Lawyers don’t have to limit themselves to practicing law in a courtroom or the boardroom. Legal consultants have far more freedom when it comes to designing their ideal careers, and you might find that the freelance lifestyle more accurately aligns with your business goals. Fortunately, there are several types of legal consulting jobs available for freelancers.
If you haven’t gone to law school and passed the Bar exam, you can’t set up shop as a lawyer. However, you can become a freelance paralegal. You’ll conduct case research, review contracts, undertake legal writing projects, and investigating evidence.
If you enjoy working in the corporate world, but you don’t want a 9-to-5 job, consider freelancing as a corporate adviser. You’ll provide your professional opinion to executives and managers who are making decisions for their firms. You might also help draft contracts or review legal documents for your clients.
High-profile criminal trials sometimes have dozens of legal professionals on the team. As a consultant, you’ll provide assistance and guidance for the counsel in charge of the case. You might work with private investigators and expert witnesses or go over testimony with the client.
As a legal consultant, you might advise companies that are involved in mergers and acquisitions. Your clients want to protect themselves (as well as their interest in the business), so they come to you to review contracts and negotiate the terms of the deal.
Do you love writing, revising, and reviewing contracts? If so, you can make a career out of it. As a contract consultant, you’ll prepare contracts for your clients to protect their interests and to ensure each document’s legal validity. You might also review contracts that others have written and advise your clients about whether or not they should sign them as-is (or how they should request modifications).
These days, real estate is very much a business for many people. You don’t have to have millions of dollars to invest in homes and businesses, so real estate flippers and landlords need legal consultants to help them make decisions and prepare contracts. You might set up agreements with tenants for rental properties, for instance, or review lease-to-own agreements.
The image you get of lawyers’ offices on television might lead you to believe that legal professionals deal primarily in paperwork. However, information technology is a booming business in our modern world, and companies and IT businesses have to protect themselves. Since laws are often vague when it comes to computer crimes and intellectual property, it’s your job to advise your clients and to protect them.
You can also work as a labor consultant for unions as well as for individual employees. Your job involves protecting employees from mistreatment at work. You might specialize even further, such as in worker’s compensation law or wage and hour law.
As you can see, you can create a legal consulting career out of any type of law you might want to practice. Leverage your experience and expertise to help your clients protect themselves and exercise their rights. If you’re not sure what you should charge as a freelance consultant, check out our research on freelance consultants around the globe.