We began development in 2009, but our team considers Cinco de Mayo, 2011—the day we fully opened for business— as our official Birthday.

Here's a narrative of our first year in business as told by Twitter:

Launch Day: May 5, 2011

The software and startup community was more excited about us than the legal establishment.

Summer through Fall 2011:

The numbers of attorneys registered with Hire an Esquire continued to grow. We banged on the doors of and called law firms across the country. We got used to rejection and also gained some great registered law firms and lawyers in the process. Recognition from the national media helped us gain acceptance—and users!

Winter 2012:

Our Home Page got a facelift.

And as more tech companies joined Hire an Esquire in the legal world, the legal and business world warmed up to us.

Spring 2012:

Hire an Esquire had over 400 registered attorneys and became prepared to handle the last minute per diem attorneys and local counsel needs of law firms. 

Upon popular request (and as prophesied on launch day by @thesethings), Hire an Esquire opened for startups and businesses with a software demo and presentation on legal fees and lawyers for startups and businesses at Indy Hall—Philly's own indie tech incubator— during Philly Tech Week. 

And now, in the first days of year 2, Hire an Esquire is close to 500 registered attorneys with experience ranging from recently barred attorneys to BigLaw veterans with complex international tax and transactional experience. Almost 1/3 of Hire an Esquire attorneys run their own solo/ freelance offices with malpractice insurance and are available to act as local counsel and take direct clients. 

Law firms and businesses from coast to coast in a variety of practice areas and industries are registered and this group of users is now growing at a rate similar to or greater than our registered attorneys. 

Obviously, we couldn't have done it without all of the lawyers, firms, and businesses who gave us excellent feedback, took a leap of faith with us, and shared our vision of bringing law a few inches closer to the 21st century. Thanks to all who joined us in the revolution. We look forward to working together for another great year. If you're a lawyer, law firm, legal department, business or startup that hasn't joined us yet,

Learn More About Hire an Esquire & Sign Up Here

Happy May! Now small to midsized businesses and startups have the power of larger companies and law firms when choosing a lawyer. The many requests from our friends and collaborators in the software and entrepreneurial world convinced us that this would give smaller businesses and budgets a beneficial boost. 

The advantages of using Hire an Esquire are:

1. Access to 475+ lawyers nationally whose business and IP experience includes representing Fortune 500 clients at top law firms.
2. Efficient technology proficient attorneys that bill at 1/2 to 1/3 of their rate at a traditional (or their former) high overhead law firms.
3. Knowing what you're getting—view the qualifications of and communicate with a variety of attorneys to judge their familiarity with your industry and your businesses needs. 
4. Power to negotiate. Post your general legal needs, your budget/ preferred hourly rate and find an attorney with the right expertise that can work within your reasonable budget.
5. Finding an attorney has never been such a great user experience thanks to our streamlined selection, management, and billing software. 

For more information on attorney selection and fees check out our slide share presentation on choosing a lawyer and research on legal fees. For more information on the process check out the small business tab on our home page and our FAQs.

If you need a lawyer to help with business formation, trademark work, contract drafting, review, or any other legal work for starting or running a business, we hope that you'll 

Espresso machine icon courtesy of the talented folks over at Visual Pharm

Meg Charendoff of Philadelphia's CREATE Media and Lawrence Kohn of Los Angeles based Kohn Communications are hosting a free bi-coastal call on marketing for lawyers and law firms. We see this as useful to our indie attorneys from solos to per diem and freelance attorneys as well as our law firm clients. There's been a recent trend of our attorney users becoming law firm users. The better your business is, the better our business is. So, we like to help you get busy.

Details Here: "Top 10 Dos and Don'ts of Marketing Communication

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2012

Speaking of communication, we know it seems like we've been quiet lately as we handle increased business. This seemed to be the "Hire an Esquire Spring." Suddenly the legal industry (who seemed to think we were downright eccentric before) became very excited about our concept and can now see what we saw 3+ years ago when we made the commitment to reorganize our lives to bring the freelance law lifestyle online. 

There's nothing like having others share the excitement of your vision—especially after years of dismissive smiles, pats on the arm, and "good luck with your little website." We look forward to not having to explain the difference between a sophisticated software as a service [SaaS] product and a few lines of html to legal types in the near future! 

And there's nothing like expanding. Our team will be growing soon and we look forward to introducing you to some new faces and a new product. 

We are happy to be able to lend support to the Temple Student Public Interest Network this year. We have donated a gift certificate to the SPIN auction which any current or future Hire an Esquire law firms can bid on here.

Proceeds from the auction go towards funding grants for students working in public interest. We hope to see you online or at the live auction at Duane Morris in Center City Philadelphia tomorrow.

The GrindStone mentioned Hire an Esquire in an article discussing quotas as a solution to gender divides in the legal profession.

Check it out here: Are Quotas the Only Way to Solve the Female Gender Problem? 

Here's what happened in February and what's happening in March:

March News for Firms

March News for Attorneys*

*Attorneys interested in being a featured attorney please see March newsletter. Attorneys with Mandarin and other foreign language skills, courtroom experience in immigration, bankruptcy and foreclosure matters, and appellate writing experience are particularly encouraged to be featured attorneys. 

The full text of the Philadelphia Business Journal article on Hire an Esquire is now available online here:

Hire an Esquire: Matchmaking for Lawyers

We will be uploading the pdf of the article as it appeared in the Business Journal shortly as we put the finishing touches on our new Press Page.

It's been a busy month at Hire an Esquire. Hire an Esquire has a new face, partners, and collaborators. Hire an Esquire is currently partnering with search firms to post permanent positions. Soon, work from home e-discovery positions will be available on Hire an Esquire. And, a recent court opinion calls into question some practices of LPOs. The Hire an Esquire - Digital Legal partnership helps firms comply with professional responsibility rules. Read more here:

Hire an Esquire Attorney News

Hire an Esquire Law Practice News

Hire an Esquire is partnering with search firms to assist them in locating full-time candidates. Many registered attorneys on Hire an Esquire are currently employed full time at law firms. So, we think that many of our attorney users are interested in other career opportunities and we hope that they find these posts useful.

Apply to these positions as you would to any other position posted on Hire an Esquire and the search firm will follow up with candidates of interest.

Our first posted full-time position is:

• Defense Litigator
• Center City, Philadelphia, PA
• 8-10 yrs experience preferred

Login to your Hire an Esquire account to see more details.

We're excited to be featured in the Philadelphia Business Journal Today. Read the first part of the story: Hire an Esquire: Matchmaking for Lawyers. The Full Story is available for Business Journa subscribers and in the print edition. 

Slowly but surely, freelance law online is emerging from a niche into the mainstream. 

The Hire an Esquire - Digital Legal Partnership announcement went out this morning.

Check it out on Yahoo News.

We're celebrating the new look of our website, by inviting firms to try a different way to locate attorneys than they are currently using—for free! 

Existing and new clients who check the 1st box (as shown below) can use Hire an Esquire from beginning to end for a project with no charge.

Offer Details:

1. Post a project between January 23-27.

2. Make the project open to all attorneys to apply by checking the first box on posting options as shown above.

3. You may still invite specific attorneys to apply using the search feature.

4. Offer is open to new and existing law practice clients.

5. Offer limited to one free project post per practice.

6. Firms still pay the hourly rate that they offer to attorneys. The HAE transaction fee on billed hours will be waived. 

Why?

Many of our registered law firms have become rather reliant on keeping projects private, and inviting specific attorneys to apply with the help of our attorney search feature. There are hundreds of talented and skilled attorneys across the country registered with HAE and we want firms to experience the full potential of Hire an Esquire.

As shown in the "Job Posting Options" (above) your firm can still remain anonymous in your job posting. Only attorneys that you wish to communicate with or confirm for a project will see your practice name. 

Happy New Year and Happy Posting,

The Hire an Esquire Team

Happy New Year!

 Philadelphia Mummers, New Year's Eve

We hope that 2012 is off to a great start for lawyers and law firms everywhere.  We anticipate an exciting and transformative year, both for the independent attorney movement and the entire legal industry.

To accommodate the Monday holiday and an exciting announcement that we have planned for next week, our January Attorney and Law Firm Newsletters will be sent out Monday, January 9th, instead of the usual first Monday of the month.  

Hire an Esquire is excited to announce a partnership with Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program [VIP]. Most Philadelphia lawyers and firms have worked with this amazing organization at some point. We are excited to offer a discount to firms that work with Philadelphia VIP and donate a portion of profits from these clients to Philly VIP.

Firms can find out more about the partnership and the discount on the Philadelphia VIP website.

From the Hire an Esquire Team.

Yes—in case you were wondering, the disco ball is up all year round, not just shortly before our building wide holiday party. 

Things have been busy around here, just as they seem to be for many of our law firm clients. The word is getting out about Hire an Esquire. Firms are reviewing their vendors at the end of the year. As they look for more cost effective solutions for next year, our phones and e-mail boxes are getting lots of love.

ATTORNEYS:

We need you! To our registered attorneys, please make yourself searchable to firms. If you're not already signed up, please do and also opt into search. Here's why: The Importance of Being Searchable.

FIRMS:

We have listened to your requests and your needs. We are registering more attorneys in high demand areas and have also made some requested search and project posting tweaks. If you missed us in your inbox, you can get our most recent updates here: Updates for Firms.

Happy Monday,

The Hire an Esquire Team

Need a lively discussion to wake you up on a cold December Monday?

Read and participate in the growing conversation surrounding the branding of independent attorneys. Check out commentary from one of our founders over on The Legal Intelligencer Blog which was inspired by the discussion happening over at Just Below the Law.

Happy Monday.

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Meredith Lepore over at TheGrindstone on a topic that interests us both: Why women excel in law school, put in grueling hours, yet fall behind their similarly situated male counterparts in promotion and pay. 

Meredith has focused on this issue as a journalist so she immediately understood the advantages and reasons that freelance law can be a great solution for all attorneys and particuarly women who want more control over their careers, their book of business, and the credit and economic rewards of their efforts than the traditional and (in my opinion—as reflected in the article) gender biased law firm environment provides.

For more on this topic, head over to TheGrindstone to read about Freelance Law and Hire an Esquire as a Solution to Female Lawyer Drop Off

In the Legal . . .

Check out the Legal Intelligencer Blog post, November Rain, for observations on law firm success from Hire an Esquire sales experience and data.

It's here!

Attorneys: Log in and add your language skills in the "profile" section of your Hire an Esquire account. 

Law Firms & Legal Departments: You will now see attorney language skills in the applicant view of attorneys that apply for projects. You can also search for attorneys with foreign language skills. Set up a project (public or private) and select desired language skills when searching for attorneys to invite. 

Hire an Esquire was featured in "Corporate Detox Week" on TheGrindstone. Our whole team loves any website that has a week devoted to corporate detoxing.

We hope that you enjoy this article, other Corporate Detox Week Articles and maybe get some inspiration if you want to start freelancing while continuing your day job. 

Interested in being a part of the Freelance Section of the Philadelphia Bar? Check out the organizational meeting this Wednesday. Details are:

Wednesday, Nov 16 12pm – 1pm

Philadelphia Bar Association

1100 Market Street, 10th Floor Board Room

Happy November. If we're not already in your inbox, click below to find out what happened at Hire an Esquire in October and what's planned for November.

Newsletter for Attorneys

Newlsetter for Law Firms and Legal Departments

What do freelance lawyers find frightening this Halloween? The potential for soundbite headlines sparked by the IRS's "Voluntary Classification Settlement Program" to scare away their law firm clients. The Legal Intelligencer recently published the article Law Firms Employing 'Independent Contractors' Beware. The operative word in this title is "employing." Still, I received e-mails from freelance lawyers who expressed dismay at the attention grabbing headline and its potential impact on their current and prospective clients who don't fully understand the issue.

While the below is only a brief overview and should not be taken as legal advice, I thought it was worth sketching the outlines of an "independent contractor" and "employee" lawyer. Law firms should examine the law concerning proper classification for the IRS and their jurisdiction's unemployment compensation board (an important consideration the above referenced LI article neglected) against their own fact specific situation and consult with attorneys specializing in employment law if necessary.

Lawyer-Employees:

• Work for a firm indefinitely (until they quit or are terminated)
• Work on any and all cases and are an integral part of a firm's operations
• Use the firm's desk, admin staff, computers, and legal research resources— and are expected to do so during firm business hours (and likely beyond)
• Are paid the same weekly or bi-weekly paycheck
• Only work for one firm
• Have not agreed to work as a 1099 independent contractor

Lawyer-Independent Contractors:

• Work on specific projects or tasks that are contracted for distinctly (i.e. court appearances, research or writing projects, distinct tasks for a specific case)
• Use their own computer, legal research resources, works from their own office or home, and may have their own malpractice insurance
• Can generally work on their own time (obviously as a good vendor, adhere to scheduled events for their clients such as court appearances or client meetings)
• Send bills or invoices to their clients for varying amounts based upon the terms of their contract
• Work for multiple clients
• Agree that they are working on an independent contractor basis and not as employees

While building our software and writing our TOS we examined these issues and retained outside counsel specializing in employment law to ensure that our system was conducive to firms hiring true independent contractors, not misclassified employees. We will discuss how the Hire an Esquire software encourages proper independent contractor classification in a near future post. But for now, we encourage lawyers and law firms alike to further examine this issue and to not throw their freelance lawyers who are properly classified as 1099 independent contractors out into the cold legal winter. . . It's scary out there! 

End Note: While the Legal Intelligencer article linked to above cites tax court opinions and gives a broad overview of situations in the law firm context, this link is a helpful and plain language view of the factors the IRS and most state agencies (workers comp, unemployment comp) consider in the employee classification discussion.

The Hire an Esquire Perspective on Law.Com/ The Legal Intelligencer

What the Legal Industry Can Learn From Steve Jobs

It's the first weekday of October. If we're not already in your inbox, check out what's happening at HAE by clicking on the links below.

News for Firms

News for Attorneys

Happy October!

We have a "New Year" themed guest post over at Shpoonkle today about the gatekeepers of the legal industry, the potential for lawyer-client harmony, and the need to reflect on the state of the legal industry for a fresh start. Please click on over to Shpoonkle to read, A Lawyer-Client Super Committee.

To those who celebrate Rosh Hashana, L'Shana Tova.

Images via Jerusalem Baskets, http://www.jerusalembaskets.com/

Below is a guest post contributed by our friends over at Shpoonkle.  Shpoonkle is a free tool for lawyers that reduces rainmaking friction and a free tool for clients to locate attorneys in an informed manner. If Google Product Search and any of our favorite sites that reduce distribution costs for independent vendors had a brainchild that grew up to be a lawyer, we think it would look a lot like this. We encourage our firms and our many attorneys that are solos to check out Shpoonkle to build their client base.

The Legal Force is being reinvented.  With too many attorneys chasing too few clients, lawyers need to find ways to remain competitive while still paying their own bills for the industry to survive. To accomplish this, every aspect of the legal marketplace has to come under examination. Increasingly, the legal workforce is being redesigned by services that connect parties more efficiently with less infrastructure. This helps both sides cut costs allowing more clients to access lawyers and more lawyers to access clients.

Innovation in the legal industry is exciting and challenging— particularly since both lawyers and consumers have been negatively impacted by the economic downturn. Those in the legal profession who will not accept these challenges and realities are “bottoming out.” Those who have embraced these challenges and new technologies are succeeding by responding to both problems in the legal field and what consumers have come to expect from other products and services they consume in the Internet age.

Lawyers are like many professional services, their product is valuable and everyone at least once in their lifetime needs one. The demand for lawyers has not decreased, but the supply has increased. Pricing has not followed suit. Even with services that are a matter of life and death, such as health care, consumers are forced to make decisions based upon costs. Consumers that are lucky enough to have health insurance, will only go to doctors covered by their insurance and will make further decisions based upon their copay and what their insurance will cover. Without health insurance, many consumers are forced to let their conditions deteriorate. Doctors are adjusting rates for consumers that pay out of pocket while insurance companies have long used their power to negotiate down rates. While larger corporate clients have not been shy about negotiating rates with the largest law firms, the majority of individual legal consumers have not been able to do this. Lawyers’ rates for the general public have traditionally been guarded secrets that involve an office visit and questioning to discern. These factors result in many potential clients going without necessary legal services. 

Legal Services sites like Hire an Esquire and Shpoonkle may target different demographics, but they have similar goals. Both seek to address the needs and challenges of the legal industry and make options, information, and the efficiencies of technology available to the legal industry.

Shpoonkle offers free services to both clients and attorneys to entice both sides to optimize the lawyer-client matchmaking process. Reception to Shpoonkle has been unprecedented, with almost 5000 members in six months and thousands of daily visitors. Shpoonkle’s model is as much about providing a time and cost sensitive rainmaking tool for lawyers as it is about helping the general public make informed decisions about their legal representation based upon cost and experience. From the success of Shpoonkle over the past year, we see that consumers are willing to try new and creative means to get affordable legal services—and forward thinking lawyers are following suit.

In the blog of the oldest law journal in the United States, will be a modern perspective. One of our co-founders, Julia, will be writing for the Legal Intelligencer Blog as a regular commentator on issues that are at the foundation of our company: freelance law and other greater shifts in the legal industry resulting from technology, the new economy, and general changes in our world.

We will be linking to monthly posts here. Check out the September feature: Back to School for the Legal Industry, discussing the potential for the current era of law school grads—educated with few practical skills and now fewer opportunities to learn on the job— to be a "Lost Generation of Lawyers." 

Please join us in this discussion on the comments section of the Intelligencer Blog.

If you registered as an attorney or a firm, you may have noticed a newsletter in your inbox on September 1st. Things have been moving and changing rapidly at Hire an Esquire and it's time to give both our attorneys and firms monthly updates. 

On the first weekday of every month firms and attorneys will receive newsletters with updates, new features, and previews of what's ahead. If you are a registered user who does not opt out or if you signed up to receive information before our launch, you will receive these automatically. You can quickly and easily opt out by clicking the link where indicated at the bottom of the e-mail.

If you're not yet a registered user and want to see what's new at HAE, check out our twitter feed for links to the attorney and firm newsletters.

Happy Fall,

The Hire an Esquire Team                                           

Hire an Esquire was in CNN Money this Monday discussing people who became part-time workers because of the economy— and ended up liking it.

At Hire an Esquire we realize that this situation is not ideal or economically feasible for many people. And, we also know many people in both the legal and tech worlds who inadvertently ended up in some form of part-time work or individualized entrepreneurship because of the economy and found it a better fit. Many found their income was roughly the same and sometimes better, while they enjoyed a better quality of life. Seeing lawyers who were successfully adapting to the depressed legal economy in 2007 and 2008 (and who seemed so much happier than their big firm counterparts) is what inspired Hire an Esquire.

The CNN Reporter who interviewed Hire an Esquire, Chris Isidore, has examined the current economy from many different angles. So, we encourage those who are interested in multiple perspectives on part-time work and the current economy to read his other articles. 

 . .  and more on the way!

We expect attorneys to have opinions. And we haven't been disappointed. Hire an Esquire attorneys and firms have been using the blue support and feedback tab on the left side of the screen to give us constructive feedback and great suggestions. We've been hard at work all summer implementing these tweaks and new features.

We've also been hard at work finding more firms and businesses to keep Hire an Esquire attorneys busy. We're happy to say that we now have a national client base. If you still don't see any jobs in your area, don't despair. We are in the process of penning, or more appropriately typing, some partnership agreements that should result in more national and remote work for Hire an Esquire attorneys everywhere. 

Firms and attorneys may have noticed new features being added since our May launch. We hope you have been enjoying improved invoicing, internal messaging, and the ability to be a "double agent" (a solo who posts projects and applies for projects), to name a few of our most requested upgrades. More are in the works and will be released soon. We will begin releasing monthly newsletters this September to keep you up to date on new features, new partnerships, and new jobs.

Talk to you soon,

The HAE team

Take a trip over to Just Below the Law. Hire an Esquire is the August alternative career feature.

Dear Mr. BigLaw,

You were so impressive when we met back in the 90s. You were wealthy and attentive. I thought you could solve all of my problems. But as the years went on, your rates got fat and bloated, you started to ignore me while you chased other clients. The rest of your time was spent finding more offices, buying other firms, and wasting too much money on new lawyers to keep up with the JonesDays. You barely had time for me unless it was to send me an overinflated bill.

I tried to talk to you about going on a diet. I negotiated a few nips and tucks. I kept asking for more attention. I tried to find a way that we could work things out. But, you ignored me. You thought I didn't have options, that I could never find someone better.

Well, I've found someone younger and leaner that cares more about my needs. I'm so sorry that it had to end this way. We'll always have RJR Nabisco.

Love,

Your Corporate Client

The alternative legal trend has hit critical mass and the mainstream. The Economist and The Wall Street Journal have recently discussed the rise in firm alternatives for corporate and business clients. According to these articles, clients are hiring more attorneys directly or defecting to alternative models that use technology and remote attorneys to operate more cost-effectively—and according to clients, deliver better service. 

When we conceived the idea of Hire an Esquire over 2 years ago, we thought it was only a matter of time until the efficiencies of the Internet that had long ago revolutionized other industries, arrived in the legal industry. We designed a software platform to bring the technological advantages of alternative legal models to firms of all sizes. With less overhead and flexible access to legal talent, firms of all sizes can give clients better service and better rates, while increasing their profits. And, overall cost cuts could result in a larger client base as more can afford legal services. 

With flexible work options, lawyers will no longer have to choose between having a life or having a career. The only question left is, why has this taken so long?

Image via CitizenMusings.blogspot

Veronica Maldonado of Just Below the Law and most recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal Article "Lawyers Settle . . . For Temp Jobs" is guest blogging as part of the Hire an Esquire Series, The Many Identities of an Indie Attorney.

As a contract attorney, I have definitely gone through my ‘what the heck am I doing?’ and ‘I didn’t go to law school to do document review’ moments. I’m sure most contract attorneys have. BUT— document review isn’t the end of the world.  It may feel like it. But it’s not.

If the only alternative is unemployment, document review doesn’t kill, but helps your career prospects. According to attorney and former legal recruiter Jordan Frankel, “employers are becoming much more realistic about what you did with your time while you didn’t have a job; employers just want to see people out there working…it’s important to make the effort to stay employed.”

Have an affinity for or a background in technology? Take advantage of your experience as a document reviewer and use it as a stepping stone to find an alternative career in e-discovery. Compared to the legal profession the e-discovery market is a baby. And, that baby appears to be growing up to be big and strong! Unlike the legal professional, the e-discovery market is relatively new, constantly changing, and likely to add more jobs to the legal market than law firms.  

If you’re open to an alternative career in e-discovery, start doing some research: examine job postings, request informational interviews and find out which skills are relevant, then find ways to gain these skills economically.  Be wary of pricey e-discovery law classes, online or otherwise, these can be revenue generators at the expense of desperate attorneys and do little for your career.  You probably don’t need any more educational debt and in some cases inexpensive programming classes at a community college can be much more valuable.

Most of the e-discovery positions will require a technical background, or at the very least, require some tangible evidence of your interest in the technology side of litigation.  In some cases, pointing out the litigation technology class you took in law school might be sufficient but in other cases you will probably have to show experience in MySQL, CSS, etc.  

Nevertheless, just keep in mind that you already know the front-end of at least one e-discovery platform because of your document review experience – now all you have to do is learn some of the backend.  

And, just to show you that e-discovery jobs do exist below is a list of recent jobs postings:

Minimal experience required:

• FTI Consulting
  
  • Legal Document Review Manager - Atlanta
  • Legal Technology Consultant – Chicago
  • Legal Technology Consultant  - New York
  • Legal Technology Consultant - San Francisco
  • Legal Technology Consultant - Sydney, Australia

Some experience required:

• E-discovery Project Manager
• E-discovery Operations Staff

BIO: Veronica Maldonado graduated Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2009 and is a licensed Illinois attorney. After graduating, she worked part-time as a staff attorney for a mortgage servicing company but was later offered a full-time position with the Chicago Legal Clinic.  While at the Chicago Legal Clinic Veronica worked with pro se litigants at the Cook County Foreclosure Mediation Program. Rewarding but emotionally taxing, Veronica decided to leave. She has been a contract attorney ever since.  In her spare time, she maintains Just Below the Law, a website for contract attorneys in the Chicago area and enjoys taking voice over and other random classes. 

Image from Jennifer Juan's Blog, http://jenniferjuan.wordpress.com/

They were the most interesting of people, they were the strangest of people.

My initial thoughts upon stumbling into the contract attorney world by chance and by choice. In 2007, I worked with over 100 attorneys in the prototypical doc shop that according to temp attorney blogs is not actually a job, but a legal freak show as imagined by avant-garde writers.

Indeed, all the stereotypes and sometimes surreal interludes that would be in "Doc Review: The Movie"—a concept independently imagined in some form by doc reviewers all over the country—existed: the loud and disgusting eater (inevitably causing hearing damage from increased ipods volumes attempting to drown out the smacking noises while he frequently ate at his desk), the middle aged man who shoved a pregnant woman in his eagerness for the free pizza the temp agency had delivered every other Friday, the people who came to work in flip-flops and sweat pants (the kind with the elastic on the bottom), the striving doc reviewer, etc. While this minority was particularly visible and often entertaining, my other colleagues were even more interesting, but in very different ways. The other archetypes I met were:

•  The “Recovering” Lawyers, who voluntarily left "glamorous" firm jobs because they were so miserable they couldn't get out of bed in the morning.
•  The Dynamic Lawyers, who had too many outside interests to commit to the traditional legal lifestyle. In their spare time they were opera singers, played in rock bands, wrote ghost detective novels or had side businesses from biscotti and stationary to toy companies.
• The Legal Entrepreneurs, who were starting their own firms and picking up pro bono or per diem work to gain experience while doc review paid the bills. These people were the inspiration for the Hire an Esquire concept.

Of my 2007-08 doc shop peers, almost none remain document reviewers. The majority have moved onto more stimulating and better paying things from careers outside of law to associate, in-house, of counsel, and legal aid jobs as well as arbitration and mediation careers. Evidence that doc review is by no means "career suicide." The majority are happier than than the “Big Law” associates that I know, not in spite of document review but because of the life "pause" it gave them to assess what they really wanted in their lives and careers.

And flexible career options for lawyers continue to expand well beyond doc review. Other areas of the profession are finally discovering the benefits and balance that contract or freelance work can provide. Many more attorneys have traded in “prized” legal jobs for the freedom and challenge that freelance and/or solo work provides. Of course, freelance law is NOT Utopia, it has its own uncertainties and challenges. It's certainly not for everyone. Some attorneys are naturally company men and women, the rank-and-file . . . employees.

But, for those who aren't, Hire an Esquire will be highlighting the movers and shakers of this market segment that is finally coming of age in the series: “The Many Identities of an Indie Attorney.” Freelance attorneys registered with Hire an Esquire will share their experiences, ideas, advice and statements of ideological conviction. Our series kicks off on Monday with Veronica Maldonado of Just Below the Law. At HAE, we have enjoyed Veronica’s constructive but realistic perspective on the contract attorney world. As you’ll see from her bio, Veronica is one of the many attorneys who traded in a previously coveted legal job.

And we’re looking for insight from others who have taken the freelance law path. Are you an attorney who is more of a captain than a solider (or even mercenary or pirate)? If you are and you're interested in writing about your experience in freelance law for our blog, please send us a direct message on Twitter or "Like Us" on Facebook and leave a comment.

We look forward to having you join our conversation.

Photo of Superman Lawyer from Law Gazette, UK

THE HIRE AN ESQUIRE "CONFERENCE": At Hire an Esquire, we've had our own discussion and debate on the topic of establishing a freelance society within the world of law. We see Hire an Esquire as a living, breathing concept to accomplish this. We hope to continually adapt the basic principles of Hire an Esquire to build a more perfect union between lawyers and traditional legal employers, a legal career and lifestyle.

OUR BILL OF RIGHTS: Hire an Esquire has a bill of rights for attorneys. 1) There's a $35/ hour minimum for posting projects 2) And, we require estimated weekly project escrow deposits from clients before they can retain attorneys (The concept of Hire an Esquire evolved from my desire to build an escrow transaction service for the many attorneys who I observed working in per diem and of counsel roles who had to repeatedly request and endure long delays in obtaining payment from work that they did for solos and small firms). We plan on more amendments in the future.

BUILT FOR ATTORNEYS: On the tech side we've tried to make everything as simple and as safe as possible to help you manage your freelance business. We've had Amy Hoy, the renowned interactive designer who specializes in designing intuitive and simple user interfaces, lay out our site. Our team is composed of experienced, highly skilled software architects and developers who have worked and still consult for the biggest tech companies around. And although our core team is very security savvy, we still use separate security specialists for audits.

As a user, one of the most annoying things for you is a bug. You know you've hit a big when you get an error screen, or in our case an "Oops" screen with a Monty Python Reference. Apologies to MP fans, but we have Mike now to make sure that you almost never, if ever see that screen. Who is Mike? He is our resident code crush (at right) and Franklin Fountain aficionado. Recently, Mike has been "breaking" our code and finding every possible action that could result in a bug.

A REPRESENTATIONAL DEMOCRACY: But alas, just like our U.S. Founding fathers, we try to make this something of a democracy. Hire an Esquire lawyers have opinions— and they know how to use them. And we have a nifty little blue customer support and feedback tab on the left hand of all Hire an Esquire pages— and we know how to use it. We've already utilized your questions and comments to make additions and alterations to the site. Here are some of the changes that you will see appearing very soon based upon your feedback:

1. Foreign language field
2. Simplified conflicts form
3. A place to "pitch" yourself and your specializations

Have more ideas? Tell us. Just click on the customer feedback and support tab to the far left of this or any screen that looks like the this photo at left. A little box will pop up where you can send us your questions, thoughts, concerns or statements of ideological conviction and to continue this experiment with you.

It's a new day, it's a new dawn . . . and a new office, for us.  A few weeks ago we relocated to Philadelphia. Not only is Philadelphia the adopted home of 3 Hire an Esquire founders, it's also the birthplace of such things as the Constitution and the iconic "Philadelphia Lawyer."

After a little bit of tax structuring (a special thanks to our CPA!) and confirmation from our friends at the Philadelphia Revenue Department (as the old Philadelphia tag line goes, they did in fact love us back) we found it only fitting that a city so inextricably linked to the law and revolution would be Hire an Esquire's home base.

Now, we are lucky enough to work out of Old City, one of Philadelphia's many great neighborhoods. A place where narrow cobblestone colonial streets blend seamlessly and delightfully with early twentieth century lofts, boutiques, cafés, bars, and galleries. Our hood is also home to a variety of office and residential spaces that are any architect or artist's dream. We are inspired by this neighborhood for many reasons: the repurposing of the old and established for modern use, the structures that have maintained their integrity throughout the years with the help of necessary adjustments to ensure their continued usefulness, the perfectly placed accents of fun and beauty.

As a Philadelphia based company, we maintain a deep affection for this city and our Philadelphia lawyers. Still, we have left our hearts in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Dallas, and the many other places where we have registered attorneys. We have all grown up and lived all over the country. And, we're using all of our contacts from our national and bi-coastal backgrounds to get jobs for HAE registered attorneys everywhere. So if we're not already there, we hope that Hire an Esquire will be in your city too, very soon.

If you know law firms and legal departments in your locale and want to be a part of bringing the freelance law revolution to your city, e-mall sales@hireanesquire.com for more information on our commission arrangements with attorney affiliates.

We hope to work with you soon, wherever you are!

As of 5 PM on 5.5.11, Hire an Esquire is fully open for business. What better day than Cinco de Mayo for Hire an Esquire to open its virtual doors?  Cinco de Mayo commemorates an unexpected victory on the path to Mexican Independence.

We see the launch of Hire an Esquire as a victory on the path to Attorney Independence. And the story of how an attorney and various start up veterans came together to create Hire an Esquire is also a bit unexpected.

When we "pushed the button" to make the fully functional site public (picture at right) it was a long journey from almost 2 years ago when one late summer night I presented my idea to Edwin during Quizzo at Fergie's. I was the rare lawyer out well past midnight on a Wednesday night with my techy, entrepreneurial friends. Why? Because I was on a precious, short summer break between projects as a contract attorney.

Maybe it was the beer. Edwin offered to help me execute my idea. I would think he didn't know what he was getting himself into, but since he founded and sold another company after being on the team of one smashingly successful startup, I think he did. This began the long path where we would pick up a few co-founders, angel investors, and many other crucial parties that have participated in or otherwise supported the endless hours of work that got us where we are today!

And there's still much work ahead. We're currently adding features that our attorneys and clients have requested. We're working to get lots of jobs for our registered attorneys all over the country. But, for now we're excited for the many visionaries, including the 250+ talented freelance attorneys who have signed up with Hire an Esquire, who are joining us in transforming the legal lifestyle. ¡Viva la revolución!

Putting the finishing touches on the site on launch  day

Join the freelance law revolution

The virtual doors of Hire an Esquire are about to open. Currently, over 200 attorneys from all across the United States have signed up to join the freelance law revolution. And, our numbers are growing as more register daily. We have been meeting with potential test clients from small to very large and discussing details. We are excited!

And we want to share. Here are some screen shots of the software that Hire an Esquire attorneys will be using in the very near future.

The Hire an Esquire Time Tracker:

We told you that it would be simple and beautiful. . . 

A portrait of the Attorney as an Applicant:

Want to tailor your qualifications to the project?  There's a spot for that (Cover Letter).

Attorney Perspective: How a project looks to a Hire an Esquire attorney.

Thanks for reading. Come back to our blog soon for shots of our new space in Philadelphia and our code crushers who are making sure that our site is secure and bug free.

the following blog entry and comments are not to be taken as legal or tax advice. Always consult the IRS tax code, a tax lawyer or other professional.

From the calendar and our search traffic, we know what season it is: Tax Time. Common searches driving traffic to Hire an Esquire, specifically the section of our TOS discussing the independent contractor status of attorneys retained through Hire an Esquire, seem to indicate that: 

1) An attorney thought he/she was an employee but received a 1099 form instead of a W-2 at tax time.

2) an attorney working as an independent contractor is trying to figure out their tax responsibilities.

So, we're giving a general overview of what tax time looks like for lawyers working as independent contractors.

How does being an independent contractor versus an employee change the way I file my taxes?

1. An independent contractor receives a 1099 form from people whom they have done work for over the past tax year and is considered self-employed.
2. Unlike in a typical job where an employer withholds taxes to the federal government and issues a W-2 to the employee at the end of the year, an independent contractor is simply paid as a consultant or vendor and is responsible for paying taxes normally withheld and remitted to the government by their employer as well as self-employment tax. There may also be additional taxes at the state and local level. 
3. Depending upon income, an independent contractor may also have to file their taxes quarterly.
4. The tax code is much more generous with deductions for independent contractors than for employees. 

The IRS Self-Employed Tax Center is a good resource for what you have to do at tax time and throughout the year if self-employed. However, locating a great accountant or tax preparer familiar with small businesses and your local tax requirements to walk you through things your first year as an independent contractor can be worth every penny and more.

What are the other financial implications of being a 1099 independent contractor?

In addition to withholding money that you receive and filing your own taxes as stated above you are:

1. Ineligible for unemployment.
2. But, eligible for a variety of deductions that you likely aren’t entitled to as an employee. 

This sounds like a lot of work, why would I want to be an independent contractor?

Don't let the tax code, additional filing and generalized Kafkaesque anxiety that the IRS instinctively inspires in Americans scare you away from being a freelance lawyer! After you get past the initial tax headache (once again, a good tax professional can ensure that this headache is short and dull and doesn’t turn into a migraine) there are many benefits.

1. MORE DEDUCTIONS: The self-employed are often eligible for many deductions which can make their tax burden the same or less as an employee. Some examples of common deductions that the self-employed are commonly eligible for that are generally unattainable for employees:
   
   1. Health Insurance: If you’ve been a contract attorney through an agency you’ve probably noticed that their health plans are expensive and cover little. These are generally group plans that your “employer” doesn’t subsidize at all. You often have to get your own health insurance outside of your “employer” if you want more than co-insurance with a low yearly maximum. As a self-employed individual, your health insurance costs and premiums are usually fully deductible.
   2. Transit: driving and paying for parking or taking the subway/ train to work is a significant cost for many, all or a portion of these costs may be tax deductible when you are self-employed.
   3. Electronics and Related Fees: Your iPhone, phone bill, computer and Internet that you use for business purposes can be partially or entirely deductible depending upon their ratio of personal to business use.
2. HIGHER HOURLY RATES:  For example, hourly rates for contract attorneys employed through a temp agency around the East Coast corridor are in the neighborhood of $20-$30/hr. Rates for attorneys doing freelance and per diem work are generally $45+/hr. depending upon the level of specialty required.  In addition to quickly making up for the additional taxes (if any) that you pay as a freelance attorney versus an attorney-employee, the difference in pay can often quickly surpass your total unemployment benefits for the year.
3. FREEDOM: As a freelance attorney, you decide which projects to take and how to organize your time. Sadly, many attorneys working as firm employees have little control over their time. Their evening, weekends, vacations and lives in general are too often subject to a partner’s whim. Extra work often doesn’t correlate to extra pay. The price you pay for a partner not being able to dump a pile of work on your desk at 5PM on Friday and request 30 hours worth of work by Monday morning may be a bit more tax hassle and more work finding your own clients. If you do choose to take on a panicked client who needs 30 hours worth of work over a weekend, as a freelancer you can charge accordingly instead of hoping that the partners will remember this at bonus . . . or lay-off time.

Have you been working as an attorney independent contractor? Please share your perspective on being a freelance attorney at tax time in the comments section. Please remember that Hire an Esquire does not endorse nor verify the accuracy of anything said in the comments section. Please do not use or construe these comments as tax or legal advice.

Hire an Esquire welcomes our first guest blogger, Stacy Lilly. Stacy has successfully built her solo and freelance law practice, The Lilly Law Office, over the past year. And now, she's telling us and you how she did it.

It has been well over a year since I launched my practice and started helping other attorneys on a freelance basis. During that time, I have been approached by numerous attorneys who are interested in doing freelance work, but are not sure where to begin; or are currently doing some contract work, and want to grow their businesses. Of course, there is no handbook to a successful law practice, but it can be helpful to learn from others who have been there. Here are a few tips that helped me develop my freelance practice.

Be comfortable in your freelance shoes.

First and foremost, you must embrace being a freelancer. When asked, be ready to tell your audience the many benefits of working with a freelance attorney. This adds an additional hurdle to your road to success because freelancers must first “sell” the concept of using freelance legal services. But once you have a few projects under your belt and some practical experiences to share, it will become much easier to sell yourself and your services.

Market yourself as a freelance attorney.

Once you are comfortable in your freelance shoes, you must market your services. I continue to be amazed at the number of lawyers who do some sort of contract work and want to build that part of their practice, but do not market those services. Some, in fact, don’t even carry business cards. Marketing does not have to be expensive. Social media is free. And a box of business cards and a basic website can cost you very little.

Contact your existing network.

 Unlike the traditional law firm model, where attorneys seek business from individuals or other business, freelance attorneys target other lawyers and law firms. This is actually good news because if your rolodex looks anything like mine, it is bursting with other attorneys. This is the best place to start for business. Set up a LinkedIn profile and reconnect with law school classmates, colleagues from prior places you have worked, and other attorneys you have dealt with during your career. Let them know what you’re doing. Most of my projects come from personal referrals and recommendations from current clients. Yours probably will too.

Have patience.

Building a successful freelance legal practice is in most respects like any other law practice. It takes strategic planning, dedication, time, and perhaps most importantly, patience. If you provide your clients with great service at a reasonable rate, they will probably call upon you again. It might not be next week or next month, but they will. In the meantime, keep networking and marketing yourself. The return on your investment of time may not be immediate, but in the long run, it will be well worth it.

Stacy N. Lilly practices in Philadelphia where she serves small businesses and entrepreneurs, providing legal advice and representation in litigation, commercial transactions, and business planning. She also assists other attorneys with their litigation practices on a freelance basis. Her email address is stacy.lilly@thelillylawoffice.com and website is www.thelillylawoffice.com.

Freelance lawyers, please share your experience, tips or words of caution with the Hire an Esquire community in the comments section.

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Mahogany and marble. Salaries and billable rates as towering as the high-rent skyscrapers that housed prestigious firms. This vision of law makes great television, movies and a potential trophy that law schools wave at prospective and current law students as a justification for the large tuition that funds the business of law school. But there are fewer pieces of this prized “big firm job” pie. And many who managed to grab a piece of this diminishing pie find that it was mostly hype. It doesn’t taste half as good as it looked behind the glass window. Almost 6,000 attorneys were laid off from 2008 through late 2010 from big firms alone according to the lawshucks.com lawyer lay-off tracker. And, while there’s no official happiness index for lawyers, we know a few of those 6,000 released from skyscrapers around the country. Anecdotally, we can report that 100% of those we’ve talked to are happier on the outside of big law life. 

Big firms will always have a place in the legal landscape. But, we think they’re overrated as a good fit for many lawyers. This model as a primary employment vehicle for lawyers is not only outdated and unsustainable, but responsible for many of the woes in the legal world from students justifying the six figures of law school debt that the average law school student graduates with according to Forbes magazine to the high instances of lifestyle discontentment and substance abuse amongst lawyers. We though, like Frank Costanza before creating Festivus, “There has to be a better way.”

Our goal is to deconstruct certain notions of what a lawyer is. So put your 1980s legal movies away and forget the beautiful robes your law school implied clothed big firms. We’re interested in developing a different type of Esquire.  One without 60+ hour workweeks and the chains of billable requirements. We’re building a parallel or alternative world where you make your own hours, choose your own clients and have some flexibility, freedom and a chance to exercise your entrepreneurial muscles.  This is the world of freelance law. What is the basic concept of a freelance lawyer? A lawyer who picks up hourly legal work from other law firms and legal departments, unlike a solo who works directly with clients. Although many solos freelance on the side to supplement their income. 

True, this isn’t the simplest thing to do. Entrepreneurship has never been a strength of many in the legal industry. “Crazy! Absurd! Outrageous!” The reasonable lawyer may exclaim at the concept of the freelance lawyer. But could you say the same about spending your days searching for jobs that aren’t there right now? Or spending hours on applications (and a few more hours procrastinating by expending negative energy by posting sarcastic and negative comments to various law blogs and articles) where you are one of the hundreds or thousands of lawyers applying? We think that if you managed to make it through law school, pass the bar and you want to, you’ve got this one. And, we want to make it easier—through our web service to connect you with freelance legal work and through this blog. In addition to insight from a variety of guest bloggers who are successfully and happily supporting themselves as freelance lawyers, we’re also looking for your comments, suggestions and insight to help one another and build a support system and the identity of the freelance lawyer. 

 Sign up now: Join the freelance law movement!