Choosing Wisely: Legal Consultants vs External Counsel - A Practical Cost-Benefit Analysis

Emmanuel Janssens, Resourcer, explores the benefits of utilising interim legal talent to manage budget.

2023 has been an interesting year for interim legal hiring. Given the wider macroeconomic context, it is no secret that the appetite for hiring has been quiet, having been impacted by headcount freezes and budget constraints.

Despite this lack of hiring, legal teams report that they are very busy, over stretched and are having to continue to expend significant budget on engaging external counsel. In this economic climate, with a strong emphasis on implementing cost saving measures, this has led many of our clients to further explore the deployment of interim legal resources to help reduce the expenditure on external counsel and integrate special skillsets in house. Many find it difficult to extract significant value from a law firm charging upwards of £1000 an hour, compared to the hiring of a senior interim legal resource who can cost less for an entire day’s work.  

We are also hearing, from a range of our clients, frustration with the use of junior secondees. Often provided for free, legal teams have found that they have had to hand hold too much. This has served to further stretch teams, which gives another strong case to procure experienced interim resource.

As we look to 2024, we therefore expect to see a ramp up in the demand to in source experienced legal consultants. Our practice is well positioned to offer this to our clients, with access to a variety of excellent senior interim lawyers. If you would be interested in a conversation about the cost benefit analysis of external counsel versus an in house interim legal consultant, please do get in touch.