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The shift isn’t just a trend—it’s a realignment of values in the legal industry, driven by the need for flexibility, autonomy, and meaningful work-life balance.

Whether driven by economic uncertainty, the desire for career autonomy, or a shift in values around work-life balance, more attorneys are embracing side projects—and turning them into substantial income streams.

From solo practitioners to former big law associates, more legal professionals are pivoting to freelance roles—not just out of necessity, but because the model is finally delivering the control and opportunity many have long sought.

the question is how to expand without overcommitting—or worse, burning out. The answer lies in choosing smarter, not harder, ways to evolve your legal practice and exploring nontraditional paths that align with your strengths.

Driven by changes in client expectations, technology, and the way law firms manage overhead, more lawyers are turning to freelance and contract work to gain control over their careers without sacrificing income or influence.

The landscape has shifted. From economic uncertainty to new technology, the pressures on attorneys today are pushing more professionals to explore multiple streams of legal income—not just to increase earnings, but to build career resilience.

more attorneys are embracing flexible legal careers, but to thrive in this space, maintaining work-life boundaries is not optional—it’s essential.

Law firms are increasingly turning to freelance attorneys to fill gaps, support case overflow, and bring specialized expertise to the table.

As firms embrace flexible staffing models, the demand for experienced contract lawyers continues to grow.

In 2025, more attorneys than ever before are stepping away from the traditional firm model and choosing the flexibility and autonomy of freelance legal work.

Law firms, especially mid-size practices, are under pressure to scale up expertise and capacity while keeping overhead low.

Legal consumers—particularly businesses and in-house counsel—are demanding more than sound legal advice.

The legal landscape is shifting fast, and mid-size law firms are feeling the pressure.

With shifting client demands, volatile caseloads, and a rapidly changing workforce, many law firms are moving away from the traditional hiring model.

As law firms become more conscious of resource allocation and client expectations, the consequences of a bad hire have never been more significant.

With rapid changes in client expectations, increasing pressure to reduce costs, and the continued rise of remote work, legal freelancing has become a core part of how modern firms operate.

With tighter budgets, shifting client expectations, and increasing demand for niche expertise, the decision between hiring full-time associates and working with contract attorneys has become more strategic than ever.

law firms of all sizes are reevaluating how they structure their teams

As law firms compete to attract clients and keep pace with caseloads, freelance attorneys are playing a bigger role than ever.

The legal industry is shifting quickly, and firms that once relied solely on traditional hiring models are now turning to flexible staffing to stay agile and profitable. In 2025, flexible legal staffing isn’t just a trend—it’s a strategic necessity. Firms that embrace on-demand legal talent can scale faster, control overhead, and respond to unpredictable case volume with confidence.

Discover work-at-home opportunities for legal professionals. Learn how to build a successful remote legal career while maintaining flexibility.

Discover how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the legal profession. Learn about AI's impact on legal research, contract management, compliance, and case strategy.

Learn the top skills for freelance lawyers, transitioning from a law firm, high-paying legal practice areas, and building a strong personal brand.

Explore side gigs for attorneys to earn extra income while expanding your skills. Discover flexible opportunities tailored for legal professionals.

Discover remote jobs for lawyers that offer flexibility and freedom. Learn how to find and excel in top remote legal opportunities.

Discover the average personal injury lawyer salary in 2025, factors affecting earnings, and how attorneys can maximize their income in this competitive field.

Explore online jobs for lawyers that offer flexibility and remote work opportunities. Discover how to leverage your legal skills in a virtual environment.

Discover the average immigration attorney salary in 2025, factors affecting earnings, and how lawyers can increase their income in this growing legal field.

Learn practical strategies to avoid burnout as a freelancer or attorney. Discover tips on work-life balance, stress management, and productivity optimization.

Discover the average immigration lawyer salary in 2025, including factors that impact earnings, job demand, and career growth opportunities.

Learn how much family lawyers make in 2025, including salary trends, key factors affecting earnings, and how attorneys can maximize their income.

Discover the best strategies and platforms for freelance lawyers to find clients, market themselves, and secure remote legal work.

Learn how to become a freelance legal clerk, the skills needed, where to find jobs, and how to grow your remote legal career in 2025.

Discover the average family lawyer salary in 2025, including factors that impact earnings, career growth opportunities, and regional salary variations.

Learn how much estate planning attorneys make in 2025, including salary trends, factors affecting earnings, and career growth opportunities.

Learn whether freelance lawyers need an LLC, how to set rates, handle malpractice insurance, create contracts, manage taxes, and set up a website.

Discover the best paying jobs for lawyers, including specialized roles and high-demand fields. Maximize your earning potential in the legal profession.

Discover the best freelance attorney websites for remote legal work. Learn where lawyers can find contract jobs, grow their careers, and connect with hiring law firms.

Learn how to become a freelance paralegal and enjoy flexible legal work opportunities. Explore steps, skills, and tips for success in the field.

Learn about Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO), its benefits, and how EsquireX can streamline your law firm's operations by connecting you with qualified attorneys for project-based work.

Learn how to streamline your firm's legal hiring process using EsquireX's platform to post projects, review proposals, and select the best attorneys efficiently, saving time and resources.

Discover how flexible and remote work models are reshaping the legal industry in 2025. Learn how law firms and attorneys are adapting to new workforce expectations.

Discover how AI is transforming legal operations in 2025, enhancing efficiency, compliance, and case management for law firms and legal departments.

Immigration caseloads are surging in 2025, challenging law firms nationwide. Discover how EsquireX helps legal teams manage increased demand efficiently.

Learn how law firms can prepare for leadership transitions with an effective succession plan. Discover key strategies to ensure stability and business continuity.

Discover why law firms are increasingly seeking specialized legal talent in 2025 and how flexible legal staffing meets evolving client needs.

Discover how law firms are adapting to legal talent shortages in 2025 with innovative staffing strategies, including flexible legal staffing and contract attorneys.

Learn how to streamline your firm's legal hiring process using EsquireX's platform to post projects, review proposals, and select the best attorneys efficiently, saving time and resources.

Learn how to hire the right paralegal for your law firm, including key skills to look for, hiring strategies, and the benefits of freelance vs. full-time paralegals.

Discover how Legal Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) enables law firms to delegate administrative and legal tasks to external providers, allowing a focus on core services and improved operational efficiency.

Discover how law firms are expanding into emerging markets in 2025, leveraging flexible legal staffing and freelance attorneys to meet evolving client demands.

Learn about estate planning law, including wills, trusts, probate, and how attorneys help clients protect their assets for future generations.

Discover how EsquireX's legal outsourcing services can help your firm reduce overhead costs and boost productivity by providing flexible, project-based attorney staffing solutions.

Artificial intelligence adoption in legal departments nearly doubled in 2024. Learn how AI is transforming legal workflows, efficiency, and compliance.

Dover DE – 12/13/2022 - Online Legal Staffing company EsquireX announced today that it has acquired Lawyer Exchange to combine two of the leading online legal staffing names in the industry.

As a freelance attorney, you’re working for other attorneys (doing work they’re too busy to do or don’t want to do for some reason). How are you going to get clients? You guessed it! You have to meet other attorneys who might need your services. Yep, it’s the dreaded networking game.

As a follow up to our last blog, 5 Reasons Why Small Law Firms Should Use Freelance and Contract Lawyers, exploring the benefits of hiring contract associates on a project-basis to improve your legal production efficiency, freelance services company Kwork offers a very similar view as tool to advantage small companies looking to grow. Note that Kwork offers freelance services in most business services and not including lawyers who can perform legal services, but their message is applicable to lawyers and law firms as it relates to production efficiency generally and is easily applicable to lawyers and law firms hiring associates on a contract, or project basis.

As law firms, like all other business, have been forced by the pandemic to find ways to continue providing their services with their teams remotely, the leap to hiring remote contract or freelance lawyers has become much smaller as we all seen how easy it is to communicate and collaborate with today’s technology. The legal profession now only rarely accepts the rigidly adhered to inflexible, traditional hiring model where an associate lawyer is either hired as a full-time employee or is not hired at all. Flexible, part-time, and project-based employment engagements continues to be seen as a practical and efficient solution for law firms needing temporary assistance to meet business growth, spikes and peaks.

Whether you failed the bar exam or want to pass the first time around, now is a good time to take a step back and assess your study plan. One of the most common misconceptions is that you should do more of what you did before to succeed. Instead of adding more hours to your already long study schedule, take the time to identify what you did (or could be doing) wrong and how to course-correct.

Almost 30,000 deaths occur per year due to car crashes in America, while more than 2 million get injured. To compensate for the caused by these accidents, victims involved can file claims for personal injury. The most common type of personal injury claim is for the physical injuries sustained by the victim. However, victims can also claim for psychological injury after a car accident. Accidents can also cause mental distress and damages that can be quite serious. These damages include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and depression, to name a few. Victims can file a claim to compensate for the suffering.

You will be surprised to know that the most effective marketing campaigns in history were initiated and completed with very little funds. Guerilla marketing is all about marketing on little to no budget. What you lack in finances, you make up for it with ingenuity.

The legal profession is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the technology models that define the gig economy. Not only does it create a large amount of new jobs for lawyers, but it will also allow lawyers and their firms to grow their practices much more quickly and efficiently, and without the risk and costs of hiring full-time associates.

There is a growing awareness and discussion around the additional challenges facing lawyers practicing in rural counties across the U.S. Due to the decrease of new lawyers moving to rural counties, existing lawyers who have established their practices in these counties have difficulty finding the help they need to manage and grow their practices. This lack of support has led to rural lawyers’ common struggles with feeling overworked and has contributed to the growing access to justice issue.

The process of finding and building a quality discovery team the traditional way is costly, time consuming and risky. With the EsquireX platform, this team building process can now be performed at a small fraction of the cost, with higher levels of quality, and the team can be built within days, not weeks or even months. Learn more about how EsquireX can help your litigation support staff.

It is estimated that 10,000 people are reaching the age of 65 each day in the U.S. and will continue to do so for some years to come. How is this impacting the legal profession? Baby boomer lawyers are living longer and therefore having to create a longer-term retirement strategy which usually includes working further into their senior years. This presents new challenges to attorneys considering retirement, exit strategies, or ways to monetize their solo or small law practice.

The legal project work marketplace’s 2,000 members now span all 50 states and US territories.

If you plan on attending law school, you’ve likely looked up the top 2019 US law schools and scanned the rankings. ✓ Explore our selection of the best!

So, you’re gearing up to study for the bar exam. There’s a chance you’ll take a look at all the information you’re expected to remember and not know where to begin. Here are some bar preparation strategies and skills to keep in mind as you start studying.

Our friend Maddy Martin from Smith.ai joins us a guest blogger to illustrate 5 ways virtual receptionists can have a drastic impact on your law practice and how it can help boost productivity, professionalism, and profitability.

Attorneys entering the document review field should consider what kind of job training and expertise is needed to navigate document review technology. ✓

The American Bar Association recently launched ABA Blueprint 2.0, an intelligent online system utilizing machine learning technology to lead solo and small firm lawyers through a law practice management audit. Lawyer Exchange has been selected as the sole provider for project-based lawyers for this new program.

Law school is a major financial investment. Before you start earning an attorney’s salary, you might want to make some money while you’re still in school. Here’s a how-to guide on making money every step of the way.

Trying to figure out how to get through law school? ✓ We have the advice you need to survive, thrive, and succeed during these most difficult of times.

Looking for associate level help for your law practice but not sure if a legal temp firm is right for you? While many practices have used temp firms in the past for staffing, the market is quickly changing for the better when it comes to finding quick, reliable help for your law practice at an affordable price. Check out this article to see if utilizing a temp firm is right for you, or if new technology that's now available is a better alternative for your practice.

Whether you’re sick of your current firm job or just coming out of law school, there may be an alternative legal career for you. ✓ Explore your options!

You’ve graduated law school and taken the bar. The worst is over, and now it’s time to start your legal career. Wondering how to get a legal job? This article discusses how to find a job as a lawyer.

An attorney fee agreement contract sets out the fees to be paid and how they will be paid. ✓ Learn the essential legal guidelines with Lawyer Exchange.

These days, there’s a lawyer for almost any industry and area you can think of. So, how do you choose what kind of law to practice? This article discusses the common types of lawyers and what to consider in deciding what kind of lawyer you want to be.

Lawyer Exchange teaches you how to be a good lawyer by following ethics rules and how to be a successful lawyer by monitoring your personal wellness. ✓

This post is the final post in a series of articles discussing ethics rules as they apply to lawyers in the United States who use the Lawyer Exchange website. For this last piece, we review Unauthorized Practice of Law or UPL as it relates to Project Lawyers

This post is the fourth post in a series of articles discussing ethics rules as they apply to lawyers in the United States who use the Lawyer Exchange website. Here we discuss competence and supervision of Project Lawyers you hire.

This post is the third in a series of articles discussing ethics rules as they apply to lawyers in the United States who use the Lawyer Exchange website. In this article we cover the topic of conflicts of interest for project based legal work.

This post is the second in a series of articles discussing ethics rules as they apply to lawyers in the United States who use the Lawyer Exchange website. In this article we cover the importance of fees and expenses.

As more lawyers turn to project-based hiring as an alternative to full-time hiring of associates some lawyers question whether Rules of Professional Conduct apply. With this question in mind, we offer a series of posts which examine the ethics rules adopted by the American Bar Association as well as those adopted by each state and territory, including the District of Columbia. This series examines ethics topics which may relate to working with project-based lawyers including (1) fees and expenses, (2) conflicts of interest, (3) competence and supervision, and (4) the unauthorized practice of law.

Project based legal work is a new concept for many lawyers and most are still unsure how exactly this new process can help their practice. Lawyer Exchange is one of the leaders in on-demand project-based legal work, and lawyers using Lawyer Exchange to find the help they need are finding a range of benefits. We want to outline the four most commonly discussed benefits among lawyers who use Lawyer Exchange – the same benefits we believe will give your law practice the greatest value.

With the changing legal market and the many law students graduating from law schools, how should a law firm choose a new associate when they need more support, or an open position becomes available? Do considerations like GPA, class rank, and law review credentials weigh less than they once did? Have other considerations like technological savvy and business development skills gained more influence? This article lists four ways lawyers in small and solo firms can learn about different professional and personal considerations when hiring new associates in the modern legal market.

Lawyer Exchange founder and CEO Bob Meltzer was recently interviewed by Jake Sanders and Paul Julius, the hosts of the LAWsome podcast . In this episode they discuss freelance lawyers, the gig economy, and find out why so many lawyers leave the profession. They also speak with Bob Meltzer about about the Lawyer Exchange legal work-sharing platform and how law firms can operate more efficiently in the future.

There are thousands of lawyers across the country currently seeking to gain the experience and mentorship necessary to fully utilize the legal skills they earned throughout years of painstaking practice. But if you cannot get hired in or are forced out of a law firm position, what can you do to gain experience and mentorship to achieve your professional goals? Project-based legal work may be the solution to this growing problem.

As client demands increase, legal project work is becoming a popular option for law firms when managing their workload. But why is legal project work gaining popularity and market traction now? Here are three reasons why firms are turning towards legal project work.

Whether you’re a newly-licensed lawyer seeking your first opportunity to get hired or a young lawyer who’s been practicing for a while, here are some ideas that might be beneficial in helping to make 2018 a stellar year for your law career.

As a lawyer at a small or solo practice, have you made any resolutions regarding your practice? Whether you are a solo practitioner or a lawyer at a small firm, here are some ideas that might be beneficial in helping to make 2018 a stellar career year.

With the continued rise of the gig economy, hiring project lawyers has become an increasingly popular trend over the years. Typically, with a growing trend, there’s an increase in opportunities along with it.

There’s no lack of transformations occurring within the legal profession. Two such transformations have been the shifts to legal outsourcing and document reviews via temp firms. This has continued to redefine previously long-established notions and norms about the provision of legal services and the lawyers providing those services. These transformations have now become established within the profession. But how does project work fit into this shifting paradigm for firms and lawyers? Let’s take a look.

In a difficult job market, it might seem like lawyers seeking project work will accept just about any type of work available. However, that’s an oversimplification of the matter. As firms hire on a project-basis, it can be easy to overlook what project lawyers are seeking in project work opportunities.

Efficiency – a word commonly used by law firms to describe their legal services. As firms compete for clients, those that provide the most efficient services certainly have an advantage. While most large law firms aren’t necessarily known for low-cost services, they are incredibly efficient in terms of how they manage and distribute work. The efficiency of large firms is mainly due to how many lawyers they have on staff. It has traditionally been much more difficult for solo and small firms to achieve a similar level of efficiency compared to large firms—keyword being “traditionally.”

The “gig economy” has been a hot topic in recent years thanks to its steady growth. In fact, freelance work—which fuels this growth—is adding $715 billion annually to the economy. And it’s no wonder the gig economy is on the rise, because it’s equally as beneficial for employers as it is for workers. It seems as though nearly every industry has figured out a way to tap into this new way of working, even the industries that don’t seem suited for it right off the bat—for example, the medical industry. Gone are the days where you have to hunt down your doctor just to ask a simple question. Thanks to technology and the gig economy, you can talk to a doctor any time, any day, while catching up on your favorite television show. So, this begs the question… If doctors have gone digital, why haven’t lawyers?

When people think of the gig economy, they often think of web developers, freelance writers, graphic designers, etc. But even medical professionals have entered the gig economy, with websites that allow people to connect with a doctor in real-time at any given moment. This doesn’t really mean much to lawyers, though. That’s because the legal industry is a bit behind the curve. Non-traditional work arrangements for lawyers are few and far between. And the non-traditional work options that lawyers do have don’t typically provide valuable opportunities to help them develop their careers. Beyond that, there are even fewer opportunities that provide scalability for those lawyers seeking flexible work arrangements. That’s where project work comes into play. Project work is unique from other types of non-traditional work arrangements for lawyers. It can be much more than just ordinary, temporary work.

Hiring can be inherently risky, especially in a highly-competitive legal market, as there’s really no slack for making a bad hire. As established law practices seek to hire lawyers, project-based legal work is a stellar way to dramatically reduce the risks inherent in both hiring and employment. We explore five ways that established law practices benefit from incorporating project-based legal work as part of their hiring and employment practices.

While the legal profession remains in a state of change in today’s market, the ways that entry-level lawyers are hired has not really changed – until now! Traditionally, on the candidate side of the hiring process, law students primarily rely on working as either a summer associate or law clerk in hopes of being hired later as an associate, while entry-level lawyers seeking employment search job boards. On the employer side of entry-level lawyer hiring, some firms hire summer associates or law clerks in hopes of them becoming associates, some firms wait until post-law school to hire, and some firms don’t hire entry-level associates at all. The approaches to entry-level lawyer hiring vary and some reasons exist for the variation (i.e. firm size, practice areas, etc.). However, a new approach for hiring entry-level lawyers is needed – one that would benefit many firms and the lawyers they hire.

There is much criticism of the “business” side of the legal services market both inside and outside the profession. From a client’s perspective, there are high costs, slow service, and a lack of access. From the lawyer’s perspective, there is formidable and increasing competition, lack of employment opportunities, and low margins. One of the key hinge issues in what causes this “tightening” within the profession is the current distribution model, which makes it more and more difficult to find employment, acquire new clients, and increase profits. The way that legal work is generally distributed in the current market can be analyzed and addressed on both a macro and micro level. Macro relates to the overall body of legal work and how it is distributed among sectors of the profession (e.g. large law firms, small law firms, legal clinics) and micro relates to how legal assignments are distributed within a given legal practice.