Scott Becker is one of the two founders of Compliance Inc., a leading US legal staffing company based in Arlington, Virginia. He is a Washington, DC area native and a graduate of West Virginia University. He began his professional career as a civil engineer with the Navy, and then earned his JD from The Catholic University of America´s Columbus School of Law. There he was a member of the Catholic University Law Review and a successful Catholic University Moot Court Association advocate. Following law school he practiced antitrust law as an associate with the Georgetown law firm Collier, Shannon, Rill & Scott (now part of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP). Scott left Collier Shannon in 1997 to co-found Compliance Inc. with fellow associate Jeff Palk. Scott has vast legal project staffing and document production management experience

Q. What has been the biggest change in legal staffing in US the past decade?

A. When we founded Compliance Inc. in 1997, it was because we saw a growing need for the supply of high-quality temporary legal staff. Since then, law firms, along with their clients, have fully embraced the use of temporary attorneys as an integral part of the workforce, as a strategic alternative versus a stop-gap measure, which is how temporaries used to be regarded.

Now, the value in a contingency workforce is widely recognised for both what it offers the client as well as the candidate. So really the biggest change over the past ten years has been the growth of the industry and the emergence of legal staffing as a vital partner in the legal landscape.

Q. Legal staffing has grown at an annual rate of 25 to 30 percent and is doing business totalling more than USD $3 billion. What factors contribute most to this growth?

 A. I think that the proliferation of data, and the resulting availability of it, through advances in technology has been a tremendous factor in the growth of the industry. More documents are being generated and, subsequently, an increase in resources is needed to meet the demands ofthe document review process. Whereas previously review work was done mostly by in-house staff, it has become more efficient and cost effective to use contingent staffers for these projects.

Additionally, the downsizing trend which gained foothold in the mid- 1990’s means that major corporations and medium-to-large organisations have pared back on permanent staff to reduce overhead and have therefore increased the routine use of temporary staff to tailor their capacity to the current scope and demands of their work.

Q. How is legal staffing in the US different (or similiar) to legal staffing markets internationally?  

A. The use of temporaries for large scale document reviews is more prevalent in the US than in other markets right now, largely due to the amount of regulatory investigation and litgation in the US, which is so very document intensive. International markets seem to operate more heavily in the ‘search and selection’ sphere and are therefore more focused on sourcing legal professionals for eventual hire.

Q. Is it fair to say that law school graduates are increasingly opting for contingency assignments versus the traditional associate-to-partner track?

A. Well, as attitudes toward temporary staffing in the legal profession have changed on both sides of the value proposition, today’s graduates have options available to them that simply didn’t exist in the past. Law school graduates are no longer immediately signing on en masse as associates with an eye toward the traditional partner track. Salaries in contingency roles are competitive enough to lure young attorneys into assignments that afford them choice and flexibility, offer them experience and a work-life balance.

Q. What accounts for this change in attitude and has this change impacted the way in which traditional firms are recruiting?

A. For starters, Generation Y’s attitude toward work is markedly different from that of previous generations. This generation prioritises a happy, balanced life and consequently looks for work which allows them to achieve this. Contigency work offers opportunity to accept roles which fit into in their life verus trying to fit their life around a job.

But the traditional recruitment path still exists, there is just a smaller group of partner track associates and a larger cadre of junior associates. Corporate culture has shifted toward the ‘lean and mean’ organisation. This means that larger law firms and their clients have become more resistant to utilising their associates for work that can be fielded on a contingent basis. Use of temporaries can in some instances free up the associates for higher level work, and the result is both cost effective and morale-boosting.

Q. In addition to those just embarking on a legal career, who reap the advantages and the experience to be derived from contingency assignments and who enjoy the work-life balance a contract-based career offers, how does the industry attract other segments of the workforce population?

A. We are living longer and we are working longer across all areas of business; the legal sector is no exception. Contingency assignments are very attractive for older attorneys, who aren’t ready for full retirement but who want to enjoy more of life outside the office and want to able to pick and choose when, where and how they work. These workers bring a wealth of experience with them, and having them on board adds greater diversity and expertise to review teams.

Women are very important to the legal staffing industry, which actually owes its origins to women, as the first legal staffing agency was founded by a woman for women attorneys returning to the workplace. Indeed, for women returning to the workplace or looking to find more flexible ways of managing their legal careers, contingency work is an ideal route. And, as the percentage of women currently enrolled in law school in the United States exceeds the male demographic, women will continue to be a cornerstone of legal staffing and contingency assignments.

Q. What types of benefits are available for contingency workers? With the growing number of contingency workers in this sector, do you expect to see an extension of benefits in the future?

A. The professional staffing industry has responded to the increasing number of workers opting for a contingency career, and many agencies do have benefit packages available, wherein eligible employees can take advantage of the buying power of staffing agencies in terms of competitive pricing on healthcare and other insurances. Compliance Inc. offers the strongest package in the legal staffing sector, including 401(k) contributions and participation in an employee stock purchase plan.

In order to attract and retain top tier candidates going forward, benefit packages will need to remain competitive and offer candidates reliable coverage and added incentives such bonus schemes and retirement plans.

Q. We hear so much today in about skills shortages across recruitment sectors. How do current shortages impact legal staffing?

 A. I think we see the impact most in terms of compensation, which can be quite high for experienced attorneys who specialise in certain areas of law, including bankruptcy, intellectual property, corporate finance and governance, real estate, health care, telecommunications and environmental law. There is also a demand for attorneys with dual degrees, for example law/MBA, law/science or engineering and law/medicine. Candidates with these credentials are attractive to firms involved in high-level corporate legal work, intellectual property and medical malpractice respectively.

Q. What additional legal staffing services (aside from the workers themselves) offer the most value for clients?

A. Compliance Inc. has recently opened project staging centres in both Washington DC and New York City for legal document review and project management. These staging centres leverage management expertise with the state of the art facilities.

The added value of this combination of know-how and leading edge technology translates to enhanced capabilities for our clients. It also means that, especially in cities like New York and Washington where the cost per square foot can be astronomical, clients can save on investment in space and equipment that they wouldn’t necessarily maximise.

The centre in Washington, which opened in May 2007, is the largest in the US, and the first specifically designed for legal staffing projects. With the advanced systems and technology, millions of pages of electronic documents can be reviewed daily.

Q. In which area(s) of legal staffing do you predict the most future growth

A. Regulatory reviews will continue to drive legal staffing, particularly in the areas of antitrust and securities, and the large litigation will always be there. Given the current crisis in the American markets and
the proliferation of content on the internet, corporate governance, bankruptcy and intellectual property are areas where we should see some significant growth.

Scott Becker spoke to Jennifer Arcuni, communications executive with Vedior NV. 

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