How to scale your career as a freelance lawyer

The demand for freelance lawyers has increased significantly in recent years due to the rising popularity of self-employment and freelancing to have absolute control over one's working life. Research compiled by SpendMeNot projects that by 2030, freelancers could comprise as much as 80% of the global workforce- some of them are lawyers. As a result, choosing to work as a consultant on your own schedule instead of being more restricted in a legal firm setting is becoming increasingly alluring.

Many competent lawyers can work more freely or focus on a particular area of law by working as freelance lawyers. In this article, you will learn how to build your career as a self-employed lawyer and work remotely as a freelance lawyer with clients.

Scale your freelance career with Workee!

Who is a freelance lawyer?

A Freelance Lawyer is a legal practitioner contracted by a fellow lawyer, law firm, or any other client to undertake legal projects for them. They operate as independent contractors and provide a wide range of legal services to clients on a contract basis. As a freelance lawyer, one has the liberty to set his own work hours and decide when they are available and which task they will undertake. They are also in charge of handling their own money and revenue.

A freelance attorney may decide to work full or part-time to generate extra money. The amount of work a freelance lawyer does depends on many factors- location- that is, place of residence, the current situation in life, and stage in the legal profession. For instance, several freelance lawyers also hold academic positions as professors in institutions. Additionally, several independent lawyers had full-time jobs in the past but have since retired and are now freelancing as much as they want to.

Freelance Lawyers have freedom and flexibility. They are not required to work in conventional office settings and can complete tasks wherever they have legal certification. To operate as experts, they usually have areas of specialty they concentrate on.

Scale your freelance career with Workee!

How to build a career as a self-employed lawyer

As noted earlier, working as a freelance attorney is becoming prevalent and completely flexible. You can decide whether you wish to work as a full-time virtual assistant for one or more firms, a virtual associate on a part-time basis for one or more firms, start your freelancing business that serves many attorneys or undertake temporary project work. Being a freelance attorney is the ideal lifestyle for an increasing number of lawyers because you can decide how much time you spend working, who your client is, and your remuneration.

However, building your career as a freelance lawyer is quite challenging, especially for fledglings who just passed their Bar examinations and have decided to go into independent practice as a freelancer. Those who have worked under law firms have the privilege of direct mentorship, so they won't encounter this challenge if they venture into freelancing.

Tips on how to be a freelance lawyer

The following tips will help build and grow your career as a freelance lawyer, especially as a fledgling.

1. Decide on the best legal services to offer

Choosing the legal services offered to clients should be the first step for freelance lawyers. Associates and other attorneys at legal firms are advised to concentrate their practice on just one field. An independent attorney has more latitude to opIt'ste.

It is important to do some findings before deciding to go into legal freelance. If you offer legal services in an unfamiliar niche, you will likely not find freelance lawyer jobs and will run out of business.

You will be in business longer and have more interesting freelance attorney jobs to work on if you choose a niche with consistent demand.

Scale your freelance career with Workee!

2. Obtain insurance against malpractice

As a freelance attorney, it is important that you get insured against malpractice for your work. While it is expected that any firm which contracts you, whether as a family lawyer or not, possess an insurance cover enough to accommodate you, it is important that you have yours too. It is necessary that you do due diligence to verify if the firm has insurance that covers you or not.

The reputation of a freelance attorney’s practice is enhanced by having malpractice insurance, which demonstrates to future clients (hiring attorneys) that the freelance attorney is a qualified businessperson who would conduct themselves ethically.

3. Adopt a good marketing strategy

 If you have decided to venture into legal freelancing, it's important that you adopt a marketing strategy that will ensure you get linked up with firms that will hire you. There are many marketing tools for you to adapt to ensure you get linked with free attorney jobs. But we will look at the two basic ones.

• A business card

The abundance of online print tools available makes a professional business card quite simple and affordable. Therefore, freelance attorneys may choose to use this tool.

• An online presence

Sometimes, a freelance lawyer may not be financially buoyant to invest in creating a website for his business. So, creating a free online profile using Linkedin or other online platforms is sufficient to create a trustworthy online presence that will land you remote freelance attorney jobs of your choice.

Freelance attorneys may also market themselves through a network of friends and referrals. It is important they maintain contact with fellow attorneys. They should meet and socialize with them. And also use such meetings to establish and sustain beneficial relationships. Make it clear that you are available for freelance jobs. This could be an effective winning. 

4. Set your pay rate

You have the opportunity as a self-employed lawyer to determine how much you earn. Therefore, you can set your pay rate. You can also decide how you want to get paid. You can charge clients an hourly rate or a flat fee per assignment.

Certain factors like years of experience, geographical location, Practice area, taxes, etc., determine pay rates. For instance, a freelance patent lawyer with over ten years experience in a metropolitan city is likelier to set rates higher than one with less than five years’ experience in a rural area.

On average, a freelance lawyer’s salary in the United States is approximately $41.60 per hour, an equivalent of $1.662 per week or $7.211 per month. The annual earning is $86.535.

Build your freelance legal career with Workee

As the world gets digitalized, people (freelancers inclusive) are looking for easier means of conducting their daily business activities. This is where Workee comes in. You can include Workee's client management system in your company. It provides you with a platform to communicate with your clients and oversee the services you offer them.

Workee can be used as a back office and company website for lawyers. The platform can be used by practicing attorneys to manage their services in various practice areas, whether as a freelance tax lawyer, freelance family lawyer, freelance patent lawyer, and more.

The following are ways workee can help you build and grow your career as a freelance attorney:

• With Workee, you can easily create and navigate a professional website without any coding knowledge. Setting up takes about five minutes. You don't need to be concerned about complexity because the platform features a straightforward but lovely user interface that puts the user's needs first.

• Workee allows you to work with your clients remotely through video calls. This system helps you keep track of your client's progress. All your video calls are safe and secure through this system.

• Workee provides booking and scheduling functions that make it easy for your clients to schedule meetings and book your services. You also have reminders to help you not miss any meetings.

• The Workee platform also comes with an invoicing and payment solution. With this, you can receive payments from your clients, track all payments, and issue invoices in an automated manner.

Scale your freelance career with Workee!

Conclusion

As noted earlier, the prevalence of freelance lawyering results from the freedom and flexibility the niche gives practitioners. And with the global attention now turned to digitalization, more freelance attorneys will emerge.

To succeed as a freelance attorney, you should get acquainted with the above tips, apart from direct mentorship from law firms.

Workee makes it easy for you to succeed in this regard by providing a platform where you can freely interact and do business with your clients seamlessly.