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Whether you want to travel around the world, write your novel, start your own business, go into semi-retirement or simply spend more time with your friends and family, we enable you and our clients to make the best use of your experience. You work hard on a dedicated assignment, then you do your own thing.
Why contract work? There are a number of different reasons why you might like to work on a contract basis. As a lawyer, you are a highly skilled individual with sought-after skills. However, the current conservative working patterns of many law firms and companies mean that it is often very hard to capitalise on those skills without making a disproportionate sacrifice when it comes to the rest of your life. Further, the increasing emphasis on specialisation also makes lawyers vulnerable to economic changes. The challenge of re-training and learning new practice areas can be managed more easily through projects which familiarise you with new skills. As well as working as a lawyer, you may want to travel around the world, to write your novel, to start your own business, or simply to spend more time with family and friends. Working on a contract basis can help you achieve this by giving you more balance in your life. Typically, our lawyers work hard on a particular assignment for one of our clients (who are blue-chip law firms and businesses), then go off and do their own thing - enjoying the free time and the money they have earned. We also have available challenging part time positions for those people to whom part time work appeals. It's a question of working more sensibly. As our employee, you have all the benefits of working for yourself (flexibility, variety, direct relationship between time worked and income) but without the troubles associated with tax, national insurance etc. Furthermore, you are able to tap into our extensive database of contacts and openings. There is, of course, no guarantee of work but the more flexible you can be, the more likely it is that we will be able to find contract work that suits your experience and abilities. On a practical level, you send us your CV and details of your legal and other relevant experience (eg languages etc.) to date. We carefully review this information (we were all practising City lawyers) and, if appropriate, arrange to see you for an interview so that we can a) discuss your experience in more detail and b) talk about what it is that you are looking for from contract working - both in the short and medium term (because these could well be different). Following a successful interview, we then enter your details onto our database. When suitable contract work becomes available, we contact you and discuss the position with you. Where you express an interest (you are never, of course, obliged to accept work) we send (only with your permission) your details to our client for their review. If interested, our client interviews you and determines your suitability for the particular assignment. Once the client agrees, you are assigned to work for that client for as long as necessary to complete the specific project. We work very hard to match their requirements with your goals and interests. We pay on a fortnightly basis, directly proportionate to the time worked (so if you do end up working a long hard week, you are properly remunerated for it). You are also entitled to up to 20 working days paid holiday per annum worked (although we do ask that you take your paid holidays at the end of, rather than during, an assignment with a client). On a contractual level, you are our employee for the duration of an assignment. Although you are under the client's direct control and supervision (we do not practise law) we are, in all other respects, your employer - paying you, deducting your PAYE and NICs, arranging holidays, dealing with any grievances etc. CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Whilst it is your responsibility to maintain your CPD points, we assist you by sharing details of courses and seminars through which it is possible to attain CPD points in a helpful and constructive manner. Indeed, we have a relationship with an online CPD provider which entitles you to substantial discounts on web-based professional development packages. We cannot hold professional indemnity insurance (as we do not practise law). However, we expect that your actions and omissions during your time with any particular client will ordinarily be covered by the terms of their own professional indemnity insurance. To the extent that this is not the case, the client will alert us and we in turn will of course notify you. In such a case, you would need to arrange for your own professional indemnity cover although we can give you details of relevant insurance providers and brokers. Obviously this can be a major factor for our clients and we therefore require our lawyers to inform us immediately they become aware of any actual or potential conflict of interest, both before and during assignments. This responsibility to inform us is in addition to any other duties you may owe as a practising member of the Law Society, Bar Association or other similar body. After having discussed any conflict or potential conflict with our client, it is at our or our client's discretion to suspend or terminate the terms of your particular assignment with that client. This will not, of course, prohibit you from working with another client (provided that no similar conflict is likely to arise). With regard to confidentiality, we require that you keep confidential all information to which you have access in each placement that we make for you. Again, this is in addition to any ethical duties that, as a practising lawyer, you may already have. We very much hope to work with you. If you have any questions or would like a confidential consultation, please contact Alice Gotto. Our office phone number, address and directions can be found on our offices page. If you have over seven years of impressive in-house and/or private practice experience and would like to find out more about working as an "interim senior counsel" please go to Interim Senior Counsel on Demand.
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