Immediate Benefits. Retaining attorney has arguments developed and drafted for a reply brief due in two weeks with time and energy remaining to argue in court, counsel the client, negotiate with opposing counsel, and bring new clients to the firm.
Freelance lawyer has the opportunity to grapple with arguments, develop a counterattack, and hone technical skills with a schedule flexible enough to have time and energy sufficient to take care of the family, play with the kids, go to the gym, sleep until noon, ski in the morning, or meet friends at night.
Client likes that retaining attorney recruited highly skilled people with impressive credentials to work on the case; a fact that could be dropped to friends at a party. Client notes that retaining attorney seems more relaxed, rested, returns calls faster, and is more inclined to engage in idle chatter.
Retaining attorney makes a profit roughly equivalent to a brick and mortar firm. Freelance lawyer makes the annualized equivalent of an associate in a brick and mortar firm. Client spends the same money.
Strategic Benefits. Retaining attorney devises a strategy to specialize and expand the firm cocooned in the comfort of knowing that a brief that may be due in 30 days will get done with time and energy remaining to argue in court, counsel clients, negotiate with opposing counsel, ski in Colorado, play with kids, see a show, gamble in Vegas, lay on a beach in the Caribbean, write articles, present a CLE, attend a CLE, and bring new clients to the firm.
Freelance attorney pursues a strategy to become an appellate attorney and develops a nuanced understanding of the law free from constant financial concern and with flexibility sufficient to visit family that left town, help build a tree fort for the kids, learn ballroom dancing, sleep until noon 100 yards from the lift at Vail, or meet friends in Park City.
Client likes that retaining attorney handles more matters and in greater detail. Client also likes the ability to help friends and family by referring them to retaining attorney.
Percolating Benefits. In daily practice, retaining attorney locates old things and assembles new things with dramatically increased ease and speed and then sits idle for a while, quickly bores, and implements the firm's expansion plans. Aided by technical skills and savvy, that seem to have materialized out of thin air, execution feels strangely unrestrained.
Freelance lawyer has a collection of work that effortlessly flys apart and reassembles and discusses a body of law as if recounting stories from college. Freelance attorney thinks its time to switch to flat fee billing.
Client’s friends and family are pleased with retaining attorney’s representation and client becomes a trusted source for referrals on a range of other services. Client's future brightens.
Accumulating Benefits. Retaining attorney’s growth strategy picks up steam fueled by an undifferentiated mix of forces. New clients arrive from the firm's focused but subtle marketing strategy. There is a steady stream of referrals from client and others, each creating opportunities in multiple areas. Opportunities the firm captures with help from freelance lawyer. Client loyalty soars. Working with freelance lawyer becomes nearly telepathic and the firm engages other freelance lawyers when workload spikes. Automation simplifies or evaporates rote office management and administrative functions. Variable office expenses drop. Freelance lawyer's flat rates help stabilize projected profit and revenue. Retaining attorney drifts away from the billable hour and client satisfaction jumps. Retaining attorney thinks about a new office.
Freelance lawyer's long ignored but now frequently indulged interest in writing fiction removes several items from the big to do list. Indulgences financed by a now steady and predictable income from freelance legal work completed so efficiently it almost feels wrong and supplemented by a deal with retaining attorney to supervise other freelance attorneys; who are now also friends.
Supported by the firm's nimble and expert representation and armed with an expanding network of influential contacts client’s future glows white hot.
Sustained Benefits. Retaining attorney's firm grows slowly and its lawyers tend toward the esoteric. The firm develops a reputation for superlative written arguments, thoughtful strategy, shrewd negotiation, and deft trial work.
Word gets out that lawyers there work under exceptionally odd conditions. They come and go at all hours and stay in the office, or not, for as long as they choose. If not required by a court or client they are free to go anywhere and do anything. The firm has offices too few to accommodate all lawyers, conference rooms of perplexing variety, and a reception area of surgical precision. The smiling receptionist sits behind a raised glass desk with fingers dancing over its surface, a bizarre and hypnotizing performance indeed. The desk is bare save a phone by Bang & Olafson and a slender monitor suspended above on an articulating arm. The offices contain only a desk, a chair, a table, and are adorned with eclectic art; they have no filing cabinets, books, computers, phones, or supplies. The library is filled with volumes aged and exotic, furnished with plush chairs and unusually large headphones resting on strikingly small tables. There is scarcely a piece of paper or pen to be found and those discovered are of surpassing quality. The lawyers are rarely seen with more than a laptop, phone, and folder; all of obvious quality. No witness can establish the occurrence of a partner’s meeting, associate's meeting, or any other firm management gathering. Numerous stories circulate about the firm's tendency to appear en masse at Bar events and events at bars. It is rumored the firm’s holiday party will be in Playa del Carmen. It is indeed a foreign land. Retaining attorney enjoys fielding questions about the firm's patent idiosyncrasies and finds comfort in the fact that lawyers could double in number and they could remain in their odd little house. Resumes accumulate.
Freelance lawyer is now a legal and technical consultant to retaining attorney's firm. Compensation is by an annual consulting fee. Freelance lawyer's boutique appellate firm attracts clients.
Client, aided by the increasing stature and expertise of the firm, negotiates and closes several lucrative deals. The business teeters on the brink of explosion.
Captured Benefits. Client's business exceeds critical mass and goes nuclear.
With the IPO fees, retaining attorney upgrades the firm’s IT to outrageous capacity, hires the specialized freelance attorneys that freelance lawyer once managed, adds a group freshly minted by the Ivy League and goes global.
Freelance lawyer concentrates on the appellate firm now overrun with clients retaining attorney referred and argues a case before the United States Supreme Court.
Cherished Benefits. Retaining attorney, freelance lawyer, and client; now senior named partner, leisure enthusiast, and chairman of the board reunite on the beach, sip scotch, and talk about the weather.