Whether caused by the effects of health and public safety concerns, market volatilities, or other reasons, managing a labor shortage is often the most complex and difficult task facing a human resources department. The task can be even more complicated for law firms and in-house legal departments, since there are significant potential risks in pursuing the traditional strategy of retaining temporary employees from a staffing agency. These risks include:
- Reduction in current-staff productivity as temporary staffing must be “brought up to speed”
- Sub-level productivity from temporary staffing causing either wasted or unnecessary/excessive billing
- Client dissatisfaction with subpar performance, excessive billing, or other deficiencies
- Cybersecurity and client/document confidentiality risks
- Discordant integration endangering team culture
- Risks associated with malpractice and violations of ethical rules and requirements
- Dangers of quickly hitting upper constraints on what work product the temporary staffing can provide
- Lack of flexibility
- Lost opportunities to exploit innovations and technology
Consider third-party legal support as an alternative
A less risky – and more cost-effective – alternative is to retain the services of a third-party legal support team to alleviate a labor shortage. Integrating a flexible legal support team into everyday operations ensures that basic and essential requirements are met with respect to cost-efficient and on-time completion of assigned tasks, while also ensuring protection of confidentiality and client/document security. A few examples of large-scale tasks that can be effectively shifted to a legal support team include:
- Discovery document reviews, processing, coding, marking, and production
- Business transactional due diligence services including review, task-tracking, and document crafting services
- Similar services related to real estate transactions
- Services for other types of contracts including template-drafting, review, and related tasks
- Providing the legal research foundation for pleadings and briefs
For more information about how Baer Reed’s legal support solutions can support your business, contact us online or call us today at 1-888-433-1990.
Mr. Reyes graduated with honors from the Ateneo de Manila University, where he received the Procter and Gamble Student Excellence Award. He obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law. During law school, Mr. Reyes was part of the Philippine delegation to the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot held in Vienna, Austria. He was also a member of the Ateneo Society of International Law and the St. Thomas More Debate Society. He completed his internship at the Public Attorney’s Office. He wrote a thesis entitled: “To Kill A White Elephant: An Analysis of the Fiduciary Exception to the Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege”. Mr. Reyes is admitted to practice law in the Philippines and the State of New York.
Ms. Lardizabal-Manzano is a graduate of San Sebastian College-Recoletos, where she earned her B.A. in Political Science. In 2003, she received her law degree from Lyceum of the Philippines and was admitted to practice law in 2004.
Matthew Hersh earned a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University in 1990 and graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1999. He also holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Cap. Avi Levak (Res. IDF) graduated from from Israel’s prestigious Ben-Gurion University of the Negev with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics. He is also a Leadership and Communication coach trained in TuT coaching by Alon gal in Israel. Avi specializes in high-level, in-depth analysis of business and client needs, within systems and software strategy and architecture.
Ms. Tyler graduated cum laude from Georgetown University and received her law degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. During law school, she interned at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. She also worked on The Tax Lawyer journal and was a member of the award-winning Barristers’ Council Mock Trial Team. Ms. Tyler is admitted to practice law in the State of California and the District of Columbia.
Ms. Cruz-Anonuevo graduated cum laude and top nine in her batch from Miriam College with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in InternationalStudies. She obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Ateneo de Manila University School of Law in Rockwell. During law school, she interned in Rivera, Santos, Maranan & Associates. She was also part of Ateneo’s Labor Law Bar Operations. She wrote her thesis on, “Stealing Privacy: Limitations on Media’s Photographic Invasion.,” Ms. Cruz-Anonuevo is admitted to practice law in the Philippines.
Ms. Aquino-Batallones obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Development Studies (with Minors in Global Politics and Hispanic Studies) from the Ateneo de Manila University. In 2011, she received her Juris Doctor degree from Ateneo de Manila University School of Law. During law school, she interned at Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles then became an intern of Ateneo Legal Services Center’s Clinical Legal Education Program.
Mr. De Guzman graduated from San Beda College with a degree of Bachelor of Arts Major in Economics and received his law degree from San Beda College of Law. He is multilingual and is fluent in three languages: Chinese, Filipino, and English. He was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 2003.