What are the benefits of hiring attorneys in-house through legal recruiters? Here we list what we see as the main benefits:
Provided Commercial Assistance
As specialized legal recruiters; we have the unique opportunity to provide targeted candidates that can provide value. The lawyers we place in companies have the ability to work on a broad range of legal matters while advancing business objectives. With expert knowledge of the law, and a detailed understanding of your business, they can become crucial assets to your company’s current operations and expansion plans. These in-house lawyers excel at performing the day-to-day legal activities, such as contract drafting, negotiation and review, employee policies and issues, and corporate governance matters that most businesses regularly require. These tasks do not require a big name law firm, and having an in-house counsel handle these matters can help your company save time and resources.
Reduced Legal Costs
During the boom years, many companies paid little attention to their legal fees. When credit markets were flush, companies did not balk at paying large legal bills, which they simply treated as the cost of doing business. However, times have changed and companies are looking to save costs whenever possible. Now that legal fees charged by outside counsel regularly exceed $250,000 per year, this is when bringing lawyers in-house has the effect of saving companies money by reducing reliance on expensive outside counsel. At this point it is usually less expensive to hire an attorney in-house than continue to rely exclusively on outside law firms, given the significant cost differential between an in-house attorney and a law firm. Typically, in-house lawyers have broad-based experience, and can much do much of the routine and recurring types of legal work at a fraction of the costs, thereby reducing reliance on law firms and their expensive billable rates.
Becoming part of the team
In-house counsels work closely with their company’s senior management team, thereby providing accessible and on-going counsel to the CEO, CFO, and other key managers. By comparison, there are usually less regular contacts between law firm attorneys and the company, resulting in less frequent legal input. In short, in-house counsels are intimately connected to their client’s business and have a high level of business understanding. As a result, in-house lawyers that are familiar with your business and the company’s history can give more informed legal and financial advice to help advance your business objectives. In addition, in-house counsels are focused on ferreting out and mitigating enterprise-wide risk as part of their role in the company’s operation; therefore, they are able to avoid costly situations before they arise, saving the company money.
Flexibility and Efficiency
Most companies are concerned about minimizing expenses, and legal expenses are no exception. There is a hidden expense that can be just as costly when relying on outside counsel rather than in-house counsel – management time. Outside lawyers require management’s active participation in the legal matters they handle, such as explaining the details of the deal or litigation, assisting with gathering and providing information and documents, coordinating meetings with personnel, etc. This can consume a great deal of time that can distract management away from operating the business. An in-house counsel will already be familiar with the background of a deal or case, and will be able to gather the required information and documentation to handle the matter with less reliance on the involvement of management. The goal of a well-managed legal matter should be twofold: legal expense reduction and reduction in management time spent on the matter. Both can be achieved if in-house counsel effectively manages the legal matter.
In conclusion, hiring in-house lawyers can immediately reduce legal costs while increasing quality of service at the same time. If you want to do that in a manner that saves you both time and money, then working with a legal recruiter is the optimal solution. Hiring new employees is time consuming and expensive. These costs increase if you make a hiring mistake. Skilled and professional legal recruiters can save you time and money in the long run. They can also increase your chances of getting the right employee on the first try.
Written on: 07/13/15 PDF Version