Legal Temp Jobs Explained
Legal temp jobs are an important component of the legal industry, serving as a flexible staffing solution for law firms and corporations during peak periods of work, while also offering an entry point into the legal field for temp workers. These short-term positions include roles such as paralegals, legal secretaries, contract administrators, and various other support staff that are essential to the day-to-day operations of a law firm or legal department.
The role of legal temp jobs is particularly significant in today’s business environment, as they provide firms with the ability to respond rapidly to changing workloads, including covering for vacations, leaves of absence, and catering to urgent client demands. This also can be a mechanism for assessing long-term staffing needs . In addition, temp legal jobs allow law firms and corporations to better manage costs by only bringing in additional personnel when necessary, rather than committing to a full-time hire.
It’s worth noting that legal temp jobs are distinct from permanent professional roles within law firms and corporations. While temporary positions are intended to address short-term needs, permanent legal professionals are not only expected to have the requisite skills and knowledge but also are tasked with supporting the firm over the long term. Contracting with a staffing agency specializing in legal work can help employers find the perfect legal professionals to meet their needs.
Overall, legal temp jobs play a critical role in ensuring the smooth operation of a firm or company, providing the necessary support staff to help them focus on their core business objectives.
Pros of Legal Temp Jobs
Despite the temporary nature of the positions, there is a variety of benefits for lawyers in taking on legal temp jobs. It’s a way to gain experience, upgrade skills, and build your professional network.
When you transfer to a temp job in a new area or want to enter a specific niche of the law, it’s an opportunity to earn money and gain exposure while padding your resume. If you find a job with a specific software program that you aren’t particularly familiar with, you can learn how to use it without being under a lot of pressure to perform both long and short-term tasks. Temporary positions in the legal field are a way to gain access to a network of lawyers, paralegals, and support staff who can refer you for other legal jobs or permanent positions. A legal temp job can also be a way to earn some money while you contemplate and apply for longer term positions that might be difficult to get on the first try. Your lawyer recruiter in particular can be of help during this process; they have a great deal of insight into the needs of law firms, corporations, and other employers and can give you tips on how to successfully secure subsequent positions.
Con of Temp Legal Jobs
The challenges of temp legal work can include higher risks of turnover and termination, lower job security, lack of benefits, and the perception that the work is less stable than traditional employment. Job security is a significant concern, especially as the legal environment becomes increasingly competitive. The maze of employment law regulations can make it difficult for employers to provide stability to their employees. This, in turn, makes it difficult for employees to plan for their future.
Lower job security leads to more people working in temp legal jobs. A lot of people think that temp legal jobs are a poor alternative to perm legal employment because they will have more difficulty obtaining a mortgage, loan or credit card. Working with a reputable staffing firm can help to ease this concern. In fact, more lenders are accepting "non-traditional employment" income as income for purposes of obtaining a mortgage. Legal temp workers with good credit have better luck presenting themselves as legal temp workers rather than perm employees, because some lenders consider temp legal workers to be more flexible. Legal temp workers are often paid more than their full-time colleagues, but they do not have the same security.
Securing Legal Temp Jobs
Just as with any other type of job market, finding temp legal jobs will require diligence and strategy, especially in light of the fact that the legal sector has been hard hit by recent economic waves. Potential legal temps should not only consider the big job boards we are all familiar with, but also specialized boards. Professional work networks, like LinkedIn, offer good connections within any industry, but you can also start from the on and off-line job boards dedicated exclusively to providing leads and making connections specifically in the legal temping world. Sites like these will allow you to sort postings by type of work needed (i.e., paralegal, attorney, legal word processing, etc.), which may help you filter through temp work that does not apply to your skill set. There are also sites dedicated to finding temp work that helps people during their job search, like tempagent.com. These types of boards allow you to create your own profile and resume to be made available to temping agencies. When a local agency comes through looking for your specific skills and interests, they can select you from the pool and contact you directly about an active temp position. Temping agencies themselves are also a valuable resource, particularly for those who are qualified in niche areas of the legal field, such as corporate law or family law. While not every agency tends to have listings in all categories, some national companies offer national coverage, while others focus regionally, state by state. Always check its website to see if the agency has an email alert function that will notify you when a new temp position goes live in your area. You can also contact the agency directly to inquire about its services and available temp work.
Essential Skills for Success
To thrive in legal temp jobs, a diverse skill set is essential. Adaptability is at the forefront — as lawyers move from firm to firm and assignment to assignment, temp workers must be flexible and ready to tackle new challenges head-on. Additionally, advanced proficiency in pertinent software and technology, such as e-discovery platforms and document management systems, is often a prerequisite for obtaining the most desirable opportunities.
While not always necessary, a strong legal background certainly is an asset for many assignments. For example, lawyers with bankruptcy , personal injury, and toxic tort experience are frequently sought after. Many successful legal temp workers credit their education and licensure in their desired field of expertise with making them far more qualified than non-attorneys vying for temp assignments across from them.
Finally, interpersonal skills are at the core of all good staffing relationships, including those in the temp space. From office staff to clients at all levels of an organization, the ability to communicate and interact respectfully and intelligently is an absolute must in the legal temp business.
Trends in the Legal Temp Job Market
As with any other industry, the legal temp job market has its ebbs and flows. Law firms are almost always in need of temporary attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries. Yet it is a common occurrence for demand to fluctuate between staffing agencies as attorneys’ business falls off for a certain period. Salaries for temporary attorneys vary between $40 to $250 per hour, depending on practice specialty and location.
Although sign-on bonuses have been commonplace for lateral hires and associates for the past several years, sign-on bonuses are slowly being extended to temps as well. These bonuses range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the level of the position. Annual bonuses for temporary employees remains a significant factor in the recruitment of permanent lateral hires and associates; however it has not yet become a significant factor for temps.
Practices that have seen a significant increase in demand for temporary attorneys, paralegals, and legal search consultants include patent law, real estate/corporate transactions, subprime mortgages, and bankruptcy/foreclosure. Demand for temporary attorneys in the areas of immigration, litigation, intellectual property, labor/employment, personal injury, and tax has remained fairly consistent over the past several years. While bankruptcy and construction law have seen some declines in demand, there is an overall consensus within the industry that demand will pick up again for these practices.
The subprime mortgage crisis has created a need for legal secretaries and paralegals to help with document review of mortgage-related lawsuits. Another practice area that is seeing a high demand for temporary attorneys is patent law. Because of the demand in this area, many staffing agencies have focused in on recruiting attorneys with backgrounds in chemistry, biology, or chemical engineering who can perform legal work relating to patent applications.
From Temp to Permanent
Temporary legal positions aren’t one-way street and many law firms and corporations view these jobs as an opportunity to find talent that has been overlooked. It’s a cost-effective means for companies to take the time to know a person and provide a realistic job preview before committing to a permanent position (which we all know is so perfect on paper and sometimes not so much in reality). If you are selected for a temp assignment, we cannot stress enough that you put your all into this temporary position. We have had numerous instances where our temps have been so successful that they were hired on permanently – some even getting salary increases on a temporary raise supervision.
These assignments can also be a great way to try out a company before you buy it . Many clients want their legal temp to work for 6 months before they are hired directly so everyone knows that it’s the right fit. If you do leave, or are released by the client after the temporary assignment, simply remember to keep track of your accomplishments and relationships with others at the firm because it will benefit you in the long run. We have seen many times that our temps move to permanent positions at other firms, both large and small. A legal temp job is not the end of "the line" and many end up on permanent roles at other firms or companies. We have even heard from temps who have gone to work in other cities after being employed by a New York law firm and have found out that firms in the new location still remembered them from their New York temp assignments!
+ There are no comments
Add yours