Legal Research and Writing: Freelance Attorneys & Ethics, 1 of 6

Legal Research and Writing: Freelance Attorneys & Ethics

, 1 of 6

Whether you provide legal research and writing services as a freelance attorney, or purchase those services by hiring a freelance attorney, you must consider certain ethical pitfalls and how to avoid them. This article is the first in a six-part series dealing with the ethical issues that freelancing presents.

The outsourcing of legal services is a growing trend in the US. More and more law firms, including solos and small firms, are hiring independent contractor lawyers, so-called freelance attorneys, like me, to do legal research and writing, and other kinds of legal work, on a temporary, spot contract basis. In this series of videos Im going to cover where the American Bar Association stands on this practice.

In August of 2008, the ABAs Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued opinion 08-451. This opinion is entitled Lawyers Obligations When Outsourcing Legal and Nonlegal Support Services. The opinion is intended as a guide both for lawyers and law firms who want to hire outside legal services, as well as for freelance attorneys, like me, who provide the services.

It deals with five important issues:

First, It recognizes outsourcing as an appropriate practice and discusses why it makes sense.

Second, It answers the ethical question: How do you outsource and do it ethically?

Third, It provides some help with the tricky question whether clients must be told that some of their work is being outsourced.

Fourth, It answers the question whether the hiring firm may make a profit on outsourced work.

Fifth, It addresses what the hiring firm and the freelancer must do to steer clear of the unauthorized practice of law.

The next five articles in this series deal with each of these issues separately.

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