Fractional Counsel

“Part-time” and “lawyer” were not always words that coexisted.?Concepts such as the “mommy-track” and “non-partner track” carried a stigma of wavering dedication and lack of intellectual rigor.?There was a sense that these attorneys needed special categories because they were not willing to sacrifice for their firm.?They were not willing to heed the old sexist phrase, “the law is a jealous mistress.”?As a result, they needed a watered-down version of the legal profession.

As newer lawyers began to focus on quality of life and the law firms became willing to embrace it, a shift began within the profession which manifested first as “casual Friday” then 4-day workweeks, and eventually remote work and the Zoom revolution, to more and more part-time opportunities.?The Covid pandemic sealed the deal for long-term transformation of law firm work life.

Old school lawyers may tell you that an attorney can officially work part-time, but the law is not part-time, and client needs cannot be compartmentalized into days of the week or hours of the day.?When a need arises, the lawyer must be there to address it.?To some extent this is true, but it is also nuanced.

What is continually required for all attorneys is responsiveness.?But the extent of the necessary response depends on many factors.?The most important aspect of law practice is email communication.?Even on weekends, I check email on my phone on a very frequent basis.?Some messages do not require a response.?Others can be handled with a simple “May I get back to you Monday on this?”?If a quick reply is in order, I will take advantage of the opportunity to clear it from my in-box.?Sometimes a short phone call can dispense with an issue.?But radio silence is not an option if a lawyer wants to keep her client relationships strong.

When clients cannot reach their attorney, the clients can become annoyed or anxious, which puts unnecessary strain on the relationship.?Quick responses are your key to client contentment and gaining their patience for more time-consuming deliverables.?While some lawyers are fond of instituting interruption-free portions of their day, I am not in favor of it.?I still cringe when I hear an assistant tell a caller that the lawyer is “unavailable”.?Saying that the attorney has “left the country” might go over better.

How does an attorney keep her work in the part-time box??What keeps the box from overflowing and becoming more like a full-time workload??The key is time and expectation management.?When the attorney accepts an assignment, the promised delivery date should correspond to part-time daily work on the project until completion.?If a project has unexpected complications, client expectations should be adjusted.?I find this to be a very straightforward process, as long as communication with the client happens “early and often” rather than just before the agreed deadline.

If an attorney works part-time, learning how to accurately predict delivery dates is nothing less than a survival skill.?The more compressed an attorney’s time becomes, the more efficient he must be in the manner of his work.?There are often choices at the outset of a project that impact the success of a timely delivery goal.?If a template is used, is the template straightforward and comprehensive but not unduly complicated??Is the template properly suited to the assignment, or will it require extensive customization??Will research be focused and outcome-driven, or will it be an unnecessary exploration of numerous avenues of limited relevance??Will the written product be well-planned and thought-out in advance??Or will it be penned on the fly, hoping it hangs together in the end??While some may feel that a short fuse requires rapid immersion in a subject and a hurried race to a conclusion, the opposite is true.?The less time the attorney has to generate the work product, the more important it is to plan and think in advance of setting pen to paper, or hands to keyboard.

A full-time attorney may have the luxury of comradery and social opportunities at work.?The part-time lawyer must be willing to give those up in order to free herself to engage in the non-work pursuits (or second job) that the part-time schedule allows.?Time is at a premium for the part-time lawyer and cannot be squandered, even for a few minutes at the water cooler.?It is not a choice that all lawyers would be willing to make.?But those who do are rewarded with a lifestyle that the “jealous mistress” would otherwise begrudge us.