Why human expertise matters in placing flexible legal talent

As corporate legal departments face the challenge of meeting fluctuating demands without overextending resources, there’s never been a greater need for flexible legal talent. In-house legal teams are constantly managing workflow challenges caused by attrition, routine leaves of absence, and hiring freezes, or compensating for upticks in workflow due to regulatory changes or non-routine business transactions.

Legal supplier management technology and the expansion of managed service providers have evolved to support this demand, and corporate legal departments are now navigating their use as part of the flexible legal talent selection process. These tools are helpful from a process and information-tracking standpoint, but they don’t deliver the benefits of human interaction and having an experienced advisor managing the process.

Rather than relying on an email with a basic job requisition, it’s imperative to dedicate time to meaningful communication at the start of the hiring process. A 30-minute intake conversation is instrumental in aligning expectations, assessing needs, and laying the groundwork for a successful hire.

This investment of time delivers several key benefits: 

• A tailored understanding of role requirements: Effective intake conversations go beyond generic role descriptions. They help hiring managers articulate the skills, experience, and personal attributes needed for the position. 

• Enhanced client service: Organisations and service providers develop true partnerships by engaging in these conversations. Service providers develop a keen understanding of each client and hiring manager and can better find the best candidates for them. 

• Aligned candidate expectations: Flexible legal talent is required to hit the ground running and make an impact with minimal onboarding. The more accurately service providers can describe the hard and soft skills needed for a role and the overall client culture, the more likely it is that the candidate will have clear expectations for the role and be successful in it.   

Skipping this interaction, or relying too heavily on automated systems, can lead to misaligned hires, which can have larger implications, such as business delays, wasted resources, and overall disruption to the team. 

Successful engagement in an increasingly virtual world 

With the increase in remote and hybrid work, identifying and onboarding flexible legal talent has changed significantly. Human connection remains vital in this new landscape. Key considerations include:

• Assessing cultural fit in a virtual-first world: Many interactions today happen over email or video calls, requiring a different approach to evaluating a candidate’s intangible qualities. Cultural fit is pivotal in terms of flexible legal talent success and can be difficult to assess in an entirely virtual environment. At a minimum, service providers should conduct two rounds of interviews with cameras on, and they should strongly recommend that hiring managers do the same for any candidate they select to interview.  
• Onboarding in remote settings: When onboarding flexible talent remotely, it can be challenging to integrate these individuals quickly and effectively. Consistent communication between service providers and hiring managers around onboarding processes, training expectations, and timelines is essential.
• Managing integration with a geographically dispersed team: Once flexible legal talent is selected and onboarded, there is a critical four- to six-week window during which the hiring manager and service provider must continue communicating regularly with that talent and each other. Weekly check-ins to get feedback on the work product, turnaround time, and integration set the engagement up for long-term success. 

Getting the return on effort

Organisations that successfully secure and integrate flexible legal talent recognise the value of investing time and effort. This includes:

• Taking stock of needs: By engaging in strategic conversations upfront, hiring managers can identify gaps, define priorities, and ensure alignment across the team. 

• Focusing on human interaction: From intake conversations to onboarding, meaningful human connections lead to a deeper understanding of what’s required, stronger hires, and better long-term outcomes.

• Leveraging technology strategically: Technology can enhance efficiency but must be applied to the right parts of the process and be balanced with human judgment to drive success. 

Whether it’s technological advances, regulatory changes, or the ongoing shifts in business priorities, flexible legal talent solutions can help corporate legal teams keep pace with the business’s needs. However, they will only effectively address these challenges when approached thoughtfully and strategically. In the evolving world of legal talent acquisition, there’s no substitute for the value of combining technology with human expertise.