through April of this year came from large law firms, who Feder said realize his company isn't competition but an added tool. He said he works closely with outside firms when a matter requires it and often they appreciate having an attorney inside the client who can be their contact person.

If his company can handle a matter on its own, it will, and if a matter requires additional help, Feder said he will bring on board a law firm to assist. He said he'd like to think he is particularly good at buying outside counsel services given his own prior experience as a general counsel at Safeguard Scientifics.

LAW FIRMS JOINING THE PARTY?

As law firms see their clients turn to contract attorneys, the firms are too. LaRosa said he is seeing more law firms hiring project-based lawyers in an effort to show their clients that "they get it."

LaRosa said he has one client right now who has left a large AmLaw firm to start his own practice staffed only with contract lawyers.

"He will use that as an advantage to potential clients by explaining and showing that he's not taking on the overhead of the traditional associate and the space that is required for them," LaRosa said. "He will have at the ready quality lawyers with the specific practice areas required to be used on project basis."

The client then gets the benefit of having a former AmLaw partner manage their projects while they are handled by experienced attorneys who are charged out at a lower rate than large firm associates, he said.

"It's in essence doing what some corporate legal departments are doing, but I think we will see more firms doing this," LaRosa said. 

Rahul D. Yodh is a Principal of Link Legal Search Group, a boutique legal search & staffing firm that provides lateral attorney recruitment and contract attorney services to organizations nationwide. For more information on Link Legal Search Group, please visitwww.linklegalsearch.com

Temporary Attorneys Can Help Firms Handle Big Cases. But What To Tell—And Bill—Clients?

Last year, a 125-lawyer Dallas-based firm was faced with the daunting task of reviewing the medical records of more than 100,000 claimants who had just reached settlements with the firm’s biggest client.

Instantly, the firm managers knew they needed help. Unless they pulled associates off other cases, they were not going to be able to get the records reviewed in time. On the other hand, they recognized that if they hired additional attorneys and support staff, they would not be able to retain them after the project was completed. The project itself was not complicated, just very time consuming; the records had to be reviewed in order to complete a corresponding checklist.

Their answer: temporary help. The firm’s management organized teams primarily made up of contract or project attorneys, paralegals, and clerks. Partners and associates, who had worked on the cases and were familiar with them, led each team.

The plan was a success. The medical records were reviewed well before the deadline, and in the process, the firm added to its bottom line.

By bringing on additional billable staff, the firm was able to expand its revenue-generating capacity. They could bill the time generated by the project attorneys and staff, with a very manageable overhead expense. At the same time, the firm was charged only a fraction of this rate for the hours each project professional worked and did not have the traditional burden (payroll taxes and benefits) that comes with a full-time employee.

This is just one example of how, as the economic outlook brightens,law firms are drastically changing their approach to staffing.

Almost three years ago, when the U.S. economy first showed signs of slipping into a recession, firms were structured in ways that did not allow them to respond effectively to the changing economy. To put it simply, firms were obese, having gorged themselves during the booming economy. One lesson learned is the importance for law firms to build a nimble staffing program that maximizes resources in an economically responsible way.

One option gaining popularity among law firms is organizing staff into specialized teams consisting of experienced, proficient, full-time, and temporary legal professionals. These teams are uniquely configured to meet the needs of a specific case or project or for a component of a case, such as discovery. Project based teams offer several advantages:

• Efficient use of resources. Many projects can be handled by bringing in specialized temporary legal professionals with appropriate skill sets and levels of experience, who are then supervised by in-house staff. This allows the firm to integrate a major project into its caseload without overtaxing resources or failing to properly service other clients.

• Strategic composition. Supervising attorneys or team leaders can handpick professionals from internal firm staff—and from outside the firm—with the specific experience and skills they need. Once a project is under way, the team can be adjusted as needed by adding or removing people from the team. This allows the firm to easily adapt to the many curveballs encountered during a lengthy case.

• Economical. Select professionals can be brought in as needed to fill specific roles on a project-based team. Their time can be limited to those parts of a case requiring their skill and expertise. This approach to staffing can lead to significant savings on overhead costs, especially in large or lengthy cases.

• Flexibility. By including temporary employees on the team, a smaller firm can take on a major litigation case it might otherwise have to forgo.

MORE CHOICES

Project-based staffing is not a new concept—law firms learned long ago that teams of legal professionals working together on the same case or project could help achieve greater productivity from available resources.

The fundamental difference today is that the teams are composed of a wider array of professionals and offer more flexibility.

Outside specialists and professionals may come from litigation support organizations, other law firms serving as co-counsel, and specialized legal staffing firms. A project-based team will usually include a balanced combination of attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, clerks, coders, and other full-time and temporary professionals.

There are certain types of cases that can benefit from the use of project-based staffing, including:

• Large/lengthy multistate, multiparty litigation. As a case grows in size, the costs associated with it grow not proportionally but exponentially. Project teams composed of in-house personnel and supplemented with outside specialists as needed (as opposed to hiring large numbers of new full-time staff) can help regulate costs.

• Document-intensive cases. Even in smaller cases, the volume of paperwork and documents has exploded in recent years. All this paper must be reviewed, sorted, and coded, so that a critical document or e-mail is not overlooked.

Rather than redirect internal staff from other cases, securing a number of project professionals to supplement a team of fulltime employees can be a highly effective approach. Firms can also turn to outside litigation support companies that possess the latest and greatest technology to handle parts of this document organization.

Other projects that can benefit from the use of temporary lawyers include large transactions, contract reviews, bankruptcies, and corporate governance.

INEVITABLE QUESTIONS

The use of this staffing strategy leads you to ask some inevitable questions, especially when it comes to project attorneys. How do you explain their use to your client? After all, if they are so highly qualified, why don’t they have full-time jobs?

You must explain to your client that this is an outdated opinion. Many project attorneys today have the qualifications to work in any large firm, but have chosen temporary work for lifestyle reasons.

Some are not the primary earners in their family and prefer the flexibility; others may have just relocated to the area and are using project-based work to break into the local market. Additionally, you can remind your client these attorneys will be supervised by team leaders from the firm familiar with their case. 

The American Bar Association recommends advising the client and obtaining client consent whenever a project attorney is performing independent work for a client without the close supervision of an attorney associated with the law firm.

However, where the project attorney is working under the direct supervision of a lawyer associated with the firm, disclosure is not ordinarily required.

What would be a reasonable rate to bill a client for work performed by a project attorney? To date, no ABA, state, or local bar opinion has directly addressed project attorney billing rates. Depending on the project attorney’s background and level of experience, he or she could be billed out at rates comparable to that of an associate.

A good rule of thumb is that you can bill a project lawyer out for up to three times the rate you are paying. Specialized legal staffing firms usually charge firms a specific rate for each attorney, taking into account the lawyer’s level of experience compared with your needs.

What about conflicts of interest? If these project attorneys are mercenaries working for every firm in town, how can a firm assure itself that there is no real or potential conflict of interest?

Conflict-of-interest issues must be resolved before the project attorney relationship begins. Both the hiring firm and the project attorney must determine whether there are any conflicts.

Hiring firms should maintain complete records showing the clients and matters worked on by each project attorney. The project attorney also needs to maintain a complete record of all cases handled and law firms served throughout his or her career.

The use of project-based staffing is an advanced and proven strategy to maximize personnel resources, allowing savvy law firms access to premier talent efficiently and economically.

Rahul D. Yodh is a Principal of Link Legal Search Group, a boutique legal search & staffing firm that provides lateral attorney recruitment and contract attorney services to organizations nationwide. For more information on Link Legal Search Group, please visit www.linklegalsearch.com 

Submitting Collateral Information With Your Resume

When attorneys apply for a job they will usually need to submit collateral information such as transcripts and writing samples in addition to a standard resume. I spoke to The Ladders about this process.

Sending a link to an online portfolio, as opposed to including materials as attachments, is "always OK," according to Rahul D. Yodh, a partner in the legal executive search and consulting firm Link Legal Search Group. 

In some industries, attachments are de rigueur, said Yodh. "Most law firms require transcripts when considering attorney candidates, and without a transcript your application is incomplete," he said.  

Other industries require artwork or writing samples, including journalism outlets or advertising firms. "If it is the norm in your industry then feel free to submit it, and you won't have to worry about being removed from consideration," Yodh said.  

But even if your industry is tolerant of or requires attachments, don't go overboard, Yodh advised. "Feel free to submit a list of references, but don't attach five letters of reference."  

If you do send attachments, remember to keep them as small as possible. "Send a couple of MBs of attachments and the e-mail server or firewall on the other end might bounce it back," Yodh said.

To read the complete article click here: Send The Resume Solo 

Rahul D. Yodh is a Principal of Link Legal Search Group, a boutique legal search & staffing firm that provides lateral attorney recruitment and contract attorney services to organizations nationwide. For more information on Link Legal Search Group, please visit www.linklegalsearch.com 

Temporary Attorneys Are More Profitable

Following in the footsteps of many large, East Coast based law firms, Southern California firms are relying more and more on temporary attorneys for help with the rising amount of discovery documents, and particularly electronic discovery. Since 1999, 90 percent of all documents produced are electronic correspondence and data. This has certainly created a market for an unusual, and highly profitable, utilization of legal talent.

The vast majority of firms increasing their use of contract attorneys in the last three years contribute it to the burden of document discovery. Many firms, however, view document review as a profit center. Contract Attorney rates are at a fraction of the cost to pay their internal staff. Firms engage staffing agencies to find experienced, qualified document reviewers and handle all administrative tasks related to scheduling and payment of the contractors. Some staffing firms, such as Davidson Attorneys, also offer clients space and laptops for the project, and provide project management to prevent the firm's associates from being inundated by questions. This frees up their associates to perform more substantive work.

Discovery costs in litigation can be extremely expensive and often frustrate a firm's efforts. Cost sensitive clients are often advised to settle, even when they have a good case. Some firms find it extremely beneficial to pass through the cost savings of using contract attorneys to their client to encourage the client to move forward to trial.

In recent years, and with growing frequency, corporate clients are requesting their legal counsel hire contract attorneys to assist with document intensive matters, including mergers and acquisitions and to keep litigation costs down. Some corporate clients with in-house legal departments are even taking it upon themselves to take bids from and engage staffing firms.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of using contract attorneys is not having to be stuck with the extra labor and paying wages when the work ends, and it can end suddenly. Some may wonder why attorneys would choose to do this type of work, especially with its instability. A common misconception is that the only attorneys who would do document review are those who cannot find other employment. In fact, reasons for seeking document review work vary greatly, and currently there are as many as 5,000 attorneys in Washington D.C. working full time as document reviewers.

Many document review attorneys are graduates of top-tier law school schools, trying to figure out which direction to take. Some attorneys are transitioning between jobs, others looking for supplemental work to their own law practice, and some desiring the flexibility to travel or pursue non-legal ventures. Attorneys licensed in other states that have relocated to California typically seek document review work while they prepare for our notorious Bar exam, and some reviewers are seasoned attorneys that leave jobs at large firms for medical reasons or to raise families. There is a great deal of legal talent out there and available to assist firms when they need it.

Rahul D. Yodh is a Principal of Link Legal Search Group, a boutique legal search & staffing firm that provides lateral attorney recruitment and contract attorney services to organizations nationwide. For more information on Link Legal Search Group, please visitwww.linklegalsearch.com

References... Who Should You Use?

I am sometimes surprised at how little thought goes into an attorney’s reference list. I have spent a fair amount of time in my career checking attorney references, and have often asked myself, “Why in the world did this attorney list this individual as a reference?” I have had references tell me awful things about candidates, or, more often, give me limp, lukewarm endorsements. Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing individuals as references.

1. Can the individual speak to my skill set?

When you are listing references, the first, most obvious choice is to use your immediate work provider. (If this is not possible because you have had negative experiences with this person, please see Section 3, below). However, any work provider can serve as a reference.

Although a partner may be your main work provider, you may not be their main associate. You may well need to remind this person of the work you have done for them, especially if they are a reference from a former position, and it has been awhile. Please, please, do this. I suggest calling a former work provider rather than emailing, but you should probably follow up with an email, in which you can remind them of your role in significant projects performed for them. The last thing you want is for a reference-checker to be told by a reference that they can’t remember what you did for them.

I have had people list non-work references such as pastors, non-legal business partners, even family members. I do not recommend this.

2. Does the individual like me, and are they enthusiastic about the work I produced?

References should glow. It is likely that the people who will check your references spend a fair amount of their day checking references. They know what to ask, and they know what to listen for. They immediately know the difference between someone who truly thinks you are spectacular and someone who is just going through the motions.

As discussed above, while you should use your main work provider if at all possible, you can use some judgment in your remaining references. Rather than using the most important or high-profile partners in your firm, I recommend using references who know you well, were very happy with your work, and will sing your praises to high heaven, even if that person is not someone who gets a lot of press. Again, people who check a lot of references are watching for this.

If one of your recommenders is a shy person, is very mellow, or just doesn’t have a great phone personality, you may let the firm know this, as discreetly as possible, of course.

3. Generally speaking, you should avoid listing a person from whom you have had negative feedback more than once.

I get questions about this fairly regularly. I do not recommend listing someone who negatively critiqued your work on any significant level, or has responded unfavorably to your work more than once. Understand that firms may contact that person anyway; it is not hard for a firm to figure out who you were probably working for if you were in a particular group or serviced a particular client. However, again, the last thing you want is to provide a reference who may say negative things about you. Therefore, even if it means that you do not list your main work provider, I would avoid listing someone who may say negative things about you. List other work providers, list work providers from past jobs who will glow when discussing you.

If you are on the fence about whether to list someone with whom you have had a questionable experience, simply….

4. Ask a Potential Reference What They Might Say About You.

No one is perfect. It is certainly is possible in life to recover from negative feedback and get a great reference from that person. If you are not sure whether you have truly recovered, you must find a way to ask before you list that person. I suggest simply asking the person if they are comfortable giving you a very positive reference. If they respond with some trepidation, I would think twice about using that person. The important thing is to get a true assessment of where you stand before you decide whether to list that person.

Rahul D. Yodh is a Principal of Link Legal Search Group, a boutique legal search & staffing firm that provides lateral attorney recruitment and contract attorney services to organizations nationwide. For more information on Link Legal Search Group, please visitwww.linklegalsearch.com

You Need To Hire Temporary Attorneys... Now What?

Your case has entered the discovery phase and you are faced with the daunting task of reviewing millions of pages with a tight deadline for production to your adversary. Your firm does not have the resources to get through all of these materials in a timely manner. What are you going to do?

Whether you use a temporary attorney staffing agency to provide a pool of contract attorneys or hire directly, the same tips for hiring will apply. With a soft legal job market, there are plenty of bright, ambitious attorneys who will want to work on your project. The trick is learning how to select them.

For many attorneys, contract work provides a flexible work environment so that they can pursue other interests between jobs or in the evenings (e.g., writers, actors, entrepreneurs). Others may be trying to launch a solo practice, or may be new parents who don't want the big-firm grind. Some may have felt the sting of discrimination, and seek a way to enter the legal workplace.

Still others may have recently relocated or may not be admitted to practice in the state. Others simply may prefer a job that pays well that they don't have to take home with them at night.

RESUMES

Understanding these motivations can help you evaluate candidates. And their resumes can provide vital clues to help you select a successful review team.

First, fight the urge to favor pedigree as an indicator of quality. While you want bright people, it also takes a certain temperament and work ethic to competently review and analyze documents 10 hours a day.

Positive signs to look for in a resume include:

• Working for the same law firm(s) on multiple occasions.
• Repeated placement by the same agency or agencies.
• Second review, quality control and privilege review experience.
• Experience with multiple online review platforms.
• Placement on both short-term and long-term assignments.

Red flags include:

• Lack of second review, quality control or privilege review experience for experienced reviewers.
• Large, unexplained gaps in the resume.
• Candidates who lump all of their reviews under one heading so that you cannot ascertain how long they were on a project and/or the type and level of work performed.
• Listing "solo practitioner" as their current job description. Be wary of hiring solo practitioners if their practice requirements could lead to frequent absenteeism (e.g., due to court appearances, real estate closings). They might be great for a night shift, but unreliable in a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. slot.

THE INTERVIEW

Don't hire without an in-person interview. Some candidates look great on paper, but you will be only able to tell if they are an appropriate candidate if you meet them in person.

Brief 15-minute interviews of candidates will not only help you screen, but can help set a tone that communicates that you are invested in the reviewers as contributing members of your legal team.

Some interview tips:

• Candidates should arrive on time, be professionally dressed and properly groomed.
• Be cautious of candidates who cannot cogently discuss any of the reviews on which they have worked.
• If you use a staffing agency, insist that the agency rank the candidates it submits to you.
  
  This will force the staffing manager to truly reflect on the candidates who will best fit your firm's personality and will help you prioritize interviews.

EXPECT QUESTIONS

You should expect to be asked the following questions:

• What is the approximate duration of project?
• Does it pay a flat rate or does it pay overtime?
• Is there an opportunity for weekend work, and, if so, is it required?
• Are there any caps or minimum hours required?
• Is there flexibility to work from home?
• Is there an opportunity for a raise or completion bonus for long-term projects?

OFFERS

You should make your offers quickly and try to avoid startup delays to avoid losing the best candidates to other projects.

Always pay attorneys who are performing the same task at the same rate. Managers may make slightly more, but make sure their role includes tasks other than strictly document review.

REVIEW SITES

Staffing agencies will typically offer you "free" space for a large review.

However, while the agencies don't charge you directly for the room, they typically will bill you an additional $3 to $5 per hour, per attorney.

However, this may be well worth considering if your firm is small, or has no extra space -- because it will relieve you of the burden and costs of finding and maintaining space.

ENVIRONMENT

Be sure that your firm provides a pleasant and productive work environment:

• Cramped rooms or basement spaces are notorious in the industry and obviously disfavored.
• Provide desks or open tables in one large room to facilitate interaction between contract attorneys and supervisors. This will lead to a more consistent review.
• Bathrooms should be cleaned frequently and well-stocked.
• A break-out room where attorneys can take a call is also helpful.
• There should be plenty of coffee and beverages available for reviewers.
• Make sure that your site has offices for the site supervisor and associates.
• Be sure your site has as a high-speed printer, photocopier and office supplies.

TRAINING

It is very important to take the necessary time to present your attorneys with an overview of the case -- and follow that up with weekly meetings to respond to their questions and to provide feedback.

Do not undervalue the intelligence of your attorneys. Their understanding of the bigger picture enables them to think about the documents instead of mindlessly coding and makes them feel part of a team. The rewards are innumerable.

Imagine a partner asking you to write a memo, but refusing to tell you what the case is about or what you are trying to achieve.

LESSONS LEARNED

Using contract attorneys can be an effective way to tackle a large-scale review.

You will find that your best contract attorneys will respect you and will want to work with you on future matters, and will tell their colleagues who are looking for work.

And referrals from quality workers are almost always your best hiring bet! 

Rahul D. Yodh is a Principal of Link Legal Search Group, a boutique legal search & staffing firm that provides lateral attorney recruitment and contract attorney services to organizations nationwide. For more information on Link Legal Search Group, please visitwww.linklegalsearch.com