contractlawyers

I really enjoy stories about lawyers who have taken their careers on a less traditional path. I especially enjoy speaking with lawyers who have done some very unlawyerly and more entrepreneurial things. At the same time, I’m always looking for guests who can speak to my audience about alternative ways to practice, particularly when it involves better work life balance. My guest in this episode, Erin Giglia,  has deep knowledge about both subjects.

Erin practiced at several major firms in Southern California until she co-founded Montage Legal Group in 2009. Montage Legal Group is a nationwide network of experienced contract/freelance attorneys with impressive credentials from top law schools and training in prestigious law firms. Montage’s attorneys assist law firms with temporary and substantive legal projects on an hourly basis, providing a cost-effective way to manage case overflow.

Erin talks about building her business. She also discusses how lawyers, particularly women, can get back into the work force after an extended break.

“You don't have to do things the way people have done them for 50 to 100 years."

“We’ve got legal rules that confine us, but we don't have to be confined with the way in which we deliver those legal services.”

And with that, Helen Kay set out to create a very different law firm from the ground up.

The Managing Director of Rise Legal shares her journey from the UK to Australia, starting in one of the biggest firms and eventually working for herself as a sole-trader, only to find that what she needed, and wanted, was somewhere in between.

“It started as a niggle and that niggle was, don't like the mahogany desks, I don't like hourly rate billing, I don't like this part of it.”

“I had a goal in mind and I needed to build a network of people who I knew, liked and trusted and who were going to know, like and trust me, ready for when I wanted to start my own law firm and I knew it was going to look different this time.”

“So I didn't say no to anything. That was a sort of taboo word .. even if I was exhausted, even if I had four other things on that week, I never said no.”

TOPICS

•     Goalsetting and the business of law 
•     From big law to the evolution of new law
•     Entrepreneurship, networking and building a profile 
•     Client service and KPI's - a new measure of success!   

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Credits

Host: Alex Correa - Career Coach in Law

Brought to you by Alex Correa Executive  

With thanks to our guest : Helen Kay

Friends in Law is edited and engineered by Cold Ghost (aka Fletcher Babb)  Produced by Bern Young