Having a startup means you often have to do things quickly and on a budget. While you are developing new products, building out your team, and trying to attract capital, a multitude of legal hurdles will come your way.

Hiring a freelance legal expert is a great way to tackle various compliance issues and hurdles without breaking the bank, allowing you to remain fast and lean. Using Limine is the perfect way to easily find legal support with the right profile for the needs of your startup. In this blog, you’ll find some of the tasks they can support your business with.

Flexibility that grows with your startup

Thanks to the fact that you can hire legal freelancers for very specific tasks, you have a flexible way to tackle legal challenges. You can get the help you need, right when you need it. Do you need a second pair of eyes to look at a contract you are about to sign? Do you want to make sure your product is compliant with the GDPR? A legal freelancer is the perfect solution to quickly hire a specialized expert within your budget.

Not sure who is the best choice for your needs? Just use Limine. Our algorithm automatically matches you with the three best experts for your assignment.

Cost-effective legal advice

If you want to keep costs low and make sure you have full control of your budget, hiring freelancers is often the way to go. You can decide if you want to work with your legal expert on an hourly basis, on a performance basis, or per milestone. Besides being able to negotiate rates directly, you save on many other expenses which you might want to avoid in the short term, such as a (larger) office space.

Legal freelance rates are often significantly lower than those of a large firm. Freelancers have less overhead and are often more willing to negotiate on rates, especially if you are able to offer long-term cooperation or—in some cases—equity.

Easily accessible knowledge

Having multiple freelancers in your network gives you the ability to easily tap into the wealth of experience and knowledge they have from working with various clients and industries. Often, they can bring creative insights and solutions, which is just what your startup needs.

Unlike big law firms or large consultancy firms, freelancers work directly with their clients and must stay on top of their niche to compete with other freelancers and businesses.

Getting things done faster

When things need to happen fast, you need to hire quickly. Building a team of freelancers is much faster than hiring employees. Often, you can start offloading your legal work to freelancers the day after contacting them. There is also no management layer to go through when you need things to move fast. Contacting your freelancer with a question or remark means you are directly talking to the person who worked on your assignment. This frees up your team and allows you to focus on building and growing your business.

If you are looking for the right freelancer at an affordable rate, look no further. Limine matches you with the three most relevant freelancers for your legal assignment. You can choose to work with them or not, and you can negotiate rates directly with the freelancer(s) of your choice.

Looking for a permanent hire or legal interim manager? Let’s have a chat!

Contact Tina De Maere by mail at tina.demaere@limine.be or by phone (0483 66 70 14).

Every business encounters various legal tasks and hurdles. However, having an in-house legal expert is not realistic or financially feasible for every company. Whether you are a startup or an SME, outsourcing to freelance legal experts on a per-hour or per-assignment basis is an effective way to obtain legal clarity quickly without incurring large costs.

Here are 5 legal tasks for which you can rely on a legal services freelancer to get things done:

Contract drafting and reviewing

No business operates without contracts. Solid agreements are the backbone of a business relationship. By hiring a legal professional with the necessary expertise in your industry, you can ensure your interests are protected and legally enforceable.

By hiring a freelancer, you gain a legal contract expert without committing to costly long-term hires. Often, you can negotiate with your freelance expert on a price-per-contract basis, allowing you to easily budget your legal costs going forward.

Legal research

Is your legal department overworked or are deadlines looming on the horizon? A freelance legal expert can assist with time-consuming tasks like reviewing case law, precedents, and drafting advice. By using Limine, you can easily find experts with a proven track record in legal research.

This way, you can alleviate the pressure on your current workforce and ensure there are no costly delays due to legal bottlenecks. By using a freelance expert, you avoid committing to long-term contracts and have more flexibility in enhancing your team’s knowledge. You can opt to work by the hour or a fixed rate per project.

Compliance

Every industry is governed by compliance rules. When breaking into a new industry or expanding your business, these compliance issues often pose hurdles for growth and decision-making. Having access to an on-demand legal professional allows you to quickly obtain the necessary information and advice when regulatory hurdles appear.

Hiring the right person is crucial when facing compliance challenges. With Limine, selecting someone with the right sector experience is easy, fast, and affordable.

Intellectual property management

A growing business often has a large intellectual property portfolio that needs to be managed. Intellectual property like trademarks, patents, and copyrights need to be enforced to ensure your bottom line is not negatively affected.

A freelance intellectual property expert is a great option to help you with registration, monitoring, and enforcing your rights. A freelancer who works by the hour is beneficial for businesses that only need periodic reviews of their intellectual property deadlines and challenges.

(Second) legal opinions

Planning to launch a new product? About to expand your business into a new country or industry? Having someone with the necessary experience in the specific new compliance rules your business needs to adhere to is crucial. A freelance legal expert can assist in drafting initial advice or help your current legal team by providing a fresh pair of eyes and new ideas.

In need of professional legal work at an affordable price? Use the Limine platform! Create an account, post your assignment, and our algorithm matches you to the three best freelance legal task experts. Making a Limine account is quick, easy, and free!

 

Looking for a permanent hire or legal interim manager? Let’s have a chat!

Contact Tina De Maere by mail at tina.demaere@limine.be or by phone (0483 66 70 14).

Searching for purpose in life is a basic human instinct. Part of the meaningfulness we attribute to our lives is affected by the fulfillment we experience in our jobs.

As a legal professional, working long hours on complex cases, assisting “difficult” clients and collaborating with demanding partners are no exemptions. Therefore, receiving recognition and getting satisfaction from your job is even more important as a legal counsel or lawyer.

Some conditions that define the purposefulness of a job are:

• The responsibility of the employee;
• The content of the work;
• The context of the work (environment, culture, colleagues…);
• The recognition the employee receives for their work;
• The impact of the work on other people or on society as a whole
• The work-life balance;
• The financial reward;
• Opportunities for growth;
• …

In general, these conditions will improve with the position you claim in a company or law firm; the higher you grow, the more your responsibility, salary and recognition will increase and the more the complexity of your tasks will raise.

Receiving opportunities for growth is therefore a key factor in defining the value of your job. If you feel like you’re stuck in a place where improvement is impossible, you will quickly lose ambition and motivation to continue on the path you’ve chosen. Moving up the ladder is the best way to prevent this. As the saying goes: standing still is the same as moving backwards.

In this blog, we’ll explain why and how moving up the ladder can give your legal career the kick in the butt it needs!

Don’t climb a broken ladder as a legal counsel or lawyer

The first step in building a career as a legal professional is picking the right ladder. It is impossible to climb a ladder with broken steps.

If you feel like you’re stuck in a company or law firm where no personal or professional improvement is achievable, it might be a good idea to switch ladders. Maybe another company or office will grant you more opportunities to learn and to move forward (e.g., becoming a partner or General Counsel).

In any case, it cannot hurt to stay on the lookout for new challenges, even if you sense that you haven’t reached the top of your capacities yet. Having a plan B can be a relief when you have to face unexpected setbacks.

Start with a broad legal basis

The best way to improve your chances of climbing the ladder, is to start at the foundation. Try to gather experience and practical knowledge in as many different fields of law as possible. A broad legal basis is necessary, since you’ll inevitably come into contact with various legal areas when occupying a higher position.

If you have to lead a team or even multiple teams or departments, you’re responsible for the quality of the work that is delivered. Being in charge also means being able to understand and correct every document that carries your signature, as you’re accountable for the mistakes of your employees.

If, on the other hand, you want to specialize in a specific legal niche, like intellectual property law or competition law, make sure you become an absolute expert in that area. Obviously, this requires a lot of time and effort, but it’s difficult to grow when other people with more expertise than you announce themselves.

Never stop learning as a legal professional

To enhance your growth opportunities, it remains important to keep improving yourself. Don’t ever think that there’s nothing left for you to learn; this is the biggest mistake you can make.

When we’re talking about educating yourself, we’re not exclusively targeting your legal skills. Technical skills, soft skills and research skills, too, form an essential part of your repertoire. Consider the following abilities:

• Being able to manage a team
• Knowing how to give constructive feedback
• Time management
• Not being afraid of taking on extra responsibilities
• Being able to work with AI and other emerging softwares
• Accepting criticism to your own work
• …

Don’t wait for your current employer to offer you opportunities to develop yourself in these areas, but actively search for ways to do this on your own motion. Attending additional training programs, doing research and testing your own capabilities in day-to-day situations at work are all good methods of achieving this goal.

Showcase your sense of responsibility as a lawyer

To qualify for a new or higher position, one of the requirements will usually be the ability to manage a team and take on responsibility. The higher you grow, the more complex and numerous the tasks you’re in charge of will become. It’s up to you to prove that you can handle the extra pressure.

Therefore, it’s important to showcase your sense of responsibility and team management skills on your own motion. Don’t be afraid to perform additional tasks, take the lead in group projects and train junior employees and colleagues. These activities will all prove beneficial at later stages.

Protect your own well-being as a legal professional

As important as your professional development and progression may be, nothing is more valuable than your own health, both physical and mental. If you feel like your search for personal and professional progres is becoming detrimental to your own well-being (e.g. you feel overworked or overwhelmed), it might be a good idea to take a step back and analyze the situation.

Oftentimes, this gives a much clearer view of the position you find yourself in. Maybe, your body and mind need some time to adapt to a new situation or environment or the amount of work you’re doing is becoming more than you can chew. In those cases, it’s not always necessary to keep seeking for progress, but rather, it could be better to take your foot of the gas and give yourself enough time to process your own achievements.

The ultimate tip: don’t be too harsh on yourself. When in dire straits, taking one step back can help you move two steps in the opposite direction.

Networking as a lawyer is as important as in any sector

As always, knowing the right people in the right places is the easiest way of getting where you want to be. This counts for lawyers and legal advisors as well. Expand your network, attend events, talk to people, throw yourself out there: without connections, you’re only making things more difficult for yourself.

If your network cannot help you find what you’re looking for directly, they can always tip you on where to look or hint others to check out your profile. At the same time, you can help other people in making their next career choice. What’s more beautiful than that?

Need some help in connecting with the right people?

Contact us on tina.demaere@limine.be and find out how we can give your legal career a kickstart!

 

The period between 2021 and 2023 is often called the ‘Great Resignation’, referring to the huge increase in resignation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Belgium, this trend was mainly visible in the category of -25 year olds. In 2023, the amount of young people resigning from their jobs increased by 41% in comparison to the year before. Part of the explanation might be the war on talent: knowing that many companies are continuously looking for new talent, young people feel like there’s enough other grounds to discover, without having to be afraid that their options will soon run out.

The legal world, too, has to face these problems. Many companies and law firms experience difficulties in attracting top legal talents for their various departments. Even more challenging, however, is keeping these junior lawyers within your team once you’ve managed to hire them. Especially in the beginning of their career, lawyers will easily change jobs when they realize this would be advantageous to their professional, personal and/or financial development.

To retain these talents and discourage them from accepting one of the many job offers in their mailbox or LinkedIn-messages, it’s important to keep various elements in mind. Luckily for you, we’ve listed the most important ones below:

• Pay your lawyers well
• Offer opportunities for professional development
• Create a company culture that is difficult to leave behind
• Create a healthy work-life balance

Pay your lawyers well, because salary reflects value

First, let’s talk about money – an essential subject, though it may be difficult for some lawyers and companies to address this.

Don’t fool yourself: if you believe your team members have never received a job offer from another company or association, you’re probably wrong. Legal recruiters are always watching, waiting for the perfect moment to snatch the best legal advisors away right in front of your eyes.

One of the first things a potential candidate will scroll to in an offer, is the potential salary that could be earned at another employer. If this amount is considerably higher than their current salary, the offer naturally becomes a more tempting one.

The salary you pay your legal officers is a direct reflection of their value to you, to your team and to your company or firm. After all, your collaborators exchange their valuable time for money. For these reasons, paying your lawyers well is the first step to retaining talent within the business.

Don’t, however, assume that paying more money will automatically lead to a lower resignation rate. Instead of a higher salary, some lawyers will prefer other benefits, like a car, insurance, mileage allowance, recurrent bonuses or bonuses for negotiating certain deals, equity, loyalty bonuses etc. 

Consequently, it remains important to open a dialogue and listen to the needs and preferences of your team members. If possible, try to create personalized salary packs for every individual lawyer, while ensuring a fair balance between these packages at the same time. This is not a simple exercise, but if you want to keep your valuable legal talent with you, you shouldn’t hesitate to go the extra mile.

Offer your lawyers opportunities for professional development

Obviously, retaining legal talent is not only about money. Equally important is offering your lawyers satisfying opportunities to develop their professional competences. Not only their legal skills, but also their technical skills, soft skills and research capabilities form important parts of their professional repertoire.

Organizing trainings and additional programs (for example on legal tech) are one part of the formula. But there’s more. As a company or law firm, the key is to continue growing and reinventing yourself. Attracting new clients and interesting and/or challenging projects, implementing new tools and working methods (e.g. AI) , expanding your legal department are all means of keeping your company alive and kicking.

Once more, just like with the salary packets, creating personalized development programs might be an interesting route to follow. Providing your junior lawyers with a roadmap of their future at your department encourages them to keep working hard and achieving the proposed goals within a certain timeframe. This, too, binds lawyers to your company or law firm and may reduce quit levels.

Create a company culture that is difficult to leave behind

To discourage your lawyers from moving to another law firm or association, stimulating their financial and professional development will – although they are two important elements of the formula – most likely not be enough. One of the most important factors is creating a work environment in which your team members experience a sense of meaning and purpose.

Therefore, as stated above, attracting interesting cases and clients is essential to retaining the best legal advisors at your company. But this goes way further than the content of work. Encouraging values like diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace, offering mentorships to younger team members, organizing team buildings and so on are all examples of methods that can help you create a family culture. As recently stated by Forbes: “it is tough to leave places where you belong“.

Furthermore, emphasizing the social impact of your company can also encourage people to believe in the importance of their work to others. Making regular donations to charity or offering the opportunity to do pro bono work, for instance, could perfectly fit in this drawer.

Leave your lawyers enough personal space

Last but not least, maintaining a healthy work-life balance has become an increasingly important factor for lawyers and for all employees in general. Keeping the workload at acceptable levels, but also granting the possibility to work remotely from time to time can help in creating a healthy division between the personal and professional lives of your colleagues.

Improving the personal development of your colleagues also adds to the meaningfulness your lawyers will experience in their job, since they will be more fresh and energetic during the hours they actually spend at the office.

 

In urgent need of finding a legal consultant or lawyer to fill in the gaps in your team? Find a legal freelancer today on our platform!

Looking for a permanent hire? Let’s have a chat! Contact Tina De Maere by mail at tina.demaere@limine.be or by phone (0483 66 70 14).

The whole world exists of tensions and contradictions: day exists only because night does, warmth exists because of coldness and sadness because of happiness. 

We’re not the ones who came up with this theory; the Greek philosopher Heraclitus did. Even though he lived in the 6th century B.C., his philosophical views still hold today and can even be transferred to the workplace.

Take, for instance, the difference between soft and hard skills. Hard skills, like one’s education and theoretical knowledge, can only be usefully applied in collaboration with a set of so-called ‘soft skills’, like time management, communication or technical competences. Without soft skills, hard skills become completely ineffective and vice versa. Just like in Heraclitus’ theorem, both ‘forces’ need each other, in this case to form a strong, communicative and well-informed legal professional.

In this blog, we will explain:

– what soft skills are and why they should matter to you

– which soft skills every legal professional should necessarily learn 

– how you can acquire and develop these skills even more.

What are soft skills?

Contrary to hard skills, soft skills are abilities that don’t refer to your theoretical or technical knowledge (“what you know”), but more to your practical capabilities and own nature (“who you are”). 

Soft skills could best be described as a set of overarching character traits that essentially reveal who you are as a person. Since soft skills have little or nothing to do with your degree or educational background, they can easily be transferred from one job or domain to another.

Soft skills are of course not only important in the legal profession, but define how well your career will advance in any sector or field. 

Nonetheless, some competences are especially important for legal interim managers and consultants. In the next paragraph, we will explain why this is the case, before discussing the most prominent ones.

Why are soft skills important for legal professionals?

Whether you are a legal counsel, legal interim manager or an attorney, soft skills will always be an indispensable part of your professional repertoire. Without soft skills, your hard skills become virtually useless. 

Take, for instance, a lawyer with the highest possible degree of theoretical knowledge. How can he ever transfer this knowledge – and thus make actual use of his hard skills in practice – without a basic instinct for empathy or human communication? In this example, interpersonal capabilities form the necessary foundation for applying and developing all other capacities.

When applying for promotions as an in-house lawyer or for new assignments as a legal consultant, or when trying to become a partner at a law firm, your soft skills will also play a vital role. 

Opportunities on the legal market are always scarce and employers and clients have a wide range of options to choose from: hire an external counsel, pick someone from another department, look for a temporary solution etc. 

Competition can be harsh and when taking the final decision, rather than looking at the theoretical knowledge every legal professional has acquired in law school, employers and clients will examine if and how you’re able to put your hard skills into practice and apply your legal knowledge in particular situations. This is where your soft skills will be tested.

In conclusion: soft skills form the basis on which hard skills can be practised. 

The most important soft skills for legal professionals

1. Communication

As a legal professional, you must be able to explain your legal advice to both lawyers and the business/internal clients. When, for example, advising a company on their contract templates or their marketing strategy, you’ll have to communicate a lot with different departments like marketing, sales or HR. This also means that you’ll come into contact with people who don’t have a legal background on a regular basis.

Being able to communicate effectively and, more importantly, to explain complex legal matters to a lay audience, is thus a key skill for every legal consultant. It is the foundation on which all other soft skills are built. 

If you’ve mastered this ability, don’t forget to showcase this by using a clear and well-written resume and delivering a strong job interview. All these elements will put you in the top drawer of many a potential client.

Don’t forget that your communication skills include both your writing skills and your ability to communicate orally.

2. Negotiation 

As a lawyer or legal advisor, you’ll not only be asked to review contracts or draft them from scratch, but you’ll likely also be involved in the negotiation procedures of legal agreements. Therefore, negotiation skills also form an essential part of every legal professionals’ “soft skill repertoire”. 

In line with the previous section, negotiation skills include the ability to communicate the needs of your company or client clearly and precisely, but also the capacity to listen well and understand the desires of both your principal and those of the opposing party.Not developing your negotiation skills can be a huge drawback when applying for legal interim assignments, in-house promotions or positions at law firms. On the other hand, being able to add the successful negotiation of a high-value contract for one of your clients to your resume can be a stepping stone to other interesting freelance or permanent missions.

3. Time Management

Time management is not so much about working hard or staying late as it is about doing the right things at the right time. 

As a legal professional, you will almost exclusively come into contact with enterprises or clients that try to cope with an excessive amount of work. A textbook example would be a legal department needing to replace an employee who is pregnant or sick or who has quit the company permanently, creating an unmanageable workload for the remaining lawyers.

As a consequence, it’s important for legal interim managers and other legal advisors to possess the ability to know which tasks require an instant solution and which tasks can be tackled at a later time. Typically, you won’t be able to complete every assignment that is given to you within the expected timeframe, but this should not necessarily be a problem as long as the most important things get done first. Setting your priorities straight and feeling which problems must be solved primarily is a key skill for every legal professional.

As always, communicating well with superior management and colleagues will often be a necessary requirement to help you create a priority checklist. This once again proves why communication is such an important soft skill.

4. Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills or “people skills” are an unmissable asset in today’s legal profession. People skills include the capacity to work in a team, the ability to show empathy and – once again – the capability to communicate and listen well.

As stated above, legal professionals nowadays are way more involved in the business than traditional solicitors. They have to understand the ins and outs of a company’s culture perfectly and must be able to adapt their language and advice to different recipients. Tailoring opinions to the needs, wishes and strategies of the business, too, should be a priority. That’s why teamwork, empathy and – most importantly – patience are must-haves in a business context. 

If you’re not capable of listening and showing understanding as a legal consultant, it will be impossible for you to thrive in any legal department or company.

5. Legal Tech

Last but not least, the evolutions in legal tech and artificial intelligence are inescapable and are leading to huge transformations in the legal sphere. Rather than ignoring these developments and continuing on the same path, legal advisors should embrace these new tools and learn how to use them. It’s the only way to not get left behind in the ever-growing digitalization of the legal profession.

Smart tools already exist to help lawyers and legal consultants with numerous tasks. Examples are contract review and flagging, contract drafting, legal research, litigation outcome predictors etc. Learning how these tools work and mastering their application will give you a head start in comparison to other legal freelancers or lawyers who are still getting familiar with a more digital approach to legal consultancy.

How can you acquire soft skills as a legal professional?

As a legal professional, you shouldn’t rely on your clients or employer to offer you all kinds of training programs and additional seminars. If one of your clients does offer you to join a team building or training session with the other employees, don’t hesitate to do so, but don’t expect this to happen at every assignment or company.

The best way to continuously improve your soft skills is by actively looking for your own ways to do so. Try registering for webinars and soft (and hard) skill trainings, keep yourself up to date by reading articles or other contributions and maybe even listen to a podcast once in a while. Keeping your eyes and ears open is, in general, a great method of attaining any form of self-improvement.

The most important tip we can give, however, is to try and learn from colleagues, friends, clients and other people you frequently come into contact with. Soft skills are mostly acquired by looking at other people and learning from their behaviour or attitude. It is not always possible to give textbook examples of how to communicate well or how to improve time management skills. Many character traits like empathy, communication and even time management are often mastered by simply mimicking other people’s habits. 

Maybe one of your colleagues has found a good way of creating a priority checklist? Or maybe one of your friends knows how your body posture can help you indicate that you’re open to listen and understand the concerns of your interlocutor? There are infinite ways of improving your soft skills, but the key is the same as always: communicate well, and you’ll go a very long way.
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If your legal department is trying to fill in an open vacancy, it can choose one of two things: either, it can hire an employee internally (i.e. someone who already works for the company), or it can engage a lawyer or legal counsel from outside (a so-called ‘external hire’). Both options have their advantages and drawbacks. 

In this article, we provide you with an overview of the potential benefits and downsides of internal and external hiring for legal departments.

 

Hiring lawyers internally: rewarding loyalty, but creating competition

 

Pros of hiring legal counsels internally: lower costs and retaining talent

The first option your legal department has, is promoting someone from their own team. This can be an employee who has been working for the company for many years, but it’s equally possible to offer a permanent contract to a freelance legal consultant who has been advising your department on an interim basis. Lastly, you could even consider hiring an employee or consultant from another branch or department, if they meet the right qualifications.

Choosing this path obviously has different advantages. First of all, recruitment costs will be lower. Instead of setting up an entire campaign, you can create an internal job posting that only employees of your company or branch have access to. Usually, an internal recruitment process will also take less time than its external counterpart.

A third advantage is that employees will feel rewarded for their loyalty to your company. Promoting one of your team members proves that you value their contributions to your department, which might motivate other counsels to keep delivering the same high-quality advice to your branch. Additionally, hiring internally is a perfect instance of ‘reaping what you sow’. By starting off with an internal vacancy, you give yourself the opportunity to keep the talent that you raised within the business, instead of seeing great potential leave to other companies.

Lastly, internal vacancies have the benefit of familiarity. This goes two ways: on the one hand, you won’t have to do a thorough background check on the applicants, because the position is only open to people you already work with. You know their skills, have access to their performance records and you’re up-to-date on their history at the company, which leaves you with way more precise information to decide whether a candidate would be a good fit for the position they’re applying for.

On the other hand, all applicants are already familiar with your company’s culture and working methods, which means they will need less time to adjust to a new function than an outsider will.

 

Cons of internal legal hiring: jealousy and recreating a gap

It is only evident that internal job postings also have their downsides.

First of all, a new job opening might create an unhealthy competition and jealousy between the workers of your legal department. It is very likely that different employees will apply for the same position, but obviously, only one of them will get the promotion at the end of the day. Not everyone takes their losses gracefully, unfortunately, and such applicants might feel discouraged to keep working hard if they sense that they won’t receive any chance for a promotion within a reasonable amount of time. Maybe, they will even consider leaving your company to try their luck elsewhere.

Another problem is that, by hiring one of your own legal advisors, you immediately create a new vacancy, namely the previous position that your new hire was holding. This is like trying to fill a gap by digging a new hole; in essence, you’re just moving the problem from one place to another. 

Therefore, it is important to already have a solution in mind for this problem that will inevitably pose itself, for instance by planning beforehand how you’ll divide the extra workload between the remaining team members that didn’t get promoted or by already knowing who you’re going to employ to fill in the newly created gap.

 

Hiring lawyers externally: new talent comes at a price

 

Pro’s: new talent, fresh ideas

The second option your legal department has, is engaging someone from outside of the company. In this article, we’re primarily focusing on permanent contracts, but hiring an interim legal consultant might be a good temporary solution for businesses who experience difficulties in finding a new permanent employee.

A first advantage of an external hire is the input of fresh ideas. A new legal counsel will be able to transfer experiences, knowhow and working methods from their previous company to your legal department. This can only be an enrichment for your own employees and improve their creativity and quality of work. An external hire could even help organize seminars and events to teach their skills to other members of the legal team.

Secondly, external hiring is a way of broadening your scope. If you’re trying to fill in an open position, but only look for candidates within your own legal division or company, you might miss some great talent that’s out there on the market, waiting for a new opportunity to arise. Giving outsiders a chance to apply for your job openings helps you expand your team and create growth. The problem encountered previously with internal hiring, namely creating a new gap to fill, immediately becomes irrelevant when choosing an external applicant.

Lastly, the problem of unhealthy competition and jealousy between your own counsels also seems eliminated, since no-one on your legal team gets a shot at the job.

 

Cons: expensive hiring campaigns and time-consuming background checks and training programs

Naturally, the previous benefit could also be seen as a drawback. Since none of your internal legal advisors will get a chance to apply, they might feel insulted or discouraged because their work doesn’t seem valuable enough to their employer. Even if your legal department would combine the two methods of internal and external hiring, it remains possible that your own legal counsels won’t get picked, which can lead to discontent, quiet quitting and resignation.

Another problem with external hiring is the fact that your legal department will have to spend a lot of money and time on hiring campaigns. To make sure you won’t miss out on the perfect candidate, you’ll need to:

• Broaden your network;
• Organise online searches;
• Create job postings and ad campaigns for your open position(s);
• Conduct many interviews;
• Execute thorough checks on applicant’s professional backgrounds;
• Organise regular status meetings;
• Test the legal skills and knowledge of potential candidates;
• Determine whether an applicant would be a good fit in your legal team
• …

Last but not least, engaging someone from outside of your company also means you’ll spend a lot of time on training programs and onboarding periods to familiarise your new legal counsel with the company’s culture, structure and working methods. If the onboarding doesn’t run smoothly, it can have a negative impact on the rest of your collaboration.

 

Conclusion: finding a balance within the needs and preferences of your legal department

 

Both internal and external hiring have their own respective advantages and disadvantages. The method you should choose largely depends on the constellation of your own legal department. For instance: if you feel that the perfect candidate can be found within your legal team, and you can quickly find a solution for the work that will be left behind, internal hiring might be the way to go. If, on the other hand, you sense that none of your team members would be a good fit and a better candidate can be found somewhere else, external hiring might be your best shot.

In the end, it’s all about finding the right balance between the preferences and needs of your legal branch.

Of course, combining both methods is also an option, for example by promoting one of your internal lawyers and hiring an external legal counsel for the position that becomes available in doing so, or by accepting applications from both internal employees and external candidates for the same position. 

Be aware, though, that in this case not only the benefits, but the drawbacks of both routes will be combined too. Giving your own employees a chance to apply for a better position, but then choosing one of the external applicants, might lead to even more discontent and discouragement. On top of that, you’ll need to spend even more time on research, campaigns, interviews and everything else.

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Legal departments often struggle with many questions when deciding to hire a new legal profile. Which part of our budget can we allocate? Do we want an interim consultant or a permanent employee? And of course: what kind of profile are we looking for?

The first hurdle to cross, therefore, is defining the function and the responsibilities of the new potential employee or consultant. This means that your legal department, often with the help of HR, has to decide whether to hire a junior, senior or expert profile. But what exactly are the differences between these types of lawyers?

Junior: quick learners with fresh ideas

A junior lawyer is usually someone with 0 to 5 years of experience in the legal profession. This experience can be gained either as an attorney or a freelancer or in-house as a legal counsel. Some junior lawyers have already acquired some experience as a freelance legal consultant, others prefer to broaden their expertise in a permanent function first, before making the next step in their career and becoming independent legal advisors.

The most obvious advantage of hiring a junior counsel is the fact that they usually ask for a lower salary. In return, they will require more guidance and training than a senior lawyer. 

This, however, should not be a downside. Junior consultants are quick learners and bring fresh and new ideas to the table. If a legal department accompanies its newbees well, supports them in their journey, appreciates their work and rewards them accordingly, chances are great that they will deliver much needed added value in time and stay loyal to your company or department. Who knows, they might even consider signing a permanent contract and becoming your next valuable employee…

A disadvantage might be that young people don’t always immediately know what they want in life. This might increase their risk of job hopping and leaving companies quickly in the first years of their career. For temporary assignments, however, this should pose any problems, since few consultants will terminate their contracts early when they are concluded for a limited amount of time.

Senior: solid base and quick return

Senior lawyers are legal consultants or counsels with at least 5 years of experience. Just like juniors, they may have gained this experience in a permanent function, but many senior consultants prefer working as independent professionals. 

The biggest advantage of working with senior advisors is their autonomy. Unlike junior counsels, senior advisors don’t need much training and guidance. Usually, they are able to produce advice without having to ask many questions. They are operational from day 1 and can even lead complex projects as legal interim managers using their experience acquired in previous positions.

Next to that, senior consultants can transfer their expertise and methods from previous employers or clients to your company. They have a solid base and deliver quick returns. They can provide new insights, deliver legal and strategic advice and even train other employees or consultants in their own legal niche. These trainings don’t necessarily need to be limited to the legal department.

The biggest downsides of working with senior consultants are their price tag and their availability. Because many senior legal consultants work for different clients at the same time, they will generally not be available every day of the week. And if they work on a full-time contract, this will only be for a limited amount of time.

Naturally, you could consider hiring a senior counsel on a permanent basis. However, this would mean you would have to pay a higher salary for an undetermined period. On top of that, their severance will also be higher in case of downsizing.

Expert: problem-solver for highly specialized projects

Last but not least, experts are lawyers who have gained decades of experience in their own legal niche. They often possess highly specialized knowledge in very specific fields of law (for instance a business lawyer who has worked for different financial institutions during their career or an IP lawyer who has worked on patent cases his entire life). 

It is mainly useful to hire these types of profiles for very specific questions or complex projects in highly specialized legal domains. Experts work almost exclusively on interim or freelance assignments, but can provide the best advice faster than any other lawyer could. 

Obviously, legal experts are the most expensive kind, but their advice will always be top notch, flawless and on time.Ready to find the perfect legal consultant for your interim or permanent vacancy? Register now on https://platform.limine.be/ and find your ideal candidate today!

The recent rise of artificial intelligence has already created a lasting impact on all layers of our human society. Just like other spheres, the legal profession, too, will continue to feel the ever-growing influence of algorithms, smart tools and AI on a wide range of tasks and operations.

As a consequence, some attorneys and corporate lawyers with a sharp future vision have already started fearing for their job. They suspect that, in the coming years, AI will take over more and more day-to-day tasks autonomously until human interference has become redundant.

Is this true? Is this the right way of thinking? Should attorneys, legal interim managers and other business lawyers really be afraid to lose their jobs? As explained below, there are many tasks in which AI can assist: reviewing documents, doing legal research, analyzing case-law… However, the strength of these so-called ‘smart tools’ is to reduce the hours that are usually spent on repetitive, time-consuming assignments. The goal, therefore, is not to replace lawyers or legal freelancers, but to help them allocate time and resources more efficiently.

In the next paragraphs, we will give some examples of tasks in which AI can play a crucial role as a time-saver, cost-reducer and automator.

Automated review of legal documents

In many businesses, a lot of time is still wasted on the mere review of similar contracts. Even if most companies nowadays have adopted all sorts of templates for different kinds of commercial and other contracts, the adoption of an agreement is a highly time-consuming process. Therefore, some companies and law firms have started using or creating smart tools to help them speed up this procedure. 

Because these AI systems can process huge amounts of information in no time, they can analyze legal documents way quicker than humans. In doing so, they can:

• review contracts and flag potentially high-risk clauses;

• indicate inconsistent language or unclear phrases and help in increasing the readability of a contract or an opinion; 

• check for compliance with certain legal standards, norms and statutes.

Some companies have even created tools that can produce contracts starting from a premade template or even from scratch. These software programs will then, after certain parameters have been filled in, tailor a general contract to the specific preferences or needs of a client or a supplier.

At the same time, the interference of a human lawyer is still needed to actually perform the proposed tasks, like modifying certain clauses, adopting a more comprehensive language and accepting or refusing the changes proposed by the AI tool. Close collaboration between AI and humans is therefore still a necessary condition to ensure a smooth contracting process.

Prediction of (court) case outcomes

For some businesses, litigation is another money slurping machine that takes away many resources. Especially in Belgium, court cases are expensive, very time-consuming and never guarantee a great outcome for any of the parties. Part of the problem is that many companies don’t have a clear view on the alternatives and often dive head-first into legal proceedings, while other means regularly offer better solutions for both parties.

To remedy these shortcomings, AI systems have been created to predict the outcome of potential court cases. Based on the facts of a particular case and earlier judgments of the court or judge at hand, it will make an accurate prediction of the decision that would be made. This helps companies to broaden their scope and look for other solutions, like mediation, arbitration or settlement.

Legal Research

For legal research, too, software exists to help you find the right cases, precedents, statutes or other legal sources. These AI tools automatically keep you up-to-date on the newest case law and legislation, propose similar sources to the ones you’re looking for and scan millions of documents in a matter of seconds to make sure you don’t miss out on any text or phrase that might be relevant to you or your case.

A platform like Legidex is an excellent example of this kind of software.

Legal Recruitment

Last not but least, AI can also assist companies and law firms during their recruitment processes. Based on the preferences and needs of the business, AI tools can propose the best candidates for legal interim assignments or permanent positions.

A platform like Limine does exactly that: it combines unique technology with personal human input from legal professionals creating the perfect match between companies and lawyers.

Ready to connect with all top-tier candidates for your open positions? Create your free account now and find new legal talent today!

 

To haul in your dream job as a freelance legal consultant, you need two things: an impressive CV and a splashing job interview. Ultimately, the main goal is always to show that you, and no one else, is the perfect fit for the job or assignment you’re applying for.

For tips on writing a convincing resume, click here. For tips on leaving a sensational impression during an interview, read on!

Come prepared

The worst thing you can do at a job interview is not show up. The second worst thing you can do, is arrive unprepared. This immediately gives the impression that you’re not that interested or motivated for the assignment you’re applying for. Therefore, you should try to collect at least a minimum amount of information about the company or the client you want to work for. 

Some questions you could ask yourself:

• In which sector are they active? 

• Who are their main competitors? 

• What is their history and their mission statement? 

• What are their main goals for the future?

• What were the last business results? Annual turnover, change of CEO?

• How can I prove that the company needs me for this specific assignment?

Additionally, you can gather some financial information about the company on the website of the CBE. Go the extra mile and look up the recent exposure in the press. Maybe there’s an interesting article published in De Tijd/L’Echo or Trends/Tendances?

Being prepared, yes, but don’t overprepare yourself either. If you’ve studied all possible questions and answers by heart, this might impede the smooth flow of the conversation. Give yourself the opportunity to showcase your sharpness and clarity of mind as well; in any case, these are essential qualities for a legal interim manager!

Your resume is not self-explanatory

Don’t forget that most employers and clients value a good job interview just as much as a compelling resume. Even if you have a world class CV, a poor interview can ruin your chances of being picked for a job. Therefore, remain honest and open while answering questions about your professional history. Again: it’s all about showing that you are the perfect fit. A good match on a more personal level will certainly put you higher on the ranking – especially for longer assignments.

At the same time, it’s always a good idea to prepare some questions yourself (or make them up during the conversation). This proves legitimate interest and motivation in the company and helps in building the trust of your interlocutor.

Focus on relevant information

When talking about your past experiences as a legal consultant, it remains important to focus on the information that is relevant to the assignment you’re applying for. Try to highlight specific qualities or skills you gained in previous jobs that you can transfer to your potential new client or employer. 

This does not only include your expertise in certain legal practice areas. Equally important are your soft skills. For instance, when applying for a short term assignment, indicate that you’re a fast thinker, a quick learner and don’t need much time to be operational. When applying for longer assignments, it might be a good idea to focus on your reputation as a trustworthy companion. Obviously, clients don’t like consultants who quit after a month or two!

In general, when talking about legal interim assignments, clients like to hear about your communication skills, your ability to deliver strategic advice and your ability to translate complex legal information into clear and understandable opinions.

Last but not least: suit up!

It seems obvious, but it’s impossible not to mention this last tip: dress nicely! The first impression is always the most important one, and you only get a single chance to make one. Research has proven that this impression is mostly based on your physical appearance. Therefore, there’s only one thing left to do: suit up!

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