Legal Consulting Work as an Alternative
Many attorneys — particularly those who have built up substantial experience in the Biglaw or in-house environment, but are feeling somewhat dissatisfied with their work and their future within these organizational hierarchies — are expressing an interest in the possibility of legal consulting work as an alternative career track.
Legal consulting work is a fantastic alternative for certain types of personalities, but it may not necessarily be right for everyone. Further, it can be difficult to “pin down” what exactly legal consulting work entails — there is quite a bit of variation in terms of the nature of the relationship between the legal consultant and their client, as well as the amount of responsibility imposed on the legal consultant.
California is full of legal consulting opportunities compared to many other states. New York, for example, has a thriving legal industry, but is known for being somewhat more traditional and conservative than the industry in California. If you’re interested in exploring these opportunities, then California is an excellent place to get started.
Let’s take a closer look at legal consulting work and what sort of opportunity it might represent to interested attorneys.
What is Legal Consulting?
Legal consulting has no “set in stone” definition, but colloquially, it is often used to describe a contractual, project-based working relationship between the attorney and the employer in question (which can be a non-legal or legal organization, such as an in-house legal department). Legal consultants are often independent consultants with multiple clients, though there are full-time employee legal consultants for whom “Legal Consultant” is simply a job title, and there are legal consultants who are independent consultants with just a single major client on whom they rely.
Legal consulting work may vary quite considerably, but as a general rule, legal consultants do not handle litigation work on behalf of the client. Instead, the consultant may provide advisory services relating to risk management and compliance, or may draft related documentation or implement various procedures/protocol that helps to minimize the risk of litigation. If and when litigation begins, the work-product of a legal consultant may be instrumental in shielding the client from liability.
Advantages of Legal Consulting Work
Legal consulting work has a number of advantages, including:
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- Freedom to “hop” between clients to secure interesting and high-paying projects
- Development of a personal brand that is not tied to the successes and failures of a particular employer
- Avoidance of employment-related social obligations typical of firms and in-house departments
- Flexibility in terms of scheduling and project workload
- And more
It’s worth noting, however, that legal consulting can be rather “stressful” in that — even if you have developed a solid reputation and are capable of securing project-based work — work can suddenly be lost at a moment’s notice. Unlike full-time employees, you are not likely to be reassigned to other projects. As such, those who pursue legal consulting as a career path must be willing and able to handle the discomfort of instability.
Career Growth Opportunities for Legal Consulting vis-a-vis Traditional Lawyering
If you go down a traditional lawyering path — whether in the Biglaw firm context, or as in-house counsel to a business organization — then the opportunities available to you are quite clear and have been laid out by the many attorneys who have come before and walked the same path. The question for an attorney venturing down the traditional lawyering path is not concerning “what” the opportunities for advancement are (i.e., partnership, senior in-house counsel, etc.), but whether they are qualified to reach that position given their experience and results.
By contrast, growth opportunities down the legal consulting path are not solely a function of experience or even results, but also charisma and ability to promote oneself to high-end clients. A legal consultant can succeed in the snap of a finger — in a moment — by convincing the right client to take them on for a career-changing project. The fundamentally unexpected and uncertain nature of legal consulting work means that growth opportunities may not be obvious. You’ll have to be comfortable living in the shroud of uncertainty.
Contact an Experienced Los Angeles Legal Recruiter at Garb Jaffe & Associates for Assistance
If you’re looking to move from your existing attorney position to a new firm or in-house legal department, or even to transition into a new role as a legal consultant, then we encourage you to speak to an experienced legal recruiter at Garb Jaffe & Associates for guidance on how to proceed. The legal industry is changing more rapidly than ever before, and as such, it can be quit a challenge for attorney-candidates to navigate the industry and understand the opportunities that may be available to them.
Here at Garb Jaffe & Associates, our legal recruiters have decades of experience assisting attorney-candidates at all stages of recruitment/hiring, from the identification of potential opportunities to interview coaching and more. We have a consistent track record of success helping our clients secure a variety of positions within the California legal industry, from Biglaw to in-house legal departments to third-party consultant roles.
Interested in speaking to a skilled Los Angeles legal recruiter at Garb Jaffe? Call (310) 207-0727 or send us a message online to connect.