The demand for legal expertise has continued to grow over recent years, leaving many businesses and organisations turning to legal consultants for assistance. Legal consultants can provide expert support to a law firm or an in-house legal team and are on hand to offer solutions and transform legal teams.
More legal professionals are being drawn to a flexible schedule and a better work-life balance, making consulting the perfect choice. Whilst it is a challenging career, it is also a rewarding one that offers a lot of variety.
Who uses legal consultants?
Legal consultants aren’t just hired by companies seeking legal advice and support for their in-house legal teams. They are also in high demand from law firms themselves, particularly law firms who need highly skilled legal professionals for specific projects.
Many of these projects will be focused on high-demand areas of expertise, such as healthcare, compliance, data privacy and security, although there are many more. By hiring a legal consultant these firms can obtain advice and support without having to hire a full-time member of staff, therefore saving money but still getting the knowledge needed.
Larger businesses will usually employ in-house counsel, but these in-house teams may come to need support during workload periods or for projects where they lack the knowledge internally. These companies will often seek experts with business and legal know-how to help with strategic planning, research and analysis, and employee training.
Many small and medium-sized businesses don’t have the budget to maintain an in-house legal team. In some cases, they may employ a law firm that assists them with certain matters, but legal consultants can often be more effective for specialized areas within the business like double-checking documents or even a background check on potential clients before proceeding with the agreement. Small steps such as these might safeguard you and your business from mighty consequences as expert lawyers often tend to provide Independent Legal Advice to ensure that you are not going to end up in legal jeopardy.
Thus, it is always advisable to get the help of legal consultants to make sure of any legalities before proceeding with an agreement, for example.
What does a legal consultant do?
Consultants are often fortunate enough to be able to decide what type of work they take on and what specific tasks they do.
However, some of the most common include:
- Advising clients on legal matters of all types
- Developing strategies for businesses and their employees to follow to minimise legal risk
- Identifying opportunities or scenarios where legal action should be pursued
- Drafting and/or verifying legal documents
Ultimately, a legal consultant is on hand to advise on legal matters and to offer expert advice or solutions to issues that may arise within a business. Whilst they will not handle any legal proceedings or partake in the bulk of the work, they do offer a huge benefit to a whole range of industries.