Vosper: In-house teams overloaded with straightforward work
Flexible resourcing pioneer Obelisk Support has launched a new paralegal service for law firms and in-house teams, with 50 full-time paralegals and junior lawyers already joining its talent pool amid plans to recruit up to 500.
Obelisk has hitherto focused on senior-level lawyers and has more than 2,000 on its books to work flexibly on projects for companies and large law firms.
But it said in-house counsel and law firms were now looking to outsource paralegal-level work and the group it was assembling would allow clients to tap into ad hoc paralegal support or outsource entire projects, such as contract reviews, training and compliance tasks, or legal research.
The paralegals and junior lawyers will need at least six months’ experience and will work remotely under the supervision of senior Obelisk consultants.
The company said it also anticipated contributing to training the next generation of lawyers when the new Solicitors Qualifying Exam comes on stream in September 2021.
Laura Vosper, Obelisk’s head of talent, said: “In-house lawyers in particular are coming under a lot of pressure at the moment, dealing with both the consequences of the pandemic and preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period.
“They are finding that their teams are overloaded with time-consuming but relatively straightforward work that doesn’t make the best use of their time and could be handled more efficiently by paralegals.
“At the same time, many of those legal professionals who have started out on their careers relatively recently are finding it tough, with fewer options open to them.
“We can offer career support and the opportunity to work on meaningful and interesting projects to paralegals and junior lawyers interested in joining our freelance talent pool.”
All applicants will be interviewed and vetted.
In July, Obelisk Support received a government grant of nearly £50,000 to help SMEs of all types manage the shift to remote working by extending the platform it has built to manage its freenlance lawyers.
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