Be a smarter legal leader

Shezi Sardar is an attorney and actor based out of New York City. He has over a decade of legal experience, encompassing both litigation and transactional matters, and serves as a strategic partner to his in-house clients. As an actor, Shezi has been seen on such shows as Law & Order and Blue Bloods.

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Tell me a bit about your professional background.

I'm a lawyer focused on commercial legal matters across the broader spectrum of technology, digital media, adtech, AI. I started my legal career over 15 years ago as a commercial litigator in New York, eventually transitioning to a transactional practice. This covered financial services (broker dealers, hedge funds, fintech, institutional banking), ecommerce, startups and emerging markets, and technology innovation. I served as Associate General Counsel and Data Protection Officer for AccuWeather, which encompassed a wide range of responsibilities including complex contract negotiations, playbooks, privacy-by-design, and regulatory. At Lawtrades, I've worked with Yelp, DoorDash, and Sony Interactive Entertainment, facilitating complex deals that drive new market opportunities. My interest in cutting-edge technology has driven much of my legal career. It's enabled me to contribute to each client's mission and culture in a more expansive and rewarding way.

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When did you first learn about Lawtrades and what prompted you to join the platform?

I learned about Lawtrades through one of its co-founders, Ashish Walia, at a legal networking event. As someone who built a law practice early in his career, I understood the value of building strong, sustained relationships. The incredible people at Lawtrades and their passion for the market really stood out. My curiosity and interest in flexible legal engagements also contributed to my decision to join Lawtrades. It was a perfect fit with my technology and corporate focus. I have creative projects in the entertainment industry as well, so having some flexibility aligned with my interests.

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Can you tell us more about your experience with Lawtrades and how many engagements you've had?

My experience with Lawtrades has been exceptional. I've truly enjoyed working with the team over the last few years.

I've had four engagements, each one being unique and rewarding. One of the most dynamic aspects of working with high caliber clients is the deeper insight I gain in terms of market strategies and consumer forecasting. Ensuring a competitive advantage in the marketplace contextualizes my approach to legal work. I aim to maintain a balance between commercial opportunity and legal risk, and see myself as a member of the greater team driving a deal.

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What is your favorite aspect of Lawtrades’ tech?

Its seamless and user-friendly use. The Lawtrades' app is excellent, as is the desktop platform. Building my lawyer profile and working with the Lawtrades team has strengthened my sense of community. I find the tech accessible, with a strong display of opportunities in real-time.

How do you establish strong, long-term relationships with clients?

Having been a legal entrepreneur in my career, I have always relied on building relationships. The legal skill and acumen are important, but to invest in other people is half the battle. I aim to understand the motivations of each client--what's driving their thinking and decisions? What's important to them? What are the key obstacles and challenges they face in their specific roles and departments? The answers provide insight and allow me to shape my own approach as their counsel.

Pivoting to Offense with your Evolving Legal Budget

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TLDR: As 2025 nears, Legal Departments are prepping their budget to assist the unlocking of macro-enabled growth, while balancing ongoing regulatory risk and an uptick in litigation.

Approximately 61% of General Counsels expect larger budgets next year, and in-house budgets for Legal Departments and Legal Ops are expected to increase ~3% after widespread cuts in 2024. Alongside an increase in tech and AI-driven tools, many in-house teams are preparing for an avalanche of new product lines to capitalize on blockchain, gaming, and marijuana’s new regulatory openings.

Here are five priority areas to consider when budgeting for 2025:

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🔥 Matching the Business Team’s Firepower:‍

Global growth is projected to rise 3.2% in 2025. Teams will need to move quickly to take advantage. Be ready for quick, gray-area decisioning. Don’t slow down your business, and consider how to appropriately leverage outside counsel for this purpose while keeping costs in check. Hiring independent experts from platforms like Lawtrades or boutique law firms can reduce heavy, expensive outside counsel spend and can offer a more agile solution – especially when integrated with your business team.

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‍🏯 Fortress: Control Environment Solidifying

Although a less “exciting” portion of a GC’s job, ensuring that your company avoids legal and reputational risks by remaining secure and compliant will be huge in 2025. Regulatory examiners will be guns out when it comes to emerging technology – and will be quick to ding out-of-date policies, stale, failed controls, and customer support foot faults. GCs will want to consider leveraging new AI tools such as Canarie AI to gut-check and review disclosures and policies for compliance. For larger companies, consider bringing in an independent third-party, such as PwC or Deloitte, to run through your current controls and disclosure framework. Having these “oil changes” documented will evidence effort to regulators, while giving businesses confidence that compliance is in check.

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👽 Tooling & AI in the Legal Space

The world of legal tracking, contract review, and spend management have improved 10x. Try them. Use them. For example, tracking inbound requests to your Legal team through tools like Streamline AI can build an internal case for increasing budget allocation and headcount, while also justifying your counsel spend. Other emerging tools such as AI-based contract review and legal assistants can improve the overall speed of your Legal Department, particularly in environments where internal resources are limited and efficiency is critical.

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🛡️ Shields Up

57% of corporations are increasing litigation spend in 2025. This is based on numerous reasons - including an increasingly complex regulatory environment, employment protection, and the continued rise of class action lawsuits in tech, healthcare, and financial services. To that end, be ready for litigation and reg scrutiny – including performing a market review of insurance limits and bolstering where needed. With insurance, check you have the appropriate policies for the products/services your team is creating. For example, if your company is privacy- and data-centric, ensure your cyber security policy meets the breadth (and value) of data in your coffers.

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🔐 Data

On that note, the Data landscape is changing daily in the US. Check that your business understands that as new state and/or federal privacy laws kick into effect, legal budgeting to review and implement privacy will need to run parallel. Allow buffers to keep up with audit frameworks, including ISO and SOC 2. Set aside budgets to account for data breaches and enforcement actions, along with insuring against these black swan events. In the event a breach occurs, your business will need funds for crisis management, legal defense, and penalties. Lastly, consider additional safeguards for your employee base. Companies such as Cloaked can prevent exposures and reduce threat vectors to your business by providing employees identity theft insurance, password management, and breached data deletion tools to reduce threat vectors.

Hiring the right legal professionals can be time-consuming, especially when it comes to drafting the perfect job post. That’s why we built the AI Position Creator — a tool designed to simplify the process of creating legal job posts, saving you time and ensuring your position is clear, concise, and optimized for success.

What Is the AI Position Creator?

The AI Position Creator is your new go-to tool for generating tailored, professional job descriptions. By leveraging AI, you can now create a customized job post with just a sentence or two, and the tool will do the rest.

How It Works

Tell us who you’re looking for

Simply enter a brief description of the role — for example, “We need an experienced commercial contracts attorney with SaaS industry experience” — and our AI instantly understands your requirements.

‍AI generates a draft job post

In seconds, the AI creates a draft job post based on industry standards and your input. It covers key elements like qualifications, experience, and soft skills that will resonate with top-tier legal professionals.

Customize and publish

You can further tweak the job post to fit your company’s tone, style, and culture. Add any specifics you want to emphasize, and once you’re happy with it, you’re ready to publish.

Why You’ll Love It

70% faster job creation‍

• New clients are creating positions 70% faster than before, meaning less time drafting and more time connecting with the right candidates.

Completely customizable

• Although the AI provides a strong foundation, you’re in control. Add, remove, or adjust anything to ensure it reflects exactly what you’re looking for.

Accurate and optimized

• Our AI uses industry-specific language to help you attract qualified legal professionals with ease, making your job posts more effective at connecting with top talent.

When to Use It

Whether you’re in a time crunch or just want to streamline your workflow, the AI Position Creator is perfect for:

• Hiring outside counsel for a specific project

• Filling in-house legal roles quickly and efficiently

• Scaling your legal team with less admin overhead

Get Started Today

We built this tool to simplify one of the most time-consuming parts of hiring: crafting the perfect job description. If you’re ready to try it out and see how much time you can save, you can sign up now

Check out our demo:

The capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have increased within these last couple of years, and with that, the impact of AI is quickly growing. AI tools have made it more efficient for various professions, especially the legal profession, when streamlining workflow. AI has already started to change the practice of law, making it easier to collaborate and communicate with teams. But, users must first understand how AI works and how its capabilities could best align with the corporation in order to be able to efficiently use it.

There are different types of AI, this includes:

• Robotic process automation: This is mostly used for data entry, including invoice processing
• Natural language processing: this enables the AI program to listen and understand what the user is requesting
• Machine learning: This type of AI learns the actions of the user, and gives better results every time
• Expert systems: Provides in-depth research to allow the user to make decisions
• Cognitive computing: Solves complex problems by taking into account previous work done for the user
• Generative AI: Generates new content in response to previously generated content
• Computer vision: Interprets images

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Above are just some examples of the different capabilities AI has. AI programs could incorporate one or all of the above in their applications.

Using AI In the Legal Corporate Field

Various different types of AI could be used in the corporate legal environment. Some examples may include:

• Analytics: This is used for drafting documents, such as legal research memos, non-disclosure agreements, partnership agreements, franchise agreements, sales agreements, or corporate governance documents. The AI program starts to learn various terms that the user has integrated into the document and then starts to predict the next word, making it more efficient for the user.
• E-discovery: E-Discovery tools could be used to organize and manage various records, such as company emails, investment agreements, trademarks, and licensing agreements, making it easier for the user to sort through relevant documents.
• Virtual assistants: AI virtual assistants make an attorney’s everyday tasks easier by organizing company contacts, coordinating meetings, and managing templates
• Document analysis: Currently several different AI programs analyze and summarize documents, which could be beneficial for contract review and audits.
• Risk management: AI could monitor and track any potential risks in the company's operations, create risk maps, monitor sensitive company data, and automate record-keeping.
• Contract analysis: AI could be used to analyze any risky company contracts and highlight any potential compliance issues that may arise, or may need renegotiating.

How To Properly Use AI In The Workplace

1. Identify company needs. Identifying everyday tasks is important when determining what type of AI application the department may need. For example, if the department manages several different contracts and records, contract management and compliance applications may be needed.
2. Assess challenges and inefficiencies. Some examples of common inefficiencies in corporate legal departments include contract management and research.
3. Research AI applications. Explore the different AI capabilities, such as natural language processing, predictive analysis, machine learning, etc. to see what type of tool would best help your company.
4. Request demos from AI vendors to see how they may help your everyday systems. Monitor and schedule adequate training and resources for your team.
5. Read through testimonials and case studies of various other legal professionals with whom we have used those AI vendors. Research the vendor's history and mission to seewhat closely aligns with your client's goals and priorities. Look for relevant certifications, such as ISO and SOC 2 certifications.
6. Review the service level agreements to determine the AI vendor's responsibilities, workflow processes, and accountability.
7. Ensure that the AI tool is compatible with your data formats, data security, and processing programs.
8. Gather feedback from other attorneys in the department to monitor the AI tool performance workflow impact and review results.

Be Mindful of Your Client Guidelines

Many companies may not be so interested in efficiency as other clients may be. Be mindful of client guidelines and priorities, while also mitigating risks. Some examples of enterprise priorities may include:

• Fine-tuning and streamlining an internal program or LLM already in place
• Working with an AI vendor to heighten security
• Investing in efficient programs to remove everyday repetitive tasks

Regulatory Landscape

AI will soon be heavily regulated in the United States. Currently, many states have pending bills. The European Union recently passed several bills that explain the risk of AI, categorizing risks as unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk, and no risk. These categories stand as the initial framework for helping users identify confidential and non-confidential information.

Challenges Of AI Accuracy

The concept of AI seems to draw both positive and negative feedback. For example, many attorneys are reluctant to use AI, fearing inconsistencies and inaccurate case sites. For example, in a recent study by Stanford RegLab, one out of six AI tools were referring to false information, now referred to as “AI hallucination.”

Recently, a New York attorney was even sanctioned in court for drafting a motion citing to madeup New York cases. This instance was an eye-opener to many attorneys, with many now havingto double-check or triple-check their work after using AI tools.

In another study, Westlaw and Nexis AI-assisted research programs were also found to be inaccurate if not properly reviewed by an experienced attorney. For example, Lexus + AI, LexisNexis’s new AI program, was found to be inaccurate 17% of the time. Westlaw’s AI-assisted research program was found to be inaccurate 34% of the time. These numbers are drastic, and attorneys should be mindful before using AI for any legal matters.

Confidentiality

Many AI programs require users to upload lengthy documents, which could contain confidential internal company information such as stock information and employee information. Corporate counsel must always make sure that the AI programs they use have proper security measures in place to prevent any cybersecurity attacks. Corporate confidentiality must always be a top priority.

Data Privacy

With various security breaches in the last couple of months, corporate enterprises need to vet AI vendors properly to protect any company data. AI should only be allowed to access general company data. Make sure the AI vendor follows proper privacy laws and regulations, including CCPA, GDPR, and other state and local laws that may apply.

Generally, AI has changed the way that attorneys do their jobs. It seems as though every day there is a different AI program or challenge that may have to be addressed. Although AI could enhance efficiency in the corporate legal field, it should still be monitored very closely to ensure accuracy.

There are so many new and exciting AI opportunities that may be coming up in the next couple of weeks. Corporate counsel have become very open to new and exciting opportunities, and are always staying on top of AI news to make sure they incorporate the most recent technologies into their practices.

AI will not likely replace human thought processes and legal work, but it will make decision-making and risk assessment easier. AI is no longer a future dream, it is here to stay. At first, it was meant to tackle everyday automated tasks, but now legal operations are geared towards using AI augmentation for strategic goals and decision-making.

How do you scale legal support for your growing business?

That's the question we posed to Milana McCullagh, Vice President and Head of Legal at Reddit, and Iris Chen, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Airbnb, at a recent panel.

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‍MAJOR POINTS:

• Take the time to listen and study your organization when at a new role
• Spend time face-to-face with your time and get to know them
• Define roles and responsibilities, but make sure information isn't siloed
• A legal project manager can help keep your department efficient
• Weekly team reports are a valuable way to connect the dots for yourself and company leadership
• Strong team culture is vital to scaling and achieving goals

Here is a deeper breakdown of the panel and its highlights:

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Experience

Even large, public companies face challenges to growth

3:29

Chen joined Google in 2007 with a team of six people. By the time she left over 14 years later, she'd grown the team to 150 people across "different geos and across many of those different product areas." When she moved to Airbnb at the height of the pandemic, she became head of legal for the Product and Marketing teams. She started with 22 people and has scaled to over 50 four years later. "The company has changed quite a bit too. It's now moved to a twice-a-year product launch cycle," Chen added. "How Airbnb now operates is very different than it was when I started. So, how to adapt the team and scale support for that has been a challenge for me."

For McCullagh, the challenges at Reddit were different than hypergrowth challenges. As she explained, it was "really how to ensure public company readiness and scale legal support in a much more carefully operated company" for when Reddit went public in April 2024.

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How to face the challenge

Do your homework on how your company operates and how your teams interact.

7:33

"It's really important to spend time actively listening, reflecting, and planning," explained Chen. "And this applies to any situation you find yourself in where you've got a new challenge or a different challenge, not just like a new role, like the the ones that Melina and I found ourselves in. You know, for example, I think at Airbnb, I spent the first month or two of my time there on back to back of zoom calls, just meeting people, asking questions, just figuring out, you know, what their roles were and doing my own sort of 360 assessment of the situation, so that I could really understand what I needed to do with my team in order to meet the meet the needs of the business."

Another important point, Chen pointed out, is understanding the operation systems of your organization. "I needed to spend a lot of time getting to know the work, understanding where the, friction points were, understanding the people involved. And it's not a change that happened overnight. I needed to do that homework first before making a case for bringing those those teams together. So I think that's a good example where, you know, that initial work of understanding the operating system can pay off eventually. And, you know, also just understanding, you know, the organization so that you can navigate it, especially for those of you who are leading or managing teams."

Observation and studying the company is important, even though McCullagh joked, "it's really hard to do since many of us are action oriented and A-type and want to jump in right away." Make introductions and meet the people in your company, she adds. "Sometimes your well-laid plans to reflect and spend the first 30 days, or 60 days, meeting folks goes astray, and you need to roll with that."

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Next steps

So you've joined a company to build and lead a team. Now what?

14:12

The first step in team building is assessing talent and figuring out who to delegate what workstreams to, says McCallagh. "You cannot do it all yourself," she continued. "You just can't. And so you need to have folks, that are really strong, under you. And my goal always is to either hire or develop talent, ensure that folks are better and smarter than me."

Step 2: look at your team holistically, and make sure the right people are in the right roles for their skill sets. "My focus also always and or planning is not to organize around individuals. But, you know, instead really focus on, on, you know, what the company's needs are. And I know that's always harder, but I think it gets to a better outcome."

Yes, remote hiring is much more challenging. One helpful tip is to have candidates for more senior roles do a presentation, says McCallagh. "This is basically where candidates needed to do a 30 minute presentation on a topic in front of a panel. And that just gives you so much insight into, you know, when you can't do live interviews and gives insight into presentation skills." But once you've hired a person, "spend as much time in person, with them, I think that is just key."

When Chen started at Airbnb, the company was still reeling from the impact of COVID on their business. Moreover, she had a limited team—just five people. To help tackle the work in front of her with the resources she had, her priority was to get to know the work and get to know the people. "I spent a lot of time identifying projects to work with individuals on the team directly with not just, you know, working with my direct reports all the time and, and learning about things from them, but really kind of rolling up my sleeves and doing the work alongside, team members on some key initiatives that I knew were, were impactful for the company."

Chen was also dealing with attrition on her team. "One of the things that I think became very clear to me in that experience was just the importance of hiring general athletes. If you don't need specialized knowledge, like let's say you're you're running a payments or fintech [company] of course, you need people who come in with that knowledge to function well from the beginning. But I would say I get a lot more mileage by hiring really good general athletes, especially when you're in a space like tech…where things are constantly changing, initiatives come up, initiatives get sunseted, and you need people who are flexible and adaptable and can do well in whatever position you put them in."

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Define roles, delegate tasks

You can't do it all on your own.

20:49

As Chen notes, with a lean team you have to be efficient. That means defining roles right away. "My team members know exactly what they're responsible for and how they're supporting the business, and then they can take care of helping those clients navigate the rest of the legal department."

"If you are a company like ours where we're really focused on international growth, how my team works with the international teams is going to be increasingly more important." You want a team of people who are communicative, collaborative, and open to new ideas.

In addition to role clarity, Chen recommends centralizing knowledge rather than "having five different lawyers on one thing."

Build slack into your teams, so when you have fluctuations in volume you can find ways to spread the load around to multiple people. "With some training," Chen continued, "everybody can do it so that it's not all landing on one person's plate, especially when you know volume is going to pick up."

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Project management

Yes, legal can have project managers too.

27:34

According to McCullagh, at a certain point, it no longer makes sense to rely on outside counsel. "You need someone day-to-day to manage your legal work," and provide strategic legal guidance. "Someone who understands your company really, really deeply and can provide that end-to-end legal guidance."

And you can be building processes and systems in the background as you're focused on other day-to-day problems. For example, Chen described her team "very much like a hub in this kind of hub-and-spoke model of how we support a lot of the different business initiatives."

She developed a Point Of Contact Directory, "where we literally mapped out everything that we work on, and who's the primary product counsel, commercial counsel or other lawyer on it, who's a back up."

Building the directory might not be a priority, but once it's running, it can help people get information very quickly, identify who to turn to for a specific project or need.

McCullagh's experience at Reddit taking the company to IPO taught her that "getting the litigation program management in place to support a ramp up was key."

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Snippets

They will change your (work) life.

37:04

"Information sharing needs to be supported by structure, otherwise it will very quickly fall apart the larger the organization gets," Chen explained. Especially in the age of remote work, there's no easy way to bring everyone together to share information. A solution that both Chen and McCullagh adopted from the days at Google is the Weekly Report (or "snippet"). "This is basically individual team members will report, and they just write these little snippets about what they're working on. It goes into a report that I edit and curate, and it goes to my entire [legal department]."

"I will tell you that that has been my biggest value add from day one, is that report," Chen said. "In terms of the feedback I've gotten from clients about reading that report, they read it religiously."

The snippets also allow you to quickly see what stage of a project each member of your team is in and jump in where you're needed.

"I know there's some snippets haters out there," added McCullagh. "But I would say it is the easiest thing you can implement when you are starting a new role at your company."

And to keep things uniform, Chen and McCullagh recommend circulating a guide to your team of the length and amount of detail their weekly write-ups should be.

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Culture creation

A shared vision is key.

45:06

Instilling a team culture of growth and openness is vital to achieving those goals. To do that, McCullagh recommends articulating expectations to ensure your team's service is aligned, "and then secondly, articulating the mission. This is particularly important in a quickly growing company where you have teams that that bump into each other."

As an example, McCullagh explain how, during her first year at Reddit, "we had a very formal list of OKRs. And then the feedback was this wasn't quite as helpful. So now we have just a very short statement of here are the things we're trying to focus on aligned with company goals, and here are our major project. Also articulating the Why: why is this important for us to be working on."

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Face time

The value of in-person interaction hasn't gone away.

48:05

For Chen, "building those connections, whenever you have the opportunity to be together in person, is so crucial."

Try to find time to schedule offsite events, in-person meetings, or whatever face-to-face connection you can foster among your team. Inevitably, that connection will leader to smoother communication between your team, and healthier collaboration.

Another tool to consider is a bootcamp curriculum for "certain subjects and topics that I knew time and again the lawyers on my team need to be familiar with in order to be effective counsel. So, privacy 101, or consumer protection law—things that I know to be very, very relevant for a large population of my team. I designate two people on the team to be the owners of that [issue], and we rotate folks who own the curriculum and are responsible for it."

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Final thoughts

54:17

"Snippets: go implement it at your company," McCullagh stressed, before adding, "Is your org structure working given where you are as a company? Do you have the right staffing for now and six months from now? Just be ready to adapt to changing needs."

"Everybody has a lot of moving pieces that they're dealing with," concluded Chen. "You're constantly multitasking, but if you don't take the time to zoom out and listen, observe, and reflect when you are dealing with a new challenge, you won't end up with a good outcome."

Finally, be sure to invest in initiatives that empower your team to operate smartly, efficiently, and and consistent with the expectations and standards that you've set for them.

Rahul Magan has always known what it means to wear multiple hats. Growing up in a family of independent hoteliers, he saw first-hand how different the same job could be from day to day. After graduating UPenn Law, he joined Goodwin in Silicon Valley where advising tech firms and start-ups became his passion. But being outside counsel never fully satisfied Magan, so after 5 years of working with and observing start-ups, he joined one. Magan worked at ShipBob, where he set up the Legal department and, most recently, came on as General Counsel for the venture capital and private equity firm Trousdale Ventures.

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At Trousdale, Magan is once again building a legal team, but the firm's diverse portfolio of investments (space tech, lifestyle brands, real estate, and more) also means he's wearing multiple hats and doing vastly different jobs day to day. One of those jobs is sole general counsel for Meyers Manx, which is bringing back the original Dune Buggy, this time as an EV. "It's really hard to start a car company from scratch," admits Magan. "There's a graveyard out there of American companies that have tried to start small, low-volume vehicle manufacturers."

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Such challenges don't scare Magan, but they require a team. To help with the caseload at Meyers Manx, and at previous companies, Magan integrates Lawtrades into the firm's workflow. We sat down with Magan to understand how he leverages Lawtrades for his specific needs, and how it compliments the nimble style of a start-up.

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Key Takeaways:

• Lawtrades provides legal professionals at a fixed, predictable cost, and fully-integrates them into team workflows
• The staff at Lawtrades is personally responsive to a client's specific needs, and sources qualified legal professionals
• Legal professionals on the platform are business-oriented and entrepreneurial

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Parts of this interview have been edited for clarity.

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What are some of the biggest problems you are trying to solve for your clients?

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The regulatory landscape when developing a car is incredibly complex. There's very few people out there that know how to decipher the regulations, because when you're manufacturing a car, not only do you have to be able to address consumer safety and apply for VIN numbers to register your vehicles, you also need the dealer licenses so that you can start selling, and if you want to be a D2C—Tesla has an entire army of attorneys that does the retail side of it. However, Meyers Manx is more of a niche company where we're probably going to produce only about 5,000 vehicles to start. We still need to get through as much of the regulation as we can, with very limited resources. There's not a lot of expertise around the table, in fact, there aren’t many folks around the world that have practiced this type of law or implemented this process before.

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Then, besides the regulatory side of it, another part of my legal job at Meyers Manx is the commercial side. We're constantly prototyping—where we're collaborating with other manufacturers and suppliers. We're figuring out where to manufacture these cars: do we have our own facility and get that financing, get equipment in there, or do we contract manufacturing with third-parties?

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As always, there's the corporate fundraising side, the governance side, and the employee side. We are manufacturing vehicles, so there's a high level of liability that we have to watch out for. We don't want people dying in our vehicles. Also, we have shop workers, we have professional staff, we have people traveling constantly—we have new-hire templates, hourly pay, make sure everyone's taking their meal breaks, like at a granular level you have to be able to handle these things too.

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What casework do you use Lawtrades most for?

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At ShipBob, my first employment counsel transitioned out and I had nobody while at the helm of a company with hundreds of employees spread across 28 states and 7 countries. We had gone through a budget tightening exercise, and I wondered if we can live without a new hire by using outside counsel. Experienced outside counsel costs $700 an hour? And I'm like, "well, they don't play within our systems. They can't talk to HR every day and be plugged into the Slack channels. How about I find someone on a temporary basis?" Hiring a Lawtrader is great because they're hourly, we don't have to pay insurance and all of that, and they're a fully-loaded cost—we know what their rate is and we can predict it. That, and we get a subject matter expert who does this day-to-day and they can talk to even outside counsel and still significantly reduce our overall cost and spend. So if the company wasn't ready to budget for a full time replacement hire, I could at least get a subject matter expert who can help shoulder 20 hours a week to start.

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How did you first hear of Lawtrades?

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I actually met Ashish Walia [Lawtrades co-founder and Head of Business Development], through TechGC.

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Using Lawtrades was primarily strategic. I was a new GC at the time. I met Ashish over the course of a few conferences and we talked, and when the time came to find staffing in a pinch, Lawtrades set it all up. Within two days, Lawtrades sourced a few candidates, scheduled interviews, and on-boarded a capable attorney. And even after I hired a full time attorney, we continued that relationship with Lawtrades because there were simply too many projects in process.

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Have you ever used another ALSP or was Lawtrades your first one? What made Lawtrades stand-out for you?

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I looked at some of the "old-school" ALSPs, and they effectively operate as an outsourced Big Law firm. For me, that seemed like overkill—the people were hyper specialized, so it'd be good for a really specific project, but I'd be paying higher rates. With Lawtrades, I like the platform because it's a little bit more entrepreneurial. The attorneys are fighting for the role, and I find that the Lawtrades folks seem a bit more business-oriented. Whereas, I think some of the other ALSPs, the lawyers were outside counsel before and never spent time in-house, so you still get that outside counsel flavor versus at Lawtrades you can plug the hire in.

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On the backend, it's really easy for me to reach out to Lauren or Ashish, and I can send them a sentence saying I just need someone to help me with this and they sort a bunch of resumes and make the interview experience really easy to handle so I'm not scheduling a bunch of things that I have to worry about. Plus, usually every time I hire someone, they've started the next day. It's really seamless.

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Would you recommend Lawtrades to other firms or Legal Operations departments?

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Absolutely. Yes. To all of my general counsel friends, I always say that if you need some ad hoc help and you don't want to pay $600 an hour for a junior associate that will get something back to you that's 50% complete, try Lawtrades. It's a good way to try something new. There's very low risk to bringing someone on from Lawtrades, and if it works, the ceiling is very high.

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Whether a growing start-up, established legal firm, or multinational corporation, Lawtrades provides world-class legal talent via an easy-to-use platform that makes hiring and managing a breeze.

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Book a demo and discover how Lawtrades can benefit your business.

Kaylee Anselmi’s path within the legal profession hasn’t been a traditional one. After spending 15 years working in the legal department for healthcare companies, she became fascinated by “the innovative dynamics of the tech industry”, Anselmi tells Lawtrades. Seeing an opportunity at the legal department of Cision, a communications platform company, she decided to switch into the tech sector where she could leverage her skills to “directly influence business operations and strategies.”

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Today, Cision’s software is used in 24 countries and by over 100,000 professionals across the global media landscape. Cision has grown to become a market-leader within a fast-paced industry, and its legal department which Anselmi runs faces unique challenges as a result.

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To help with these challenges and the increased caseloads, Anselmi has integrated Lawtrades into Cision’s legal workflow. In a recent case, Cision used Lawtrades to bring on commercial counsel for 4 months, during which time Anselmi and the rest could assess how well the attorney fit into the team. It was a match as the attorney has brought on as permanent staff—a seamless hiring and on-boarding process for Cision.

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Here is a look into how Cision utilizes Lawtrades for its specific needs, and the benefits Lawtrades brings to the firm.

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Key Takeaways:

• Lawtrades provides immediate access to vetted legal professionals who integrate seamlessly into existing operations
• Overseeing and managing legal professionals' time is easy with the Lawtrades platform
• Lawtrades is an efficient solution to handle variable legal needs both domestically and in foreign markets

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Parts of this interview have been edited for clarity.

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What are some of the biggest challenges Cision Legal is working on solving for its clients?

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A significant challenge is managing the balance between business as usual legal requests, such as navigating ever-changing data privacy laws, corporate governance management, and litigation, with supporting the commercial team and the company’s revenue. This requires constant adaptation and alignment with both legal standards and business objectives.

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How did you first hear of Lawtrades? And what made it stand out for you as an ALSP?

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Our Chief Legal Officer introduced me to Lawtrades during a high-volume period. Their ability to provide immediate access to vetted legal professionals who can seamlessly integrate into our existing operations made them stand out.

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What use cases did you find Lawtrades useful for?

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We found Lawtrades extremely useful for:

• Managing overflow legal work during peak periods.
• Offering specialized legal support on a flexible, project basis.
• Providing temporary coverage for positions requiring specific expertise, such as language skills for parental leave.

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Has working with Lawtrades brought any new skills or operational workflows to your department?

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Definitely. Lawtrades has helped us adopt more agile workforce management practices, increased development of our standard operating procedures and playbooks, and allowed us to quickly adjust our team size based on current needs.

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Have you ever used Lawtrades to help with permanent hiring needs?

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Yes. A few months ago we hired someone via Lawtrades as commercial counsel. It was on a temporary basis for about 4 months in the beginning to support our commercial workflows. Once we had the open headcount for the position, we were able to convert this lawyer onto our team seamlessly. I prefer this approach, because it allowed us to try out her services and see how she worked with the team first for a few months before we brought her on staff.

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Would you recommend Lawtrades to other Legal Operations professionals?

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Absolutely, I would recommend Lawtrades to other professionals in Legal Operations. Their platform offers a practical solution to efficiently handle variable legal demands and has proven to be a valuable asset for our team's flexibility and responsiveness. The platform makes managing and overseeing candidates’ time and fees incredibly easy.

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Whether a growing start-up, established legal firm, or multinational corporation, Lawtrades provides world-class legal talent via an easy-to-use platform that makes hiring and managing a breeze.

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Book a demo and discover how Lawtrades can benefit your business.

In the rapidly evolving business landscape, in-house legal departments are increasingly tasked with more than just legal oversight. They play a critical role in business strategy, compliance, and innovation, especially in areas like commercial contracts, data privacy, legal operations, and emerging fields such as artificial intelligence. Lawtrades provides a unique platform for these departments to engage top-tier legal freelancers, offering flexibility and specialized expertise. This guide details the process and best practices for leveraging Lawtrades to meet your in-house legal needs effectively.

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Understanding Your Engagement Needs

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Before diving into the Lawtrades platform, it's crucial to assess your legal department's needs. Are you dealing with a surge in commercial contracts that require precise attention to detail and swift turnaround? Perhaps you're navigating the complex landscape of data privacy laws across multiple jurisdictions, or you're at the forefront of integrating artificial intelligence into your  business operations, necessitating specialized legal insight. Identifying the specific areas where you need external expertise is the first step toward a successful engagement on Lawtrades.

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Setting Clear Objectives and Budgets

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Define the scope and objectives of your engagement. Whether it's drafting and reviewing contracts, ensuring compliance with GDPR or CCPA, or developing policies for AI/ML  implementations, having clear goals will help you communicate your needs effectively on Lawtrades. Also, setting a realistic budget upfront will streamline the matching process, ensuring you connect with freelancers who can deliver within your financial parameters.

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Creating a Position on Lawtrades

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With your needs and budget in hand, it's time to create a position on Lawtrades. This involves crafting a detailed description that outlines the engagement's scope, expected deliverables, timeline, and any specific legal expertise or industry experience required. Highlighting these details will attract the right talent, making the selection process more efficient.

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Utilizing Teams for Collaborative Hiring

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Lawtrades' Teams feature allows you to loop in your colleagues in the hiring process, ensuring that you get a well-rounded view of each candidate. This collaborative approach is particularly beneficial for in-house legal departments, where multiple stakeholders may interact with the legal freelancer. It also facilitates a second opinion, ensuring the chosen freelancer aligns with your department's broader goals and culture.

Evaluating Matches and Interviewing Candidates

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Once your position is live, Lawtrades' sophisticated matching algorithm will connect you with qualified legal freelancers. Reviewing these matches involves assessing each candidate's experience, expertise, and fit for your department.

Interview Tips for In-House Leaders

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When it's time to interview candidates, here are some tips specifically for legal teams:

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• Explore Their Understanding of Your Industry: Legal expertise is crucial, but so is an understanding of your specific business and its challenges. Ask candidates about their experience with similar industries or legal issues.
• Assess Their Communication Skills: Effective communication, both written and verbal, is key in legal matters. Discuss how they would communicate complex legal concepts to non-legal stakeholders.
• Inquire About Their Approach to Problem-Solving: Legal engagements often involve unforeseen challenges. Ask about their approach to problem-solving and examples of how they've navigated difficult situations in the past.
• Understand Their Work Style: Freelancers might work differently than in-house teams. Discuss their work style and how they manage deadlines and prioritize tasks to ensure it aligns with your department's operations.

With Lawtrades' interview scheduling tool, you can easily arrange these discussions via Zoom, providing a seamless platform for evaluating your top candidates.

Engaging Your Chosen Legal Freelancer

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After selecting the ideal candidate, Lawtrades facilitates the next steps to formalize the engagement. This includes agreeing on rate, timelines, and payment terms. You'll also have a dedicated account manager from Lawtrades to assist throughout the entirety of your engagement, ensuring a smooth collaboration and addressing any questions or concerns that may arise.

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Your dedicated account manager is a valuable resource, offering personalized support and ensuring that your engagement runs smoothly. They can assist with setting up the engagement, mediating any issues, and providing guidance on best practices for working with legal freelancers.

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Managing Your Engagement

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Engaging with freelance legal professionals through Lawtrades brings a streamlined, efficient approach to managing your legal needs. Unlike traditional staffing agencies, Lawtrades streamlines the working relationship through weekly worklog submissions by freelancers, ensuring transparency and facilitating budget management. This section delves into the best practices for clients on Lawtrades and outlines how to effectively review and manage worklogs for a smooth, efficient collaboration.

Weekly Worklog Submissions

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At the heart of managing engagements on Lawtrades is the weekly submission of worklogs by your legal freelancer. These worklogs detail the hours worked and the tasks completed, providing you with a transparent view of the progress made on your legal projects. Every week, you'll receive an update email that includes these worklogs, allowing you to review the work completed at your convenience. You can also log into to your dashboard to view your entire worklog history and export it as a PDF anytime.

To make the most of this system, it's essential to adopt certain best practices:

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• Regularly Review Worklogs: Make it a habit to check the weekly updates email and review the worklogs submitted by your freelancer. This not only helps you stay informed about the progress of your legal projects but also ensures that any discrepancies or concerns can be addressed promptly.
• Communicate Clearly and Often: Effective communication is key to any successful engagement. Should you have any questions or need further clarification on the tasks completed, don't hesitate to reach out to your freelancer. Regular communication fosters a productive working relationship and ensures alignment on project goals and expectations.
• Utilize the Dashboard for Budget Management: Lawtrades offers a Client Dashboard, designed to give you a comprehensive overview of all your engagements. Here, you can monitor each worklog entry, review the hours billed, and manage your overall budget. This centralized view enables you to make informed decisions and ensures that your legal projects remain within budget.
• Engage Your Dedicated Account Manager: Remember, you're not alone in this process. Your dedicated account manager is there to assist throughout your engagement. Whether you have questions about the worklogs, need help resolving issues, or require guidance on best practices, your account manager is a valuable resource to help ensure your engagements run smoothly.

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Invoicing and Payments: A Seamless Process

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Lawtrades' approach to invoicing and payments streamlines the financial aspects of legal engagements, removing the common hurdles associated with freelance work. The platform's recent enhancements focus on making invoicing and payments as effortless as possible, ensuring that both clients and freelancers can concentrate on the substantive work at hand rather than administrative tasks.

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Effortless Invoicing

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On Lawtrades, the invoicing process is directly tied to the weekly worklog submissions provided by freelancers. As freelancers document their hours and tasks completed through these logs, Lawtrades automatically compiles this information into an invoice, ready for the client's review. This system not only ensures accuracy in billing but also promotes transparency, as clients can see a detailed account of the work performed.

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Clients receive these invoices according to the agreed-upon schedule, typically on a weekly basis, which allows for regular review and ensures that there are no surprises at the end of the engagement. This frequent invoicing cycle helps manage budgets more effectively and allows for adjustments as needed, ensuring that both parties remain aligned on the engagement's scope and financial expectations.

Streamlined Payments

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Once an invoice is reviewed and approved by the client, Lawtrades facilitates a smooth payment process. The platform supports various payment methods, accommodating the preferences of different clients and ensuring that freelancers receive their payments promptly. This focus on efficient payments underscores Lawtrades' commitment to fostering positive working relationships between clients and freelance legal professionals.

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The payment system on Lawtrades is designed to be secure and compliant with financial regulations, providing peace of mind for all parties involved. By handling payments through the platform, Lawtrades removes the need for clients and freelancers to manage financial transactions independently, streamlining the process and reducing administrative burdens.

Leveraging Lawtrades for Strategic Legal Support

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Engaging legal freelancers through Lawtrades offers in-house legal departments the flexibility and expertise needed to address complex legal challenges efficiently. From navigating the intricacies of commercial contracts negotiations to developing AI usage policies for your organization, Lawtrades connects you with the talent you need to support your department's goals and the broader business objectives.

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Conclusion

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For in-house legal departments, the ability to quickly and effectively engage specialized legal talent is more than a convenience—it's a strategic advantage. Lawtrades offers a platform designed to meet these needs, providing access to a vetted pool of legal freelancers across a wide range of practice areas. By following this guide, General Counsels and their teams can maximize the benefits of Lawtrades, ensuring that their legal departments are not just responsive but also proactive in navigating the legal landscape.

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By incorporating Lawtrades' unique engagement management system into your workflow, you adopt a modern approach to legal project management. This system promotes transparency, efficiency, and strategic budget management, all while providing access to top-tier legal expertise. In doing so, Lawtrades not only simplifies the process of engaging legal freelancers but also transforms it into a strategic asset for your legal department.

Beginning with the introduction of e-discovery and the popularization of legal operations departments in the early 2000s, the use of Alternative Legal Service Providers (or ALSPs) has seen a boom over the last two-and-a-half decades. A 2023 report by the Thomson Reuters Institute notes that the ALSP market grew 145% between 2015 and 2021 alone, to over $21 billion.

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Today, ALSPs are increasingly indispensable to corporations and law firms who outsource legal casework to these contractors and see their use as a way to differentiate their services and gain a competitive advantage. In fact, as market changes only accelerate, the use of ALSPs has become a core strategy to help in-house counsel navigate an ever more complex landscape.

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So how are ALSPs essential to your firm? Here are 5 tips for how to best leverage working with an Alternative Legal Service Provider:

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1. Increase efficiency

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According to a 2022 EY report, 82% of businesses were planning to reduce legal function costs over the next 24 months. While this may mean reducing casework sent to expensive law firms, it shouldn't mean extra work dumped on in-house staff or a drop in quality. In fact, hiring ALSPs helps in-house legal teams focus on higher-value work while reducing costs and maintaining quality of work. When cybersecurity firm SecurityScorecard underwent major growth, recently, the increased contracting caseload was outsourced via Lawtrades to ALSPs who leveraged their own previous contracting experience for SecurityScorecard and allowed in-house counsel to focus on higher-impact work and strategy.

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2. Staffing flexibility

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Not only does reduced spending on legal costs affect outsourcing, but it also affects staffing. Just as major law firms are trimming their headcount, internal legal departments are doing the same. Hiring contract-based ALSPs off platforms like Lawtrades offers in-house counsel access to top talent pools without committing to full-time employment. In essence, ALSPs flipt the term "more for less" on its head so that legal departments can access high-quality talent for less money. Moreover, for firms and businesses expanding globally, ALSPs provide immediate access to and knowledge of foreign markets. Legal tech platforms rigorously vet all attorneys and ALSPs to ensure top-quality talent across North America, South America, and Europe.

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3. Gain access to specialized skills

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Rather than spend time training staff and/or on-boarding new hires to stay competitive on new technology and other specialized skills, ALSPs enable legal departments quick and easy access to talent with whatever skill is needed. As Reuters notes, 42% of large US law firms are already using ALSPs for advice on legal technology including setting up legal tech infrastructure and managing CLMs.

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3. Leverage data

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In addition to providing easy access to specialized skill sets, ALSPs also enable firms to leverage experience and data. Say, for example, your company is drafting and negotiating NDAs for the first time. By using an ALSP who may have years of experience on thousands of such contracts, you can use their insights to make their process more efficient and effective. Similarly, integrating generative AI into legal workflows is a goal of 82% if in-house counsels, Thomson Reuters found. But establishing such systems can be costly and hard to navigate. By contracting an ALSP with extensive knowledge of AI infrastructure and protocols, you can mitigate risk while developing proprietary systems.

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4. Market agility and adaptation

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The last few years have demonstrated just how quickly the market swings from boom to bust, and how rapidly new technologies emerge and government regulations develop. The downside of hiring a full-time employee for a specific technology or specialization in a certain industry's regulations is that they may quickly fall behind the curve. To mitigate this, 50% of US corporate legal departments use hiring platforms to find ALSPs that manage their regulatory risk and compliance to achieve optimal market agility and adaptation. ALSPs can also incorporate shifting regulation, tech, and other variables into commercial contract agreements, making it the largest area of hire on platforms like Lawtrades.

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Ultimately, alternative legal service providers are no longer “alternative” avenues for casework, but a major asset to both firms and corporate in-house alike, and increasingly part of core legal operations. As legal departments continue to face "more with less" conditions, ALSPs help maintain quality, efficiency, market agility, and access to specialized talent, all while keeping headcount flexible. The question is no longer if ALSPs can be part of your legal operations, but how best to use them to maximize impact and department performance.

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Lawtrades brings you everything you love about ALSP’s with an easy to use platform to make hiring and managing flexible talent a breeze.

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• Get matched to meticulously vetted legal talent with expertise across a wide-range of practice areas
• Shared team workspace so you can hire together
• Manage legal spend, work entries, payroll, and invoicing all in one place
• Enjoy dedicated 24/7 account support

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Book a demo

It seems that Sam Altman has been caught in a schoolyard game of “loves me, loves me not” with OpenAI. After founding OpenAI (with the help of Elon Musk’s wallet) in 2015, Altman served as the company’s CEO and said he “loved [his] time” at the “transformative” company. Thus, he was “shocked” to be ousted by the board of directors on November 17th:

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The board cited concerns about Altman’s lack of consistent candor in communications, expressing an overall loss of confidence in his leadership abilities. (Ouch.) The departure led to a reorganization at OpenAI, with Mira Murati appointed as interim CEO. The president of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, resigned in the aftermath of Altman’s departure.

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Naturally, Sam took the route often traveled in such a situation: he rebounded with Microsoft. On November 20, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that both Altman and Brockman would be joining their AI research team. Back at home, OpenAI waited just two days before replacing their interim CEO Murati with Twitch CEO Emmett Shear; finding someone new seemed a bit harder for OpenAI than for Sam.

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On November 20, the OpenAI board realized that its employees’ loyalty was not where they had hoped. Almost all 800 OpenAI employees at OpenAI signed a letter with two demands: Altman returns as CEO, and the board reigns — or else they would all quit. The letter said of the board: "Your conduct has made it clear you did not have the competence to oversee OpenAI." Not only had the board facilitated a sudden break, but they had also failed to impress their employees with how they handled the situation.

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Literally overnight, Altman and OpenAI were back together. On November 21, Altman reached an agreement in principle to return as CEO. Altman stated he was “looking forward to returning,” and though still “collaborating to figure out the details,” he would be returning to his role. It seems that Altman won’t be on any Microsoft Teams meetings anytime soon. But, after such a loyal run with OpenAI, it might be the better option to stick with what he knows.

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The Verdict:

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Choosing a board can have wild and unexpected implications. CEO Sam Altman’s ousting by the board of OpenAI highlights the importance of careful board selection. A well-chosen board can provide effective oversight and strategic guidance, tending to the economic needs of a company; however, if there's a lack of transparency or alignment of values between the board and employees, it can lead to discontent.

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Choosing a nonprofit route, as OpenAI initially did, has its pros and cons. Pros include a mission-driven focus and potential avoidance of profit-driven conflicts. Nonprofits can attract philanthropic support and foster collaboration, but they can also pose financial challenges, reliance on donations, and potential constraints on rapid decision-making due to a focus on long-term goals.

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In the case of OpenAI, the transition from a nonprofit to a "capped-profit" model raised concerns about maintaining the initial mission. It seems that achieving balance depends upon selecting a board that aligns with the organization's values, irrespective of its profit status, and fostering open communication to mitigate employee dissatisfaction and ensure long-term success.

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In the last month, the Justice Department has taken down two of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges’ leaders: Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao. As the DOJ has dunks on these crypto titans, the public opinion (and future) of the industry seems rocky.

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Two weeks ago, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. Then this Tuesday, Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao, pleaded guilty to violating criminal anti-money-laundering guidelines. This charge comes with a $4.3 billion price tag—one of the biggest fines levied against a corporation. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that “Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed — now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history.”

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Binance Holdings Limited operates the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.com. The company has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay over $4 billion to resolve the U.S. Justice Department's investigation. The charges include violations related to the Bank Secrecy Act, failure to register as a money transmitting business, and breaches of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. And accordingly to the Treasury Department, Binance also “willfully failed to report” over 100,000 “suspicious transactions” from a host of sanctioned entities such as Hamas and North Korea**.** On top of also pleading guilty, Zhao has resigned from the role of CEO.

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The guilty plea is part of coordinated resolutions with various regulatory bodies, marking one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history.  The DOJ emphasized that Binance prioritized growth and profits over compliance with U.S. law, and allowed illegal transactions, including those involving terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers, through its platform. The resolution includes significant financial penalties, the forfeiture of over $2.5 billion, a criminal fine of $1.8 billion, and the appointment of an independent compliance monitor for three years. Zhao acknowledged understanding Binance's service to U.S. users, its growth dependence on them, and knowingly neglecting compliance with U.S. law.

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The Verdict:

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If you’re planning to be a crypto titan, learn from the falls of FTX and Binance. Don’t prioritize growth over legal obligations, launder money, or fail to report suspicious transactions—unless you have $4 billion to spare. Binance is paying one of the biggest corporate penalties ever for violating criminal anti-money-laundering guidelines, and its CEO Changpeng Zhao is in no better shape.

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Turkeys aren’t the only ones being pardoned this Thanksgiving. California and Oregon law students are escaping the clutches of the bar exam, thanks to the introduction of new alternative programs. These aren’t the first, and likely not the last, instances of states revamping the attorney licensing process. However, California and Oregon’s new alternative pathways are unique from what states like Wisconsin and Utah have already implemented.

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California’s New Idea: Prove that You Can Write a Memo. For 6 Months.

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California law school graduates might be able to practice law without taking the bar exam. You might be asking yourself how the legal profession can go on without this painful right of passage, but the California State Bar has a proposal for how this could work.

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Last week, the State Bar of California’s board of trustees passed a test run of the Portfolio Bar Exam, which is the state’s proposed alternative to the bar. Unlike the multiple-choice questions and essay-writing exercises that attorneys have admitted attorneys to the bar since the 1940s, the Portfolio Bar Exam requires law school graduates to spend four to six months of apprenticeship under a seasoned attorney. Over the course of these 700-1000 hours of “supervised legal practice,” a candidate would accumulate a portfolio showcasing the legal work and experience she gained. The State Bar of California would grade this portfolio, and passing grades would be granted admission to the bar — no bar exam necessary.

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While this alternative has not yet been signed off on by the California Supreme Court, the California State Bar’s support is indicative of California’s movement away from the bar exam and toward a more hands-on procedure. Reactions to this proposed new alternative are mixed. 59 California bar organizations wrote the State Bar a letter expressing concerns that the Portfolio Bar Exam would “allow licensure based on a varying and subjective standard that can be easily manipulated.” However, others still contend that conducting actual legal work for a few months is a far more accurate indicator of a law school graduate’s aptitude for the industry than a grueling two-day exam. Further, it’s hard to argue that being paid for months of hands-on legal experience is a worse deal than taking months off of work to study for the bar.

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Looking ahead, the Portfolio Bar Exam will be tested through a pilot program of about one hundred law school graduates. Though the most recent state to ditch the bar, there seems to be a growing trend across the country which favors a more experience-based, rather than test-based, approach to attorney certification.

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Oregon Thought of it First:

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California’s most recent step towards an experience-based, rather than examination-based, attorney licensure program comes just two weeks after the Oregon Supreme court implemented the same thing. Similarly to California’s proposed program, Oregon’s Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination requires law school graduates to spend 675 hours under the tutelage of a seasoned attorney, yielding a portfolio of legal work that bar officials will grade in lieu of a bar exam. Oregon’s new bar alternative will go into effect May 2024, enabling Oregon law students to look forward to months of paid work rather than months of studying without pay.

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Wisconsin and Utah: Your $200k Piece of Paper is Enough for Us.

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The COVID-19 pandemic inspired Utah to be the first state to enable law school graduates to bypass the bar, but still practice. In April 2020, the Utah Supreme Court approved an “emergency program” wherein recent law graduates who meet a lengthy list of criteria, including conducting 360 hours of legal work under the tutelage of an experienced and licensed attorney, could become full members of the Utah bar without taking the bar exam.

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Similarly, Wisconsin also implements diploma privilege: graduation from the University of Wisconsin Law School automatically translates to being licensed to practice law in that state. Diploma privilege, which dates back to 1870 in this state, enables Wisconsin graduates to practice in federal agencies like the IRS, FTC, and SEC. Law students interested in taking this route, rather than the lose-months-of-your-life-to-bar-studying route, must satisfy academic requirements and pass a character and fitness certification.

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Having your final tuition payment be your final investment into your legal certification—rather than forking out another chunk of your savings for a two-day exam—is an attractive alternative to many law students.

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The Verdict

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Going to law school in Utah, Wisconsin, or Oregon could exempt you from the long process of preparing for and taking the bar exam; plus, the certification process in California seems to be not far behind. Though a longtime shared-trauma experience for attorneys across the country, the bar may soon not be a common experience in the legal field.

X/Twitter has some explaining to do regarding some of it’s allegedly unmarked ads. Earlier this week, Check My Ads, a non-profit advertisements watchdog filed a formal complaint against X/Twitter with the FTC. Check My Ads alleges the following:

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1. X/Twitter misrepresents the methods employed to target users or facilitate third-party ad targeting;
2. X/Twitter misrepresents the disclosure and labeling methods to advertisers;
3. X/Twitter explains its user targeting practices via hyperlinks that are frequently broken.

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Check My Ads is asking for the following relief:

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• Get X to create a public database detailing all advertising on the platform.
• Get X to clearly label all ads.
• Fine the company for violating a 2022 order that prohibits X from misrepresenting its ad practices.
• Require X to give up its ill-gotten advertising gains.
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This complaint follows similar allegations in September by Check My Ads founder Co-Founder Nandini Jammi:

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Check My Ads isn’t the only group that has noted seeing these unmarked ads. TechCrunch, for example, recently explained that it saw this in their timeline:

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So what do they want?

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Check My Ads is seeking the following from the FTC:

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• Get X to create a public database detailing all advertising on the platform.
• Get X to clearly label all ads.
• Fine the company for violating a 2022 order that prohibits X from misrepresenting its ad practices.
• Require X to give up its ill-gotten advertising gains.
• Provide any other relief the Commission thinks is appropriate.

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The Verdict:

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The FTC has really been cracking down on advertisement disclosures as of recent. We fully expect them to take this one seriously.

Have you seen advertisements for the “miracle drink” capable of curing neurological disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's? Well, those ads cost Bang Energy $336 million.

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The suit began in 2018, when Monster Energy sued its ex-rival Bang Energy for false advertising and other misconduct. Monster alleged that Bang misled consumers about the ingredients in, and the benefits of, its product.

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A “Miracle Drink”

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So apparently Bang’s advertised that it’s products contained containing "Super Creatine,” were a "miracle drink" capable of curing neurological disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and beat it’s competition as the “healthiest energy drink.”

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Unfortunately, Bang is not the cure to Alzheimer’s—nor does it even contain “Super Creatine.” And as you would expect, Monster won the suit and a cool $293 million. The court also banned Bang from continuing to advertise with these strange and outlandish claims. However, Monster is unlikely to ever see this $293 million: after the verdict for Monster, Bang promptly declared bankruptcy.

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But this bankruptcy did not mark the end of Monster’s bone to pick with Bang—Monster was just getting started. Last year, Monster won $175 million in a trademark infringement claim against Bang. Then, this past month, the court awarded Monster all the fees it asked for in the false advertising case:  Monster won $20.9 million in attorneys' fees and $22 million in additional damages. The judge noted the strength of Monster’s case, as well as the "disrespect for the judicial process” exuded by Bang's then-CEO Jack Owoc during the 2022 trial. Thus, Monster’s total damages in the false advertising case amounted to $336 million — one of the largest awards in the history of federal trademark law.

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Despite its awareness of Bang’s advertising blunders, Monster still saw potential in the Bang Energy brand. Monster acquired Bang for $362 million in July 2023, and the acquired assets included Bang’s energy drink products and beverage production facility in Phoenix, Arizona. While Bang might not be able to cure diseases, Monster now plans for its products to use caffeine, rather than shocking ads, to make us feel more alert.

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The Verdict:

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Be very, very careful about what and how you advertise your products. Also, if you have a competitor like Monster, be 10x as careful. Check out the complaint:

The Tesla employee ‘fit varies depending on your role. If you’re assembling cars, you wear a black shirt; if you’re a supervisor, you wear a red shirt; and if you’re a line inspector, you wear a white shirt. Tesla’s “team wear” policy has been the center of recent labor law controversy: employees at Tesla’s Fremont, CA assembly plant alleged that Tesla was in violation of labor laws for prohibiting them from wearing union t-shirts. Tesla argued that these outfit regulations were necessary to protect vehicles throughout the assembly process.

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Tesla started cracking down on employees’ uniforms in 2017. In fact, the uniform policy developed simultaneously to the United Auto Workers’ organizing campaign, causing the union to allege that Tesla was stifling their organizing efforts. Last week, President Biden shared his support of the union's efforts to organize workers at Tesla and Toyota.

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Earlier this week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Tesla’s uniform policy requiring employees to wear company-issued shirts, and allowing them to wear union stickers, is lawful. This overturned the National Labor Relations Board’s 2022 statement that any employer bans on union insignias were unlawful without falling under special circumstances. Accordingly, the court specifically noted that the NLRB could not legally require Tesla to prove special circumstances to justify its uniform policy. Because Tesla employees could “affix any number or size of union stickers to their team wear," Tesla’s uniform policy poses no interference with union organizing efforts.

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Looking forward, the 5th Circuit continues to deliberate a separate but related matter: Tesla’s appeal of an NLRB decision which purported that CEO Elon Musk’s 2018 tweet—which stated that  that employees would lose stock options if they joined a union—is a violation federal labor law.

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The Verdict:

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More to come on whether Tesla goes 2-0 against the NLRB. Until then, we can rest assured that Tesla employees are allowed to express their union allegiance and spice up their style with pieces of flair.

The more the merrier! Today we’re announcing a new feature called Teams! Now you can easily invite your coworkers to your company dashboard to help each other hire, share favorite freelancers, and consolidate billing and payments.

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How to invite someone from your dashboard

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We made it super convenient and straightforward to invite teammates — simply log into your dashboard and locate the “Invite teammates” button on the bottom left-hand corner. From here, you can add your teammates’ email, role, and assigned positions/engagements (both optional).

Get a second opinion on candidates

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Found a great candidate but want to get the thumbs up from someone else on your team?

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After receiving applications, you can easily share prospective candidates with someone else by inviting them to your dashboard. Your invited teammate can then view profiles, send interview requests, and hire.

Or, simply add teammates when creating a position and the invitees will receive emails from candidates that apply!

Streamline invoice approvals

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Sometimes the AP team can be out of the loop when you need an invoice paid.  Now you can assign the Billing Manager role to your AP team so they get access to your company dashboard, including the Invoices tab. Then, when an invoice is issued, your billing manager will receive an e-mail with the invoice along with the admin users to streamline invoice approval and payment.

Weekly work summaries for everyone

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Weekly work summaries are a week-by-week email breakdown of your spend by freelancer. If you have multiple teammates working with a freelancer, you can invite them and assign them to specific engagements so they can receive the weekly summary emails, and view worklogs in the dashboard on a day-to-day basis.

Alternatively, anyone that you invite can easily join and leave any open position or engagement after getting invited to your dashboard.

Try out this feature now by creating a position or logging in to your dashboard.

Exciting news! We just launched a new way to request interviews with our talent network to make hiring on Lawtrades even faster.

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Here’s how it works:

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What’s new?

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We’ve simplified how you can request interviews without all the back and forth. When viewing candidates, click the “Request Interview” button on their profile.

In this screen, you’ll be able to send a brief introduction of yourself and suggested three times you’re available to chat.

When a candidate accepts a time, you’ll get an email confirmation with a Zoom link to join. You can also track all your upcoming interviews in your dashboard and reschedule if necessary.

After the call, you can let us know how the interview went and easily hire or decline the talent with a click of a button ✨

Try it out now!

Ever since Brandon Une started using Lawtrades at Recharge, his work life has been simplified. As director of legal for Recharge, he has used Lawtrades for important legal work while maintaining a level of flexibility ideal for a versatile startup.  

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“Invaluable,” he said, “is the word we’re using.”

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Lawtrades provided immediate help

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Recharge is the leading subscription payments solution, helping ecommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. In May 2021, Recharge closed their Series B round of funding, raising $277 million in growth capital from Summit Partners, ICONIQ Growth, and Bain Capital Ventures to bring the company to a $2.1 billion valuation.

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Brandon, a Harvard Law graduate who previously worked at law firms and other in-house roles and is a former CPA, started at the company in March as the first legal hire. (The legal team has since expanded.)  

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“Lawtrades really helped me to plug in, especially when I was by myself,” he said. “When I needed commercial contract review, both inbound and outbound, they were there for me in whatever capacity that I needed in that area.”

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Lawtrades stood out over other services for its flexibility

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Brandon has mostly used Lawtrades professionals to work on commercial contracts and contract management, but Recharge’s legal team’s workflow varies from week to week. So Brandon wanted a service that fit the varied pace.

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“One of the things I really appreciate about Lawtrades is its flexible model,” he said. “I had interviewed a couple of other providers...but it's a very different business model where you have to commit to a certain number of hours. For me, things just ebb and flow. And I didn't want to run the clock out or just run the meter on things I wasn’t using.”  

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Why Brandon recommends Lawtrades

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In addition to flexibility, Lawtrades has allowed Brandon and the Recharge legal team to focus on the big picture instead of running through every first draft of a commercial contract.

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“If you're a legal team of one, or even two, and you still need to plug holes in places,” Brandon said, “Lawtrades is a really fantastic solution.”  

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More about Lawtrades

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Often, in-house teams may not need the apparatus of a law firm to tackle a specific business need as the best legal talent no longer work exclusively for law firms. At Lawtrades, experienced commercial lawyers join our platform to work on engagements that match their experience and interests. If you’re ready to augment your legal department with a tech-enabled workforce and smart workspace, create a position to get started.

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Akaash Gupta leads the commercial contracting function within the Udemy legal team. He has used Lawtrades since last year, saving time and money, and helping Udemy expand.

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Scaling up with help from Lawtrades

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Udemy offers thousands of online courses for individuals and companies.

As Udemy scales, its contracts with business customers have grown and grown. The faster the legal department can get through the contracts, the more business Udemy can do.

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This is where Lawtrades stepped in, taking some of the load off Udemy’s legal department.

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“The deals on customer templates are complex and long. They will set an attorney back. If an attorney is working on one it will take them like a whole day if not multiple days. That is time we could be spending on other deals and keeping those moving forward. That's been the biggest value add.”

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How Lawtrades has made a difference

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With Lawtrades’ attorneys pitching in, Udemy lawyers have been able to spend more time focusing on the most important contracts and moving forward to the next deal.

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Akaash notes that the sales department has been plenty happy with the legal team’s efficiency.

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“We’ve been able to keep focus and keep moving,” he said.

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Why Akaash recommends Lawtrades

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Akaash has continually been impressed with the experience levels and commercial acumen of Lawtrades’ lawyers.

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“They are very commercially minded, can work independently, and have been in the same positions,” he said. “The people working on our account are people who have worked at similar tech companies at similar stages.”

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More about Lawtrades

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Often, in-house teams may not need the apparatus of a law firm to tackle a specific business need as the best legal talent no longer work exclusively for law firms. At Lawtrades, experienced commercial lawyers join our platform to work on engagements that match their experience and interests. If you’re ready to augment your legal department with a tech-enabled workforce and smart workspace, create a position to get started.

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There’s a buzzword in the techspace called ruthless prioritization. It’s the only way to make a dent in what is usually a never ending pile of work. Michael Marchand, Headspaces’s Director, Legal Affairs, says his legal team often needs extra help so he can ruthlessly prioritize the most relevant projects every day. That’s why he’s hired Lawtrades attorneys to supplement his work.

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Meet Headspace and Michael Marchand

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Headspace is an app that helps people focus, meditate, sleep and manage stress. It’s basically a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to attain a healthier, more mindful lifestyle.

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Michael started working there in 2015, overseeing the Headspace legal department as Director, Legal Affairs. Before that, he worked in IP litigation for a boutique law firm in Southern California. He graduated from Pepperdine Law School and the Pepperdine George L. Graziadio School of Business and Management.  

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How Lawtrades helps Headspace

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• Enterprise offerings: Headspace features a large stable of enterprise customers, and these sales lead to a lot of legal paperwork during the procurement process. Headspace has just one other full-time in-house attorney besides Michael. It used Lawtrades to takeover some of these legal tasks. “That commercial review was taking a ton of time,” Michael said. We needed some additional support.”  He added, “There’s a lot of different areas of domain expertise Lawtrades can help with.”
• More time for issue spotting: “Attorneys are trained that the most important work of the analysis is issue spotting,” Michael says. “You have to pull yourself out of the weeds to do that issue spotting and that's really what Lawtrades has allowed me to do. Rather than spend my time in the nitty gritty and knee deep in indemnification clauses all day, I’m taking a more comprehensive view of the legal program at Headspace. Particularly for a relatively small organization, a small legal department, that's super important.”

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The benefits of Lawtrades over Traditional Outside Counsel

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• No long-term contracts: Michael likes that he can sign up for “pay as you go” services from Lawtrades.
• Single point of contact: Michael communicates directly with his Lawtrades lawyer. “You're not getting routed through a partner for, like, business development...and having the associate doing it and the partner reviewing it and getting double or triple billed.”  
• Friendliness and customer service: “Lawtrades has been a 100 percent success rate of really great people. It's been a great partnership,” Michael says. “As I go into budget planning, I'm always looking for areas to pull more work away from traditional law firms and place it toward Lawtrades.”

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More about Lawtrades

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Often, in-house teams may not need the apparatus of a law firm to tackle a specific business need as the best legal talent no longer work exclusively for law firms. At Lawtrades, experienced commercial lawyers join our platform to work on engagements that match to their experience and interests. If you’re ready to augment your legal department with a tech-enabled workforce and smart workspace, create a position to get started.

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Welcome To Our Invoices Tab

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We're excited to announce our new invoices tab that makes it easier to track your account's finances. Now, you can quickly see the balance due, helping you with budgeting and ensuring timely payments.

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New Features

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1. Search by Date: Now, you can easily search for invoices within a specific timeframe by specifying the start and end dates. This allows for more efficient tracking of past invoices and simplifies the process of finding the information you need.
2. Invoice Number Search: In addition to date-based searches, you can quickly locate a specific invoice by directly entering its number into the search bar. This feature saves you time and enables a faster retrieval of specific invoice details.
3. Filter for Quick Navigation: To streamline your invoice browsing, we have added a handy black filter toggle button on the right-hand side. This enables you to filter through your invoices based on various criteria, ensuring a more focused and customized view of your invoice history.
4. Easy CSV File Download: To help you maintain organized records, you can now effortlessly download your invoices as CSV files. This feature simplifies archiving and allows for easy integration with your existing record-keeping systems.

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These new features are designed to optimize your invoicing experience, providing enhanced search capabilities, efficient filtering, and convenient file downloads.

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With features like date-based and invoice number search, convenient filtering, and easy CSV file downloads, staying on top of your invoices has never been easier.

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Sign up or log in to try our updated invoices tab now!

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Introducing Our New Home Dashboard

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We are excited to introduce our redesigned Client Home Dashboard, emphasizing faster navigation and key widgets at a glance. This update streamlines your hiring experience on Lawtrades, allowing effortless access to new candidates and critical spend analytics.

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At a Glance

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With a single glance, you can quickly view key account information. The new dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of:

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• Your outstanding balance
• New candidates you should interview
• Your Lawtraders recent work logs
• Billings
• Open positions
• Active engagements

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6 Benefits Of The New Redesign

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1. Time Efficiency: Quickly and conveniently access all of your account details without wasting time navigating through multiple screens or menus.
2. Easy Monitoring: Easily keep track of your account's financial status by viewing the balance due. This allows for effective budgeting and timely payment management.
3. Streamlined Recruitment: The visibility of new candidates enables you to promptly review potential hires, ensuring you stay informed about the latest available talent.
4. Stay Updated: Stay in the loop on the status of all your open positions
5. Engagement Management: Monitor both your active and completed engagements with a comprehensive understanding of ongoing projects, facilitating effective decision-making.
6. Work Log Visibility: The availability of recent work logs allows you to monitor your talent’s progress and give feedback.

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The Lawtrades Experience

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Through Lawtrades, you can find your perfect freelance legal talent, manage their workflow, and gain insights to control your spend.

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• Hire with Confidence: We meticulously vet all of our talent so you don't have to.
• Get Full Transparency: Manage work logs and spend analytics directly from the Lawtrades platform.
• Eliminate the Middleman: Skip the law firm mark ups and make your budget go 4x further.
• Work Smarter, Not Longer: Lawtrades data analysis goes beyond the resume to surface the ideal candidate in 24 hours or less.

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If you're looking to hire world-class flexible legal talent and scale your outside counsel work join our client network today and check out why you should use us.

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In this blog post, we will delve into the world of billable hours and explore the essential do's and don'ts that can help lawyers navigate this intricate aspect of their practice. Whether you're a seasoned attorney looking to optimize your billing processes or a fresh-faced lawyer just starting out, mastering these principles can significantly impact your effectiveness, client satisfaction, and ultimately, your success.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid: What Not to Do

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1. Bill Vague Entries: These vague entries can be incomplete, lacking the necessary details, making it difficult to discern the actual tasks performed during that time.
2. ‍Block Billing: This can lead to several issues including lack of transparency and Inaccurate client invoicing. While some clients are OK with block billing, we wouldn’t recommend it.
3. ‍Administrative Tasks: Administrative tasks are not directly tied to the legal services or deliverables you are providing your clients, therefore they are generally not eligible for billing.
4. ‍Paralegal v. Legal Tasks: Have a clear line of communication with your clients about your role and what you will be billing for.
5. ‍Don’t wait until last minute to bill: Being diligent about timely billing is essential for client satisfaction, this ensures that you remain in budget.

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Effective Strategies to Follow: What To Do

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1. Detail, detail, detail: This is essential in order to maintain transparency and effective communication. Being as detailed as possible leaves less room for interpretation and gives your client a clear view of the work being done.
2. Bill each entry separately: Break your tasks down individually instead of clustering them together. General rule of thumb: If its more than 3-4 hours being billed at once, then those tasks must broken down in detail further to avoid confusion.
3. Words are important: We are legal professionals, you must be crystal clear about what you are billing for.
4. Understand what your client wants: If you do not understand the task at hand or your scope of work you may be billing for something your client has no intention of using or doesn’t want done. There needs to be a line of communication between yourself and the client.
5. Bill for everything you do: Meaning everything in the scope of the legal work you are getting done for your client that has been discussed.

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In addition to implementing these strategies, leveraging Lawtrades can optimize your client acquisition or talent recruitment process. Lawtrades simplifies the journey by connecting legal professionals with clients or job opportunities, streamlining billing and operations, and fostering a thriving legal freelance career.

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‍The Lawtrades Experience

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Through Lawtrades, you can find your perfect freelance legal talent, manage their workflow, and gain insights on how to improve their experience.

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• Hire with Confidence: We meticulously vet all of our talent so you don't have to.
• Get Full Transparency: Manage work logs and spend analytics directly from the Lawtrades platform.
• Eliminate the Middleman: Skip the law firm mark ups and make your budget go 4x further.
• Work Smarter, Not Longer: Lawtrades data analysis goes beyond the resume to surface the ideal candidate in 24 hours or less.

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Create your profile today and Check out why you should use us.

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Ashley Pantuliano, an AGC at OpenAI, offers valuable insights into the legal and regulatory implications of AI.

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Concerns Regarding Legal Use Cases

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Privacy and security are major concerns when it comes to utilizing AI tools for legal purposes. It is crucial to exercise caution and ensure the protection of attorney-client privilege when handling client data within these tools.

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ChatGPT

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• Theres an element on Chatgpt where they have the right to train on user data, both the input and output of the conversations but you can opt out of that.
• If you’re a lawyer and you’re using it for your legal work for clients, it might be a consideration to fill out this form and Opt out of training.

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Opt Out: User Content Opt Out Request

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On The API side

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• When someone wants to build a tool on top of this technology through Chatgpt’s API they make that available. So people are currently building legal tech on top of it.
• Chat GPT does not train on data on the API side and it is deleted after 30 days.
• Always keep in mind any data that you input and make sure its compliant with any existing privacy laws such as protected health information or HIPPA.

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Copyright & Liability

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• Copyright and liability are important considerations in the realm of AI. Lawmakers are tasked with addressing how existing intellectual property laws apply to this technology.
• It is crucial to be cautious about potential biases in AI models, and OpenAI is actively working to ensure that these models do not produce or perpetuate biased information.

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Unauthorized Practice of Law

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• The development of tools that can perform legal work autonomously raises concerns about the unauthorized practice of law.
• It is important to ensure that such tools are used in a manner that complies with legal regulations and that they are properly supervised by licensed professionals to maintain the integrity of the legal practice.

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