Freelance Generally[1]
A freelancer, a.k.a independent contractor or consultant, is a self-employed worker that bids for temporary jobs and projects with one or more employers. Freelancers are skilled, creative, innovative, and have a track record of success.[2]
How does the concept apply to the legal profession?
The term freelance seems a natural fit for designers, consultants, and programmers, who tend to be independent and creative by necessity. Indeed, the success of right-brained professionals, whether freelance or otherwise, typically depends on such creativity and innovation. However, the legal system is built on the opposite premise as it requires fidelity to precedent and must evolve slowly to serve its critical function in society and thus the analytical left-brain tends to predominate. A freelance lawyer is something of a whole brain career choice.[3]
With this tension and the relative novelty of “freelance” in the legal profession, I typically start to answer this question with a comparison to the more established contract lawyer. I recently asked a friend, who is a contract lawyer in DC, about this distinction. She said the word “contract” invokes the concept of document review and “freelance” relates to substantive legal work. I have asked other lawyers what the phrase “freelance lawyer” means to them. Some cite the independent contractor as critical to the definition and others focus on the expertise aspect, stating freelance lawyers are “hired guns.”
Freelancers must be entrepreneurial and sell themselves to live or die, just like every other business, one client at a time. Sales and marketing has been turned on its head by the web, and can mean any number of things that change at the rapid rate of digital.[4]
Compelled by low cost and potential reach of digital media, freelance lawyers must learn the digital landscape to market and deliver their services. The freelance lawyers I have seen are each a study in innovative marketing and business management.[5]
Freelance Lawyer Defined
Skilled lawyers who market and deliver legal services to retaining attorneys to assist them in representing their clients.[6] In this economy and in the digital age, the word freelance turns out to be a powerful modifier to the benefit of all parties involved.[7]
[1] Freelance work is an established practice in design and consulting and growing trend generally. See e.g. Time Magazine, The Way We will Work: The Future of Work. A Multi-part article on the "New Work Order."
[2] Adapted from US Legal Definitions:
Freelance refers to a type of job where the worker is self-employed. A freelance worker works for themselves and bids for temporary jobs and projects with one or more employers. Other terms used are independent contractor and consultant.
Characteristics of a freelance worker include:
expertise or a skill in high demand; a proven record of success and several years of experience;
-a self-starter who enjoys working independently;
-a self-marketer, who enjoys promoting and selling his or her services,
-and who has a strong marketing vision and strategy; ability to wear multiple -hats, including handling clerical, billing, and accounting procedures;
able to handle high risk - including the lack of job security, no company -provided benefits, and no steady paycheck;
-a strong network of personal and professional contacts;
-excellent written and oral communications skills;
-creative, innovative problem-solver.
[3] See generally, Book by Daniel Pink, “A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future.” (arguing that strictly analytical left-brain dominated pursuits are necessary, but not sufficient, to success in the emerging economy, and must be supplemented by the creativity and emotional senses associated with the right brain and thus resulting in a whole mind) Review Book at the OSLC Amazon Attorney Store
[4] The web is barely a teenager and already marketing on it has begun to depart, or perhaps has already departed, from all things that resemble anything marketing once was. So-called “Web 2.0”, understood as a marketing concept as opposed to technical features upon which it is based, is conversational, rapid, collaborative and personal. See generally Book by David Meerman Scott, “The new Rules of Marketing and PR.” Read my Book Review. See also www.hubspot.com (promoting inbound marketing based on publishing useful content as opposed to outbound traditional type marketing and practicing what they preach to a very high degree)
[5] In my view Kimberly Alderman and Amanda Mineer and Melody Kramer founders of The National Association of Freelance Legal Professional are excellent examples of how lawyers become marketers and business people and to exemplify what freelance means to the word lawyer. Read my Review of Kimberly Alderman's site. Visit NAFLP.
[6] “Retaining Attorney” or “Retaining Law Firm” are terms often used in Ethics opinions relevant to the use of freelance lawyers. As a general matter the retaining attorney - freelance lawyer relationship retains the economic features of the traditional firm-associate relationship. See OS Counsel Center for Ethics and Professionalism in Innovative Practice. (collecting opinions)
[7] Many describe the benefits as win-win, but because freelance lawyers give law firms ready access to range of legal expertise, the client benefits and well, and therefore win-win-win, may be a more apt description. Becuase freelance lawyers typically acquire a variety of skills that cross over into fields that have historically been of little concern to the profession but that are gaining relevance very rapidly, they are a built in resource for the profession at large. To learn about the web and online marketing, I'm sure if you hire a freelance lawyer they would be happy to discuss what they know as part of the normal chatter among professionals. I have never had a colleague refuse to give me advice and I have never refused to share what I know. I cherish the collegiality of the profession.