Working freelance: changing landscapes?

• A report from Vario and Crafty Counsel exploring freelance legal consultants’ motivators and different ways of working revealed lawyers are generally less focused on titles and more concerned about value and their legacy.
• Autonomy and impact are chief drivers for these lawyers—many want the autonomy to work on projects which excite and inspire them.

This year we celebrated our 10th anniversary—an occasion which gave us an opportunity to reflect on a number of market-wide issues. For instance, are alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) really that ‘alternative’ anymore? And after a huge amount of change and evolution over the past decade, what is next for this market? What has been clear is that lawyers are hungry to work in different ways, and the path to partnership is no longer the be-all and end-all for legal careers. Over the past decade we’ve seen freelance legal consulting grow and grow, with this