The Temporary Solution: Many small firms are using flexible staffing to win big-timeclientsAuthor(s): JILL SCHACHNER CHANENSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 84, No. 3 (MARCH 1998), pp. 86-87Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27839888 .

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SOLO NETWORK

The Temporary Solution Many small firms are using flexible staffing to win big-time clients BY JILL SCHACHNER CHANEN

When a potential client invited the Philadelphia law firm of Miller, Dunham & Doering to bid on a large environmental insurance coverage

dispute, principal Edward Dunham Jr. knew he would have a hard time convincing the insurer to hire his firm.

The hang-up was not the firm's experience but its size. The client had cau tioned Dunham that the board of directors said it believed the case could not be handled by a firm with fewer than 25 lawyers. Dun ham's had just 10.

Though he anticipated steady growth for his firm, Dunham, like many small firm practitioners, did not want to hire new lawyers for a single case. Instead, he re lied on a solution that his firm had recently been using, and that larger firms had been using for years: hiring temporary attorneys.

When a client questions his firm's staffing abilities now, Dunham has a ready response. He brings in his fleet of temporary law yers?and includes their names and statuses as part of any request for large-scale litigation matters.

Take a Tip From the Big Firms The road Dunham followed to

win the litigation work for his law firm?called flexible firm staffing? has been used by large firms with increasing frequency over the past decade. Now small firms are touting it as the newest way to level the playing field, especially when those small firms are butting up against their big-time counterparts in cap turing corporate clients.

"The use of contract profession als has become a competitive issue for small firms now because they can offer the same services to clients [as larger firms] without incurring the additional overhead of permanent staffs," says lawyer Marc Zamsky,

Jill Schachner Chanen, a law yer, writes regularly for the ABA Journal.

managing director of the Philadel phia office of the Wallace Law Regis try, a temporary staff agency. Zam sky worked with Dunham to find temporary lawyers for his firm's large litigation project.

The economics of flexible firm staffing make sense for the small firm and for the client, Zamsky says.

Edward Dunham Jr., right, hires temporary project attorneys such as Melissa R. Magee to supplement his 10-lawyer Philadelphia staff.

The firm gains extra manpower at an hourly fee without worrying about the overhead costs of associ ates?and without fretting about passing those costs on to clients.

And, he adds, that's especially crucial when a small firm goes out to snag a big-time client. Marketing is part of the game. "It's a lot easier to go to a Fortune 500 company and say, Tm representing this other com

pany; let me tell you what Fm doing for it and what I can do for you.'

"

While hiring temporary lawyers is catching on for small firms seek ing domestic clients, Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Maurice Wolf has been employing temps for more than two decades to bolster his in ternational business practice.

_ "We were de

termined to create a niche" to compete with the large and better-known firms that deal with inter national business transactions, says

Wolf, who is with six-lawyer Wolf, Ar nold & Cardoso.

"We were large

ly successful... due to our ability to create what would now be known as a virtual law firm. We have consistently used contract attorneys, who we retain for special projects [de

manding] expertise in an area we do not have."

For example, he says, for a proj ect in Colombia, a lawyer would be stationed there or the firm would retain a Colombian lawyer working in the States. The arrangement en abled Wolfs firm to negotiate and draft a major contract with the Cen tral Bank of Colombia for platinum refining by a U.S. company.

Other small firms agree that

Ideas Exchange The ABA Journal and Solosez, an ABA e-mail forum for solo and small-firm lawyers, have teamed up to let ABA members share advice online on this month's Solo Network topic. Excerpts from the ongoing discussion appear below. To join the chat group, send this message to listserver@abanet.org: subscribe solosez your e-mail address. (No other words are necessary.) Or preview Solosez at www.abanet.org/solo/home.html on the Internet.

On temporaries From Saundra M. Gumerove (smgesq @ web-online.com), Jericho, N.Y.

I have found other attorneys who are parents or interested in working part time. I have not used an agency, and I have gone

to this practice more because of my workload than because I need to impress or get clients.

From Maurice Wolf (interlaw? waclaw.com), Washington, D.C.

While there are differing views as to [whether] fees paid to

86 ABA JOURNAL / MARCH 1998 ABAJ/LONDA SALAMON

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temporaries can provide expertise that otherwise might not be avail able. "A firm may be a litigation bou tique and need assistance from an intellectual property lawyer," says Jim Kosciolek, managing director of the Chicago office of Co-Counsel, a temporary legal staffing agency.

Beverly Hills, Calif., lawyer Jay Foonberg, of counsel to Bailey & Marzano in Santa Monica, employed some experts when he was retained to sue an accountant accused of em

bezzlement in a civil case. He hired two temporary lawyers with public accounting backgrounds, and their expertise helped Foonberg win a $2 million verdict. "We found lawyers tailor-made for this case," he says. "Those lawyers' oddball skills came into use for us."

As for what to reveal to clients, honesty is the best policy. Dunham says he advises lawyers to be up front about using temporary law yers. So far, clients have expressed concerns only about continuing to use the same lawyers through a par ticular project. "The client does not want the lawyer du jour," he adds.

Wolf agrees, saying, "I cannot stress too much that the retained law firm must disclose this process to the client, who rarely will object." He also cautions lawyers that they must know as much as possible about their contract lawyer or firm.

But in the end it all may be worth it. Zamsky says small firms that boast a major client may be fi

nancially more stable than their competitors. "I believe that having bigger clients ... increases long-term

stability because there is the per ception that there will be longer term work from a stable corpora tion." And that is certainly not a

temporary strategy.

contract lawyers and law firms should be charged to the client, it is our view that these charges may be handled as if they were salary payments to an in-house associate and, therefore, may be properly charged to the client as straight legal fees?with the client, of course, knowing and accepting that part of the work will be done by such contract lawyer or firm.

These payments, therefore, are not treated as disbursements, but as legal fees earned by this law firm. The hourly fee is set by the experience of the attorney providing the services.

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