Frequently Asked Questions for...
What is Hire an Esquire?
Hire an Esquire is a software service that facilitates matchmaking, management, and payment between law practices/ departments and freelance, contract, and locall counsel. Hire an Esquire has a national network of verified firms looking to hire attorneys for freelance, contract or local counsel work. Hire an Esquire has an additional service that allows startups and businesses to post to the attorney job board, communicate with attorneys and manage payment and their legal work through Hire an Esquire.
We are aimed at a variety of lawyers including but not limited to:
- The entrepreneurial lawyer
- The solo or small practice picking up extra work or available to act as local counsel for out-of-state firms
- The lawyer looking for flexibility and a lifestyle-oriented approach to their legal career
- The experienced patent attorney who now works part-time from a home office
- Lawyers in between jobs looking for temporary work
Hire an Esquire allows members that wish to work as 1099 Independent contractors for law firms and legal departments ["Attorneys"], to advertise their skills to law practices and legal departments and startups or businesses ["Clients"] and craft their profiles to market themselves for work that fits their skill set and needs. Attorneys choose which projects to apply to or submit proposals to accommodate their schedules and skill set.
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How does it work?
Attorneys sign up online and tailor their profiles to their experience and the type of legal work they wish to do. Attorneys can search for projects posted by firms and legal departments and apply based upon their skills, qualifications, geographical location and availability. Additionally Clients can also search for and contact specific Attorneys (that have opted into search) that meet their needs. Attorney profile information is not public and can only be viewed by registered Clients of Hire an Esquire. Conflicts are never visible to business Clients
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Who can register and how?
Any actively barred attorney that wishes to work as a 1099 independent contractor for law firms or law departments and/or any actively barred attorney that is equipped to work for startups and small businesses in their jurisdiction.
You can sign up and start crafting your profile with a quick form. The registration process takes approximately 5 minutes. Then we will verify that your bar license is in good standing. Any disciplinary history will be noted in your profile. Once your bar information is verified, you will be able to view and apply to posted jobs.
We also verify law firms and businesses that register to ensure the validity of job postings
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What information must I submit?
You must submit your legal name and bar license information to register for Hire an Esquire so that we can verify that you are a barred attorney in good standing. As a barred attorney, you are also responsible for keeping your conflict information accurate and current. Conflict information maintained in the Hire an Esquire system will only be shared with law firm and legal department Clients that wish to retain you to ensure that you can work on a project without a conflict of interest. Conflict information is not visible to businesses and startups.
Upon acceptance of a project you must also submit your bank account information and Social Security number. This allows us to maintain your 1099 information for you and your client, pay you through direct deposit and further verify that you are the barred attorney registered. Please see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for more information about our safeguards of your personal information.
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How is Hire an Esquire different than a temp agency?
Temp agencies find the clients and projects, then decide which attorneys should go where, when. They also take a large chunk off the top of the hourly billable rate. Additionally, the work that temp agencies find is usually for large clients and often primarily document review.
As an independent contractor, you’re self-employed and the boss! You search for and choose which projects to apply for and which projects to take depending upon your schedule and needs. You also get to keep the entire hourly rate. The attorney has flexibility and control over the work she or he chooses. Additionally, our concept is designed to give attorneys access to a wider range and variety of legal work than is typically available to attorneys through temp agencies.
Referral agencies generally charge attorneys a fee and then direct clients to a specific attorney on a rotating basis. Our service for businesses works like a job board where the business decides based on profiles, work experience, and communication with attorneys.
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What are the tax implications of self-employment?
The following advice is not comprehensive and is a broad overview. Please consult a tax professional to fully understand the federal and local tax requirements of self-employment.
You will be responsible for filing your own taxes on earnings. Your taxes will not be withheld as they are when you are an employee. There are additional taxes to pay as a self-employed 1099 independent contractor. But the self-employed are also eligible for additional deductions that employees cannot claim. Consult with a tax professional to ensure that you comply with all local and national tax requirements and that you are aware of all deductions that are available to you as a business owner.
Also, you are not eligible for unemployment from the work that you do as self-employed, because you are not an employee. You may be eligible for unemployment if you have other work history established as an employee but in most states you will have to give your state unemployment office more information about your business as an independent contractor. Check your local laws and regulations pertaining to unemployment.
None of this brief explanation should be taken as advice for tax or legal or unemployment purposes. Please consult the IRS tax code, a tax professional and/or your local unemployment office for more information.
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What type of work can I do through Hire an Esquire?
Any legal work and projects that you are competent to handle and permitted to do based on jurisdictional restrictions. It is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with your jurisdiction's rules of professional conduct. Projects range from document review, to court appearances, appellate briefs, research projects, trademarks and intellectual property work. Projects may be on-site, off-site or a combination of both.
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How much does it cost?
For attorneys, Hire an Esquire is always free!
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A Client wants to work with me outside of Hire an Esquire, is this allowed?
Clients can hire you pursuant to a buyout arrangement or after working through Hire an Esquire for a length of time as stated in our Terms of Service. This is how we build, maintain, and advertise our software at no cost to attorneys and charge Clients only by use. If you paid to be a part of a database to get projects—and received no work because Clients were unwilling to pay for a subscription—we think you'll see the value of our model and comply with the terms to keep it operational. Please contact Hire an Esquire with any additional questions.
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How does Hire an Esquire survive?
To maintain our match-making, invoicing and payment system and our business, Hire an Esquire charges a small percentage fee to the Client. Because we are a web-based business without the infrastructure of multi-city office suites and the amount of employees necessary to maintain this infrastructure, we can operate on slim margins so that both attorneys and those retaining attorneys can connect, bill, pay and maintain their records with minimal cost. Also, we are a service that attorneys and those wishing to hire attorneys pay for, we aren’t an employer with the associated costs.
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What is Hire an Esquire?
Hire an Esquire is online matchmaking for law practices/ departments [“Clients”] to locate a variety of independent contractor attorneys for your law practice or legal department’s needs:
- The solo or small practice picking up extra work or available to act as local counsel for out-of-state firms
- The independent attorney looking to pick up per diem, research and other types of contract work
- The experienced patent attorney who now works part-time from a home office
- Semi-retired or experienced lawyers from a variety of practice backgrounds that now offer their expertise and services on a consulting basis
- Lawyers in between jobs looking for temporary work
Hire an Esquire allows lawyers to advertise their skills to law practices and legal departments and craft their profiles to market themselves for work that fits their skill set and needs. Attorneys choose which projects to apply to or submit proposals to accommodate their schedules and skill set.
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Who can sign up?
Currently all sizes of law practices, in-house counsel departments and other departments or organizations that regularly engage in the practice of law.
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How much does it cost?
There is no set-up charge for Hire an Esquire and no fee to join as a Client. Clients pay a small, 9.5% fee of the hours that attorneys bill through our system (much lower than the industry standard of 40% or more!).
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How do I ensure correct classification of employees?
The HAE 1099 service is not an employment service. This service is designed for shorter, term, flexible, project based or outsourced work, that give Attorneys flexibility and otherwise properly classifies them as 1099 independent contractors. As a Client you must ensure that you are structuring the work that you advertise on Hire an Esquire as work properly fit for 1099 independent contractors. This is not to be construed as legal advice, please consult your legal counsel for more information regarding proper classification of employees. We have a W-2 option arriving soon for Clients that wish to use attorneys in an employee capacity. Please contact Hire an Esquire for more information at 1-800-757-3301.
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What if I want to hire an Attorney as an employee after we have connected and billed for a project through Hire an Esquire?
Great! You may do so pursuant to a buyout arrangement or a set amount of time worked through Hire an Esquire as detailed in the Terms of Service. Please contact Hire an Esquire with additional questions.
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How does Hire An Esquire streamline the process of finding and retaining contract attorneys?
Hire an Esquire is an integrated project management tool. Our system provides for geographic availability and has searchable fields allowing you to easily locate Attorneys with the desired skills and availability and allows attorneys to search for projects that fit their skills and needs.
After we connect both parties, our simple, user-friendly billing system allows Attorneys to easily log hours and invoice Clients with the click of a button. Clients can then, approve and pay with the click of a button once we set up your account. We maintain 1099 information to make issuing 1099s to contractors easier at the end of the year.
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What are the advantages of Hire an Esquire if my jurisdiction only allows me to bill out contract attorneys at cost?
While the ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, Lawyer’s Obligations When Outsourcing, recommends allowing firms or practices to reasonably mark up contract attorney fees, not all jurisdictions permit this. This is not to be construed as legal advice please consult the professional responsibility rules or relevant ethics board as necessary in your jurisdiction. Even if you are in a jurisdiction that does not allow for the markup of contract attorneys, there are still many advantages to using contract attorneys. In addition to allowing you to easily access and pay attorneys, Hire an Esquire assists with:
- Business Cycle Management: Manage business “feast and famine” cycles more effectively. During busy times, contract attorneys can allow you to handle the needs of existing clients and prevent your firm from having to turn away new clients because of a lack of resources.
- Restriction Free Hiring: As your practice or firm grows, you may want to hire one of your go-to, tried and trusted contract attorneys. With Hire an Esquire, you can do so without restriction.
- Economical Solutions for Clients: The use of contract attorneys, often at cost, is increasingly becoming a key factor in retainer agreements between large firms and their clients. Small or solo practices comprised of highly skilled attorneys can concentrate on work that warrants their high billable rates and outsource work that requires less skill to appropriately priced attorneys, making their prices more competitive and their services more attractive to clients.
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What is the Hire an Esquire Business Portal?
The Hire an Esquire Business Portal is a software service that helps businesses track and manage the cost and progress of their legal matters, and/ or hire a freelance lawyer with ultimate ease and transparency. To do this our software system consists of three parts:
- Freelance Job Board + Access to Freelance Lawyers
Facilitates finding the best freelance attorney for a business's legal needs and budget. Business entities post jobs and rates viewable by our national network of freelance attorneys. Businesses can view the profile and work experience of applicant attorneys. They can negotiate terms and rates with these attorneys as necessary. Any solo or freelance attorney with a bar license in good standing can register for Hire an Esquire online. Upon verification of their bar license, attorneys have access to view and apply to posted jobs.
- Time Tracking and Invoicing
Hire an Esquire provides a time tracking system with detailed descriptions from the makers of Freckle. Invoices are generated weekly from attorney time tracking and detailed description logs allowing businesses to closely track the cost progress of their legal matters. Businesses can dispute or approve and pay their attorney's weekly invoice with a click. This allows businesses to monitor their legal costs and stay informed, preventing surprise bills at the end of the job. Weekly payments also improve attorney collection rates allowing them to offer you better rates.
- Payment
Hire an Esquire, provides a payment system to pay your attorney and track the applicable tax information for your business. Upon approval of attorney invoices, funds will be transferred from your businesses bank account or credit card directly to your attorney via ACH.
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What is a freelance lawyer?
A freelance lawyer, like freelance designers, software developers, writers, etc. is an attorney that doesn’t work for a single employer. While some freelance lawyers pick up work exclusively from law firms, some also pick up private clients… including the clients that they worked with at their previous firm who followed them to virtual or home offices with lower overhead and rates.
Hire an Esquire was originally solely for law firms and corporate legal departments to source freelance lawyers. Upon popular request from startups and businesses, Hire an Esquire expanded to give businesses the transparency in hiring and billing and the efficiencies of freelance lawyers that were previously exclusive to larger businesses and law firms.
The attorneys registered with Hire an Esquire include:
- The solo or small practice picking up local counsel or extra work from larger or out of state law firms
- The independent attorney looking to pick up per diem, research and other types of contract work
- The experienced patent attorney who now works part-time from a home office
- Semi-retired or experienced lawyers from a variety of practice backgrounds that now offer their expertise and services on a consulting basis
- Lawyers transitioning from law to another profession who maintains a side legal practice
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Who can sign up?
Businesses and startups that wish to hire attorneys as independent contractors. If you sign up with an e-mail address from your active business domain website we can verify your company quickly and you can begin using Hire an Esquire sooner. If you don’t provide this information, we will contact you to verify your business.
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What is the verification process?
We either briefly research an existing business with publicly available information or contact the individual signing up who is beginning a business or may have a small solo or freelance business without an easily verifiable public presence. We ensure that you are valid business job poster to protect the privacy and information of our attorneys and prevent "sham" or questionable job posts that are an issue on other freelance work sites. To maintain the integrity of our site and the profiles of our searchable attorneys we wish to restrict access to valid businesses with immediate needs for the posted position.
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How is this different than using oDesk, Elance, etc. to find an attorney?
Hire an Esquire is like a specialty rather than a general store. It is tailored to the concerns of a business wishing to control their costs, track the progress of their legal work, and source freelance lawyers.
Hire an Esquire provides systems to help businesses vet lawyers and negotiate, monitor and control costs in a manner appropriate to this work arrangement.
Here are some of the Hire an Esquire features that facilitate a pleasant and transparent experience for businesses and attorneys:
- "Low signal to noise" ratio as an attorney specific job board.
- Simple intuitive user interface for non-tech busy professionals.
- Verification of attorney licenses and business entities to protect the privacy of attorneys and businesses as well as to ensure the validity of jobs posted. Hire an Esquire minimum hourly rates apply to business job posters.
- Customized software support catering to the needs of attorneys and businesses.
- Attention to professional conduct rules allowing attorneys in most jurisdictions to participate. Because of professional responsibility rules prohibiting fee sharing, attorneys may be prohibited from using freelance services that split a transaction fee between attorneys and job posters in many jurisdictions.
- Automatic detailed weekly invoicing to prevent the surprises that often come from legal bills due to quarterly billing, our mandatory weekly invoicing system requires attorneys to detail their weekly billable work and progress for your approval and payment and guarantees weekly communication.
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How much does it cost
Hire an Esquire is free to sign up and using our job board is free. To use our service to monitor your legal costs and progress via our weekly invoicing and communication system and to electronically pay your attorney, your business only pays a small transaction fee on approved hours billed through the system.
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What are reasonable rates?
Legal fees vary depending on specialty and geographical location. Attorneys working on a freelance basis often use technology to make their practices more efficient and generally have lower overhead than attorneys at a firm so rates can be less than half of what you would pay at a traditional firm.
It is reasonable to post flat rates for attorney jobs such as trademark filing, creation of basic contracts, and other matters where time can be reasonably estimated in advance. Attorneys familiar with your specific area of law can usually complete non-litigation matters fairly efficiently and within an estimated budget.
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What information must I submit?
- Valid contact information so that Hire an Esquire can verify the validity of your business. The information that you submit to sign up for your account is only visible to Hire an Esquire.
- A general job description without specifics or identifying information including:
- Hourly or flat rate you are offering
- General location
- Before an attorney can begin work on a job, you must submit your bank account or credit card information so that Hire an Esquire may take a security deposit or put a hold on your credit card for the cost of an estimated week's worth of work. Upon payment to the attorney for completed work we will return the deposit or remove the hold from your account.
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A lawyer I found on Hire an Esquire wants to bill me directly, is this okay?
Our free job board is a courtesy to attorneys and businesses that wish to use our software service. If you do not wish to bill attorneys through Hire an Esquire, you may contact us to arrange to pay a job posting fee as your business would on other job posting sites.
Once you have located an attorney with a free job posting, to comply with our terms of service you must use the Hire an Esquire billing and management software service. The features of Hire an Esquire ensure that your attorney has to keep you up to date on billing and the progress of your legal work weekly, since shocking bills and lack of communication are historic complaints about attorneys. The monitoring and convenience features of our software help businesses and startups quickly recoup the cost of the service. This convenience and ability to track work progress is why some of our law firm clients use our software service with already identified lawyers.
With this in mind, we would suggest not working with an attorney who is breaking a contract and encouraging you to do the same. As required by the Terms of Service, please let us know immediately! Under our terms of service, we can close the account of an attorney that exposes their clients and themselves to liability by encouraging their clients to break the contract that both parties have with Hire an Esquire. And, feedback such as this provides crowd sourced quality control of attorneys working through Hire an Esquire.
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