As a corporate legal team or law firm looking to rebalance your workload, access specialised expertise, or scale capacity to meet changing needs, hiring a legal consultant is an excellent option. Flexible legal resourcing affords you agile and responsive access to a trusted helping hand during times of need. The only challenging part is deciding how to source the right candidate for the job.
You or HR may be tempted to save money by posting the opportunity on a generalist recruitment site or networking platform like LinkedIn, but is it the best option? It may seem simpler and more budget-friendly initially, but there are various important considerations to keep in mind.
We explore the advantages of working with a legal services provider such as Obelisk Support that has the resources and knowledge to seamlessly connect you with top legal talent and offer added benefits that you may not have initially thought of.
Here are eight ways partnering with a legal service provider can help you unlock more value:
#1 Access the right candidate from a large talent pool
In the legal industry, the need for specific and nuanced skills can make it challenging to find the right candidate for the role. This is where an established legal services provider can offer an edge. With access to a vast network of highly skilled and talented legal professionals – including junior and senior lawyers, barristers, general counsel and paralegals – we can quickly connect you with the right consultant for your project.
While all that may be achievable (with a lot of heavy lifting) when hiring directly, legal service providers do much more than just match a consultant’s skills to your needs. They also assess whether the individual is a good cultural fit for your team and project. At Obelisk Support, you can be confident of a great match as we personally interview and evaluate all our legal consultants and paralegals, giving you the peace of mind that the legal consultant you work with aligns with your team’s values and work approach.
#2 Save time and control costs
By handling the time-consuming and extensive screening, interviewing, and pre-vetting process, legal service providers free up time for your legal team or HR department. At Obelisk Support we ensure that we only put forward candidates who are ready to work, as opposed to sourcing someone who may only be available in a few months, so you have a resource that can get up and running quickly, contributing to your project almost immediately.
Additionally, legal service providers take on the costs of networking, advertising and headhunting, saving you more time and money when using flexible legal resourcing. Plus service offerings such as Extended Teams support from Obelisk Support, means that you always have legal support on tap, when you need it, for as much or as little as you want – and only pay for what you use. Build your extended team to your bespoke requirements selecting your preferred consultants for your pool – and when spikes in work happen, or you need the specialist expertise, your selected consultants are on hand to help. We also provide holiday cover across your pool of selected consultants, and swap consultants in and out as required as part of the service.
#3 Benefit from specialist recruitment expertise
Partnering with an legal service provider for your flexible legal resourcing needs not only streamlines the hiring process but also adds a level of focus and objectivity that can often be challenging to achieve in-house.
At Obelisk Support we have dedicated central team members who are knowledgeable and experienced in attracting and retaining top-notch flexible legal talent. Additionally, our team has the skills to negotiate innovative working arrangements that best meet the needs of your organisation and the consultant.
#4 Ensure compliance and contingency planning
Rather than leaning on a busy HR team or managing everything yourself, you can delegate all your compliance needs related to equal employment opportunities, worker safety, and data privacy to a legal service provider that is well-versed in all the relevant laws and regulations. They also verify references and conduct background checks on candidates for you.
Should your legal consultant fall ill, you can be rest assured quality support remains available at short notice. Partnering with a reliable legal service provider such as Obelisk Support means work can be quickly re-assigned to another suitable professional from our network, ensuring that your service delivery is not disrupted.
#5 Increase your team’s agility
Change happens fast.
A legal services provider can assist an overburdened legal team by quickly providing access to legal experts who can start within a short time frame, sometimes within hours.
Partner with a legal services provider and you’ll have a go-to source for all the flexible legal talent you need, whether you have one urgent piece of legal work or require ongoing services. This allows you to maintain a high level of quality and productivity, regardless of unforeseen fluctuations in your workload.
#6 Get ongoing support
When considering the options of hiring through a legal services provider or going directly, legal teams often overlook the added benefits that a legal services provider can offer in the form of continuous coaching and support. A reputable legal services provider offers access to professional development support, relevant legal tools and gives constant support to consultant lawyers and paralegals, enabling them to perform at their best.
At Obelisk Support we we play an active role in managing your service delivery, regularly checking in to ensure that your work meets the highest standards and adheres to the agreed Service Level Agreements. This level of oversight helps to ensure that your legal team is well-equipped to deliver quality work at all times.
#7 Streamline with tech
Legal service providers have often invested in advanced technology platforms that allow them to quickly pinpoint the right candidate for a role from their carefully handpicked talent pool – such as the proprietary matching platform here at Obelisk Support. This ensures a fast and reliable matching process, without sacrificing the quality of the talent being placed.
Whether you need support for a one-time project, such as drafting an NDA, or a more extensive project like a 12-month repapering exercise, a digitally-enabled legal service provider with a large network of skilled lawyers and paralegals can be relied upon to resource your projects successfully.
#8 Build a more diverse, inclusive and innovative team
Partnering with an innovative legal services provider like Obelisk Support that has a long history of championing flexible, hybrid, and remote work arrangements, can help you build a more diverse and inclusive legal team. A more flexible approach to resourcing attracts highly skilled legal professionals from a range of backgrounds and life stages who value flexible opportunities and may not be available to work a traditional 9-to-5 schedule.
This allows your organisation to break down diversity and inclusion barriers, and provide more opportunities for talented legal professionals, regardless of their identity, background, or circumstances. It also enables you to infuse diverse perspectives, ideas, and experiences into your legal team, with a positive impact on innovation, decision-making and performance.
Ultimately, when it comes to sourcing legal talent, partnering with a legal services provider gives you numerous opportunities to save time and add value. Legal services providers offer the necessary expertise and resources to help you access top talent, as needed, from a large pool of skilled, experienced, pre-vetted candidates. With this approach, you can quickly adapt to change and build a future-fit legal team.
“Whether we have permanent staff out on leave, planned projects we don’t want to distract the core team with or unforeseen new work, having a relationship with Obelisk means that we can quickly and easily increase our productivity in line with the businesses’ requirements.”
