How In-house legal teams are embracing flexible talent
High-performing in-house legal teams, from fast-growing startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, are turning to flexible legal talent as a core part of their resourcing strategy. Beyond cost-savings, teams are looking for fractional talent to help with agility, mitigate risk, experiment without adding headcount and more.
Earlier this week, Matt Wheatley, VP of Client Strategy at Priori, hosted a webinar on flexible legal talent in 2025. The biggest takeaway was that flexible talent is no longer just a short-term fix but a permanent strategic advantage.
According to Thomson Reuter’s 2025 ALSP report, “40% [of law firms] expect to increase their use of independent ALSPs in the next year, while only 1% expect to decrease such use.”
From using boutique law firms to contend with rising Big Law rates to the ways in-house teams tap into flexible talent for tiering work, here’s a look at the biggest trends shaping the flexible legal talent landscape in 2025.
Flexible Talent is a Permanent Feature
More and more, in-house legal teams are turning to flexible talent as a permanent feature, instead of just a band-aid for temporary gaps. The knowledge and capabilities of flexible attorneys and legal professionals available on platforms like Priori Talent Marketplace have increased immensely in the past few years. Because of this, clients are tapping into our for much more than the low complexity, low risk, highly repeatable legal work that is traditionally associated with flexible legal talent.
“We have had success in a range of work including privacy, dispute resolution and general corporate matters and corporate governance. With Priori, I was very pleasantly surprised at how quickly someone is able to get familiar with the company and contribute.” - Adam Lichstein, General Counsel, SeatGeek
For example, one of the fastest-growing types of work that we see in-house teams using Priori for is product counsel roles. As recently as four or five years ago, this type of work, which could include data privacy, IP, technology and cybersecurity, among others, was a rare request and now it is one of our top three use cases. Other recent examples of highly specialized work sourced through Priori include presenting legal advice to a public company board and leading major litigation for high-stakes cases.
Boutique Law Firms as Big Law Alternatives
It’s no secret that law firm rates are hitting all time highs (e.g., the recent Law.com article saying “Law Firms Are ‘Pinching Themselves” Amid Double-Digit Profit Growth”). Managing these increases is top of mind for in-house counsel and legal operations professionals who are tasked with spend management. In many cases, rather than relying on Big Law, clients are turning to boutique firms to outsource the same amount of work, and get the same level of expertise, often for a fraction of the cost.
On Priori Talent Marketplace, it’s not uncommon to see small, specialized firms operated by ex-Big Law or former in-house attorneys, which means they can offer similar outcomes for better rates. In partnership with Brightflag, we shared some insight into flexible talent rates as they compare to Am Law 100 firms in their Hourly Rates in Am Law 100® Firms Report. You can see what flexible talent rates look like in some key practice areas below.
In 2024, flexible legal talent rates vary by practice area:
- Mergers & Acquisitions: $180 - $240 per hour
- Corporate: $205 - $260 per hour
- Litigation: $150 - $310 per hour
- Intellectual Property: $195 - $240 per hour
Flexibility Enables Experimentation
As of December 2024, 72% of legal department professionals think GenAI integration will become an essential part of the legal profession, but how GenAI impacts legal long-term is still very much in question. Instead of hiring, full-time in-house staff, legal teams leverage flexible talent to experiment as new technologies and workflows emerge.
One way we see this kind of experimentation using Priori Talent Marketplace companies is with headcount. Between limited budgets, uncertain workloads and the cost that comes along with onboarding new full-time hires, more in-house teams are using flexible talent as a way to quickly scale their capabilities up and down while they determine what makes the most sense long-term With potential disruptions to the legal industry at large looming from GenAI, we expect to see this kind of experimentation increase.
A Perennial Effort: Tiering Work
The most effective legal departments are “right-sourcing” and tiering work. At the simplest level, they’re looking at risk, complexity, frequency, duration and other factors that influence the importance and urgency of legal work and strategically deciding where to send different types of work. Highly complex, bet-the-company work may always go to Big Law firms, but where other work goes depends on analysis of those factors.
Data from Priori Talent Marketplace shows that in-house teams are common flexible talent use cases like commercial contracts remain very popular, but other types of work that in years past may have gone to large law firms are increasingly going to boutique law firms and flexible talent on our network. Here are the top 10 ways legal departments used Priori Talent Marketplace in 2024.
- Commercial Contracts
- Technology, Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Litigation, Arbitration & Disputes
- Administrative, Government & Regulatory
- Employment & Labor
- Intellectual Property
- Corporate Finance & Fundraising
- Healthcare & Life Sciences
- Corporate Governance
- Funds & Fund Formation
As mentioned above, one of these use cases that has developed over the past few years is product counsel, representing the second most common practice area on Priori Talent Marketplace in the chart above.We’re seeing a huge influx of clients looking for expertise in privacy, technology, IP and other related areas to help advise companies on taking their tech products to market.
Flexible talent becoming a permanent part of a company’s resourcing strategy is the most resolute trend we see. Driven by the value found on platforms like Priori Talent Marketplace, in-house teams are moving away from traditional outside counsel and embracing flexible legal talent.
Talk to our team. Find out how Priori can help your company enhance its outside counsel management strategy through talent and software solutions.
