THE CHALLENGE
Despite what the media might portray, attorneys do in fact have a life outside of work. Sometimes, events in an attorney’s personal life can spill over into their professional life, creating a need within the law department for extra support and staffing.
Such was the case with one of Assigned Counsel’s clients, a large insurance company based in New York. One of the company’s law department employees needed to take an extended family leave in order to care for a loved one.
While the insurance company fully supported the employee’s need to take leave, it was obvious that their legal department would require someone with adequate experience in general liability in order to ensure that work continued to be done at the highest caliber and that important deadlines continued to be met.
The position was primarily focused on liability filings, and the candidate did not need to appear in court. A bulk of the work would be motion practice, with the potential for remote work once the relationship was established.
THE SOLUTION
Fortunately, Assigned Counsel had an entire roster of attorneys that would meet these needs and within 24 hours we had a list of top candidates on its way to the client. All of the candidates had been pre-vetted and availability confirmed.
After considering our recommendations, the client chose a seasoned insurance defense litigator with a background in general liability. He had over 25 years of experience in areas such as medical malpractice, construction, labor law, toxic torts, general liability, and professional liability. The client was impressed by the attorney’s extensive background in insurance litigation and felt confident he could help meet their needs from day one.
THE RESULT
The candidate we proposed lived up to the client’s expectations and beyond. On the first day, he managed to address some key concerns and to meet our client’s needs. The result was a strong relationship in which the candidate was able to exercise and expand his skills, and our client received the help required to keep their work going– even when a core team member had to step away due to a family emergency.
THE TAKEAWAY
Temporary attorneys can help balance law department challenges by responding to urgent needs for departmental elasticity. Variable workloads were traditionally addressed by engaging outside firms or by hiring new full-time staff. These two approaches can lead to inflexibility at a substantially higher cost than engaging temporary attorneys.
Over the years, Assigned Counsel has sifted through thousands of resumes in order to find skilled attorneys that have high-level training, are fully vetted, and are available immediately for virtually every practice area across civil or industrial sectors. Our legal talent is ready to hit the ground running in your department, picking up any slack caused by changes to your workload demands.
Reach out today to see how Assigned Counsel can help you find the right candidate.
