Freelance legal work offers new possibilities for corporate attorneys interested in a more flexible career path. Advances in technology, combined with a greater openness to flexible work arrangements, allow talented freelance attorneys to practice corporate law from locations of their choosing and at an ideal work volume — tremendous benefits for individuals who require nontraditional work options.

But while flexible legal work can give attorneys the freedom to choose how much time they spend practicing law versus pursuing their other passions in life, the freelance route also presents several unique challenges. It can be difficult, especially with little or no post-law school experience, to build the type of professional network needed to successfully freelance. Vital experiences like filing quarterly taxes or even simply adjusting to being a work from home lawyer are competencies attorneys need to learn before freelancing. Additionally, larger functions like business development and strategy must also be learned to sustain a career in freelance legal work.

The path to freelance legal work

For those who are well-suited and ready to take the leap to flexible legal work, freelancing offers a multitude of benefits. Bolstered by advances in legal technology, attorneys are now able to take on flexible work arrangements while practicing law for some of the world’s leading companies.

However, not all corporate attorneys possess the skills and traits that are critical to a successful freelance career. In order to succeed, attorneys need to have excellent communication and high responsiveness to their clients’ needs — the same kind of skills that are often honed in a large law firm setting. Additionally, as a freelance attorney, you don’t have an established firm with a large support system and reputation to rely on, so impeccable client service and communication is of critical importance.

Freelance legal work may also not be a viable option for inexperienced attorneys fresh out of law school for a variety of reasons. Most law school graduates are saddled with a substantial amount of debt and look to high-paying jobs at top law firms as the fastest way to pay off their debt. Additionally, most freelance attorneys learn the ropes by working in an established practice for a period of time, gaining valuable training and experience that can gain them expert, specialist knowledge in specific practice areas. In addition to offering guidance to newly minted attorneys, law firms also provide access to valuable legal resources (e.g., Bloomberg Law, LexisNexis, etc.) that can otherwise be cost-prohibitive for solo legal professionals.

So, for a variety of reasons, flexible legal work becomes more realistic as a secondary path, after an attorney has served in a traditional law firm setting for a period of time following law school. And, unlike the traditional law firm setting, the freelance path provides attorneys the autonomy to structure their personal and professional lives as they see fit. If they decide that more time is needed to care for family commitments or to pursue other life passions, freelancers have the option of adjusting their workload. Whether you’re a new parent, an aspiring entrepreneur, or someone who prefers a less demanding work schedule, freelance work allows attorneys to design a truly flexible practice.

How to prepare for a career as a legal freelancer

For many corporate attorneys, freelance legal work represents a logical step forward in their career progression. However, success as a freelance lawyer involves much more than simply hanging a shingle. To achieve your goals, you will need the right mix of experience and knowledge. Here are some suggestions:

1. Become a specialist in your craft. Remote law jobs require a combination of client awareness, responsiveness, and relevant experience. Big Law experience can be very useful for landing high-quality clients, and experience in specific contract types (e.g., NDAs, joinders, etc.) is vital. In many cases, successful freelancers specialize in routine legal work that can be easily outsourced to remote talent.
2. Familiarize yourself with legal technology. Technology plays a central role in flexible legal work. Since not all Big Law firms have fully embraced the latest advanced technologies, you may need to branch out to learn what legal tools and platforms are at the cutting edge in the industry. By tapping into resources outside your firm, you can gain additional insights about what legal technologies you may encounter as a freelancer, such as document management and contract data extraction software.
3. Build and maintain a network. When you work as a freelance lawyer, you serve as your own business development apparatus and are even responsible for some administrative tasks. For these attorneys, contacts and a healthy network are essential for landing steady work, and additional resources may be necessary to help handle administrative tasks. Many freelancers are now partnering with alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) to secure a steady stream of work and get access to resources that help alleviate some administrative burdens and so they can stay focused on practicing law.

Freelance legal work can be a rewarding, more flexible alternative to working at a traditional law firm. With the right network, dedication, and entrepreneurial spirit, attorneys can take the skills they honed in the corporate world and work with world-class clients, but on their own terms. Furthermore, partnering with an ALSP such as InCloudCounsel can give you a flexible, remote work arrangement with top-tier clients while caring for some administrative tasks such as billing. Interested in learning more about work opportunities with InCloudCounsel’s remote network of expert corporate attorneys? Click here to learn more.

Alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) are playing an increasingly valuable role in effectively delivering corporate legal process outsourcing services. With the right ALSP in their corner, general counsels can tap into a range of benefits, including increased process efficiencies, greater cost savings, and internal resources that are freed up to focus on higher-value tasks.

However, general counsels interested in reaping the benefits of a legal tech solution from an ALSP will find an abundance of options on the market. Although engaging a first-rate ALSP can be a relatively simple process, selecting a provider capable of meeting the organization’s needs is not as straightforward as it seems. Given the number of ALSPs in the market and the unique needs of every corporate legal department, general counsels must know how to identify the most suitable solutions provider and lay the groundwork for an effective relationship.

How to Identify the Right ALSP Partner and Prepare for a Successful Relationship

ALSPs are instrumental in helping general counsels bring digital transformation to their department and unlock an abundance of benefits. General counsels should first ensure they are choosing the right ALSP, as there are a variety of options on the market with a wide-range of strengths and weaknesses. To maximize value and ensure a smooth transition of services to an ALSP, companies should adequately prepare and understand what to expect with a new engagement.

With that in mind, general counsels should carefully consider the following when engaging an ALSP:

1. Assess internal needs and align them with the right provider. The process of identifying and selecting the right ALSP requires an acute awareness of the legal department’s needs. General counsels should initiate an audit of the entire legal function to identify processes that could benefit the most from outsourced legal services. Knowing the type of work — whether it’s a document management solution for routine agreements such as joinders, confidentiality agreements, vendor contracts or other solutions such as contract data extraction — that can be outsourced helps narrow the selection process to ALSPs that specialize in specific types of work. For example, some ALSPs offer legal tech enabled solutions that employ a large network of freelance attorneys that are experts in specific document types, such as high-volume legal work.
2. Identify a partner that can streamline onboarding. One misconception in partnering with an ALSP is that the initial engagement always takes significant time and energy upfront. It is true that the handoff process for legal services can be complex. However, an experienced ALSP should utilize a customizable yet proven process to make for a smooth onboarding experience. During any ALSP engagement, it is important for each function of the organization to have documented, built-out processes that are clearly communicated and transferred. Onboarding becomes difficult when these processes and documentation do not exist or are incomplete. A strong partner helps to facilitate the process; for example, the ALSP can create a clearly defined playbook that helps to guide processes consistently and effectively.
3. Evaluate and iterate after the engagement begins. A partnership with an ALSP can’t run on auto-pilot. During the first several months, the services being completed by the ALSP should be regularly evaluated. When evaluating the effectiveness of an engagement, general counsels must also determine if they have solved the problem they set out to fix. If increasing process efficiencies was the goal, general counsels should verify that such processes have become more effective than when they were handled internally or by a traditional law firm. If it is determined that these goals have not been met, general counsels should be able to work with their ALSP to identify opportunity areas and implement process improvements.
4. Humanize the process. When implementing a legal process outsourcing solution focused on improving work quality, increasing process efficiencies, and achieving cost savings, the human element can sometimes be overlooked. General counsels stand to achieve the greatest success through fostering strong human relationships both internally with key stakeholders and externally with the ALSP, ensuring that open, collaborative communication occurs. This ensures mutual understanding and alignment with respect to improvements and changes to existing processes.

If properly set up and managed, an ALSP relationship can raise the quality of work output, create significant cost savings, and free up bandwidth for teams to focus on higher impact work. By adhering to some best practices prior to the engagement and after its launch, general counsels can ensure a seamless and successful implementation. And, by making the proper considerations and decisions upfront, an ALSP partnership can prove to be a valuable asset in the long term.

Want to learn how InCloudCounsel can be your long term partner for automating and enhancing your high volume legal processes? Contact us to find out.

The days when general counsels (GCs) focused entirely on advising companies about legal risks are over. In today’s corporate legal environment, GCs are expected to provide strategic advice to top-level decision-makers and to help grow the business.

The evolution of the general counsel role creates both added pressure to move the needle on business performance and an obligation to do more with less. In response, GCs must innovate to achieve desired outcomes and fulfill their role as valued internal partners. For most GCs, this means embracing technology and alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) as key resources in corporate legal processes.

From risk advisors to strategic business leaders

Historically, GCs advised their companies on legal risks and shouldered responsibility for the organization’s legal work, but rarely engaged in top-level decision making. However, corporate leaders increasingly expect GCs to participate in strategic advisory for compliance, contract negotiations, corporate ethics, transaction monitoring, and many other activities that extend well beyond the traditional boundaries of the general counsel position. In some corporations, GCs are even asked to serve as board members.

As a result of their expanded responsibilities, 88 percent of GCs believe they play a strategic role in corporate decision making, according to Ashurst. In some ways, the general counsel position has transformed into something akin to a C-suite role—GCs must now make decisions that generate measurable business value.

Although GCs command a louder voice in corporate decision making, the general counsel’s expanded role as a strategic business leader also presents new challenges, including an urgency to demonstrate the legal function’s role in improving business performance. In fact, Ashurst’s data shows that a significant majority of GCs (83%) now feel pressure to improve the efficiencies of their function and to reduce costs.

The expansion of the general counsel’s responsibilities reflects its growing importance to the business. As those responsibilities continue to rise, GCs must adapt their strategies and embrace innovations that create business value and demonstrate how the legal function directly impacts the company’s bottom line.

Technology and legal managed services are vital to the general counsel’s success

Technology offers a solution for GCs feeling the weight of added workload and management responsibilities. Proven, low-risk solutions enable GCs to improve the quality of work output, increase efficiency, and streamline work processes. Although GCs are tasked with mitigating risk, they must adopt an approach to implementing legal technology that balances risk against the ability to generate value for the business.

The use of low-risk technology may be most beneficial in the area of routine legal work. For example, legal contract management systems manage multiple drafts of agreements over the course of negotiations, creating a system that allows GCs and other leaders to monitor the status of active negotiations in real time.

Similarly, GCs can leverage the power of legal technology in contract data extraction solutions that are designed to uncover insights that produce more favorable outcomes at lower costs in future agreements. By capturing key terms as data points and generating reporting across document types to identify trends in agreements, contract data extraction solutions help GCs eliminate the guesswork from advising on legal outcomes and reduce the bias of recalling only memorable transactions that may not accurately reflect true outcomes.

Some legal managed services combine advanced, cloud-based technologies with a remote work model to deliver outsourced legal services for NDAs, joinders, engagement letters, and other types of routine legal documents. ALSPs give GCs access to an expanded pool of legal talent with narrow specializations, improving the cost efficiency of the company’s legal function, while simultaneously resulting in a higher quality of work.

In many cases, piecemeal solutions lack the strategic value and cost efficiency of a consolidated approach. Savvy GCs typically optimize performance and maximize return on investment by focusing on integrated, end-to-end solutions that combine proven legal technologies with legal managed services, including ALSPs.

The evolving nature of the general counsel role represents a win-win for both companies and legal departments. By embracing their new role as strategic business leaders, GCs are in a better position to manage risk and influence the future of the business.

However, navigating the additional workload and responsibilities of their expanded role requires GCs to move beyond the status quo and explore new ways to generate value for the business. The combination of technology and legal managed services offers GCs reliable tools for improving both performance and efficiency—factors that will ultimately determine their success as strategic business leaders.

InCloudCounsel offers a global, end-to-end legal tech solution that automates and enhances routine legal processes, helping to free up GCs so they can stay focused on high-impact work. Want to learn more? Contact us today.

In the legal industry, compliance and risk concerns often require a cautious approach to the adoption of new legal technologies. However, as nascent technologies mature, in-house legal teams are embarking on digital transformation journeys that incorporate data management and outsourced legal services into the practice of law.

Given the vast amount of business and legal data available to in-house teams, data management is emerging as a key priority for in-house legal teams. Yet, the prospect of using data as a catalyst for digital innovation presents several key questions for general counsels:

1. Which processes are most ripe for data management improvements?
2. How can in-house legal teams best leverage legal technology to make better use of their data?
3. What steps should in-house legal teams take to ensure the security of legal and business data when implementing such legal tech solutions?

By addressing these questions and gaining greater clarity about data management best practices, in-house legal teams can lay the groundwork for the secure and effective use of data as a business asset.

Legal AI-enabled solutions create new opportunities for in-house legal teams

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides a key to unlocking data management opportunities in the legal space. When routine tasks are offloaded to AI-powered applications from outsourced legal services, attorneys can better maintain focus on core responsibilities. Ultimately, these AI-human pairings make legal workflows more efficient and accurate.

The automation of historically manual and routine compliance processes can reduce the potential for human error and ensures that protocols are followed. For example, automated solutions can alert attorneys to take action upon the occurrence of certain events, such as when a contract contains a restrictive covenant or a critical date is approaching.

Some of the data-based processes that are ripe for digital transformation through the use of legal AI and other legal tech solutions include:

1. Document abstracting. In the past, document abstracting has been a manually intensive process, making it both inefficient and prone to human error. When paired with experienced and specialized attorneys, AI-enabled technologies streamline the document abstracting process by summarizing key terms and verifying their accuracy against contractual provisions. With InCloudCounsel’s solution, the key terms of a finalized agreement are entered as data points, linked to specific language in an agreement and then turned into an easy-to-reference scorecard. From there, companies can tap into scorecard data to create interactive reports and data visualizations.
2. Data-driven insights. Legal departments generate vast amounts of business and legal data that can be harnessed to uncover insights capable of generating value for the firm and its clients. With a contract data extraction solution, corporate legal teams can leverage analytics to unearth key trends. Private equity sponsors, for example, are often interested in analyzing terms of their stock purchase agreements. Collecting data points on indemnity caps, baskets, and survival allows them to negotiate future agreements more effectively. As a result, they’re better positioned to achieve better outcomes at a lower cost and in a faster time period.
3. Real-time negotiation tracking. In most in-house legal departments, simply monitoring active negotiations requires a herculean effort and there are no guarantees that leaders have ongoing visibility into important matters. Advanced data management solutions track the status of the active negotiations in real time and ensure constant visibility into the status of material issues.

Data security best practices for in-house legal teams

While in-house legal teams stand to benefit from utilizing AI-enabled legal technologies to improve their data management practices, they need to ensure that any outsourced legal service contains an enterprise-grade security infrastructure. With cybercriminals increasingly targeting businesses of all sizes, it’s more important than ever for decision-makers to re-evaluate their legal team’s ability to protect business and client data from unauthorized access.

Partnering with a data management service can bring significant benefits for in-house legal teams. When evaluating the flow of data both internally and with legal process outsourcing partners, it’s critical to assess the security of existing systems and to identify vulnerabilities. In some cases, additional legal technologies or strategies may be required.

Additionally, firm leaders need to gain clarity about the security status of the firm’s legal technology solutions. For example, at InCloudCounsel, we provide data encryption, redundant storage and backup, certified ISO27001 and SOC 1/2 data center hosting, regular security audits and testing, and other capabilities within our robust security infrastructure.

Taking the next step in improved data management

At InCloudCounsel, our end-to-end legal process outsourcing solution to automate routine legal processes includes a software platform with comprehensive data management features. Combined with our network of expert attorneys, we help hundreds of companies operate more efficiently, better manage compliance obligations, and gain valuable insights about their business and the broader market. Ready to learn more? Contact us today.

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) play an essential role in important legal matters. Without NDAs, some of the world’s largest corporate transactions could be subject to substantial business and legal risk.

For large companies, a high volume of NDAs is a given—but also a challenge due to the drawbacks of traditional solutions for completing and managing the work. Although some companies tap internal resources to handle routine legal work, these individuals often lack the bandwidth. Time spent handling NDAs comes at a cost as time is taken away from higher impact work. In some cases, they may even lack the expertise required to effectively negotiate and manage these recurring agreements.

Other companies outsource routine legal work to traditional law firms, but the work usually falls to generalist, junior staff, while the firm charges their costly standard rates.

What can companies do to effectively handle a high volume of NDAs in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible, while also yielding a high-quality output? To uncover an ideal NDA solution for their processes, companies can follow several steps.

1. Outsource the work to an ALSP – Outsourcing to a third party is the most efficient way to handle the high volume of NDAs that most companies face. However, general counsels must take precautions and engage the right kind of third party. Alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) offering legal technology-enabled solutions serve as the ideal option for outsourcing recurring agreements because they can offer faster completion of NDAs at a substantially lower cost than traditional law firms—and with better end results.
2. Leverage specialization – When you’ve made the decision to turn to a legal process outsourcing partner, it’s not enough to simply find someone capable of taking over your NDA workload. Although NDAs are common agreements for corporate transactions, effective negotiation and management still requires specialized document and industry expertise. Your in-house legal team should select an ALSP that offers a solution that includes highly experienced attorneys who specialize in NDAs and understand your industry.
3. Evaluate the role of technology – The specialist ALSP you choose to engage for your NDA needs should include best-in-class technology as part of its solution. Cloud-based platforms offering document and workflow management features can drive substantial process efficiencies. In addition to providing efficiency benefits, contract data extraction technology allows valuable insights to be exacted from business and legal data in NDAs. For example, companies can identify trending terms across NDAs, helping them to approach future negotiations more effectively and better manage compliance obligations.

NDAs play an important role in corporate transaction processes. Without the right solution for handling them, companies are vulnerable to potential process inefficiencies, higher costs, and poor outcomes. ALSPs can offer solutions combining specialist-level resources with cutting-edge technology to handle NDAs without the pain points of traditional approaches.

Looking for a better way to handle your NDAs? InCloudCounsel combines some of the world’s best corporate attorneys with cloud-based document management and reporting software to offer a scalable, end-to-end solution for negotiating and managing routine legal work that helps companies streamline processes, free up resources, and achieve substantial cost savings.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can provide substantial value to your company.

At InCloudCounsel, we believe the most effective way to serve enterprise customers is to deliver a comprehensive, global solution to a problem. This belief was central in our decision to set up dedicated operations in Europe by opening an office in London.

By doing so, we’re able to provide our end-to-end solution for negotiating and managing routine legal work to a greater number of companies across Europe. This milestone also represents an important step forward in our quest to deliver a truly seamless global solution to our large enterprise clients, with plans to work in all major legal markets in Europe and open an office in Asia-Pacific by year-end. Our expansion also creates valuable corporate legal work opportunities for highly experienced lawyers who are seeking a flexible work arrangement.

What factors played into the expansion, and who did we select to run our new international operations? Read on for the details.

Why the expansion?

From the beginning, many of our global clients have said that when it comes to negotiating and managing routine legal work, they experience the same pain points in their European divisions as they do in the U.S. They’re generally stuck choosing between two imperfect options: sending the work to a traditional law firm (and paying high rates for it to be handled by junior, generalist attorneys) or trying to find the right internal staff to effectively handle the work, ultimately taking focus away from the core aspects of their jobs.

Outsourcing legal work to InCloudCounsel’s network of highly experienced remote lawyers working on our cloud-based platform offers a best-in-class solution that can help large companies streamline processes, free up resources, and save money.

London was the natural choice for our first European office because it’s widely regarded as a business and legal hub of Europe.

According to Research and Markets’ Legal Services Global Market Report 2017, the U.K. was the largest European legal market in 2016, accounting for about $45 billion or 7 percent of the global market. From a business perspective, London hosts 40 percent of the European headquarters of the world’s top companies, according to Deloitte.

Based on these numbers, it’s clear that London is home to an abundant number of companies that could benefit from our end-to-end solution for negotiating and managing routine legal work.

InCloudCounsel’s London leader

Once we set our sights on establishing operations in London, we had to find the right person to run our new office. We sought a leader with deep experience in corporate and international law based in London and attuned to the European legal landscape.

Our search led us to Bridget Deiters. Bridget joins InCloudCounsel as Managing Director, U.K. Prior to InCloudCounsel, Bridget practiced corporate and capital markets law at Kirkland & Ellis and Cravath in London. Bridget holds a J.D. from Georgetown and a B.A. from Yale, and she brings extensive international legal experience to our company.

Looking forward

We couldn’t be more excited about the increased value that our European expansion will allow us to bring to our large enterprise clients. With our London presence established, we welcome the opportunity to spread our best-in-class solution to other large companies throughout Europe.

With increased access to a wider international audience, we’ll continue to grow our network of remote lawyers by providing a uniquely flexible yet steady work arrangement. As we aim to open our first office in Asia-Pacific by year-end, we foresee even more growth in both our attorney network and the volume of enterprises with access to our offering, putting us well on our way to providing clients with a truly global offering wherever they operate.

Interested in learning more about InCloudCounsel’s global, end-to-end solution for negotiating and managing routine legal work? Contact us today.

Want to learn more about work opportunities for highly experienced, U.K.-qualified lawyers? Click here to view opportunities in our network.