How Flex Paralegals support Freshfields' service delivery

The Client: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

It’s no secret that the legal industry is undergoing rapid, transformative change; and so despite their well-renowned legacy, Freshfields are continuously taking steps to stay ahead of the curve by reinventing themselves and redesigning the way legal professionals work. Eager to maintain their ‘one-firm’ mindset by sharing knowledge and expertise across their multiple sites, the Freshfields Client Delivery Group has been designed to pair the latest technology with industry-leading, solution driven expertise and people. In practice, this means that despite being spread across multiple locations, specialist legal professionals, including lawyers, technologists, and process improvement experts, are equipped to collaborate with incredible efficiency on an incredibly large scale.

Freshfields’ Manchester Hub sits as a strategic part of the firm’s Client Delivery Group, operating globally in close collaboration with teams across Europe and Asia, in over 30 languages. Here, the Freshfields Legal Solution Specialists support on high value and large volume projects, including due diligence, document review, regulatory surveys, contract production, and legal analysis. The Hub’s key practice groups are: Dispute Resolution; Antitrust, Competition, and Trade; and Global Transactions. On a frequent basis, these teams need to meet tight deadlines for bespoke and often voluminous tasks, such as large scale document review involving tens of thousands of documents. This is where Flex’s on-demand resourcing comes in!

The Challenge: Finding extra capacity and skills, quickly!

Putting the needs of Freshfields’ clients first, Flex Legal has worked hard to provide flexible, on-demand, interim support to this vibrant Northern office. Through this innovative partnership, we have successfully placed a huge 420+ paralegals across more than 60 projects at the firm. Whether it’s all hands on deck for urgent high volume work, or supporting a project requiring bilingual skills, Flex Legal is proud to deliver a straightforward comprehensive solution to fluid work-flows.

On the back of our strong relationship with the Manchester Hub, we are delighted to have also provided support to Freshfields’ London and New York legal teams on a huge array of projects. From document review projects and translation services, to marketing and business development analysis, we are always ready to go above and beyond to support Freshfields in delivering an industry-leading service.

Our Solution: Temporary Legal Solution Specialists

We carefully consider every application, and assess our paralegals’ legal knowledge and attention to detail before inviting them to build a profile. This way, we can make sure we are attracting top talent, and maintaining a diverse and skilled workforce. When the team at Freshfields find themselves in need of an extra pair of hands (or many!), the Private Practice Team at Flex Legal is ready to facilitate a quick and straightforward solution.

By carefully considering the needs of Freshfields, taking into account requirements such as previous legal experience, academic qualifications, and the skills of each of our paralegals, we quickly provide a shortlist tailored to each and every project. During the selection process, we perform enhanced background checks to ensure we are maintaining confidentiality and on their first day, members of our Manchester City Centre office will deliver our ‘Flexpecations’ presentation! In doing so, the team are able to troubleshoot any questions before they arise, and ensure that our team of paralegals are ready to hit the ground running. Being able to clearly communicate these finer details with our paralegals helps to facilitate a smooth start and provides them with the valuable opportunity to meet with their Flex point of contact in person.

Outcome: 420 placements across more than 60 projects

But don’t just take our word for it. We’ve spoken with Rachael Miller, the Operations Manager at the Freshfields Hub. Rachael very kindly shared her thoughts on the relationship:

"Flex's pool of talent is exceptional, and every individual they’ve placed with us has brought value to our team. Many temps who have come in through Flex have been onboarded into permanent roles within the Freshfields Hub showing what excellent talent they have. They are always available to address concerns or questions, and they consistently follow up to ensure that everything is running smoothly.

We also enjoy working with Flex due to the digital processes they have in place including the ability to see a temporary worker’s profile. These show the individual's work experience, qualifications, and includes a video recording of themselves which gives an insight to the individual.

Thanks to Flex, we’ve been able to seamlessly fill temporary roles with qualified professionals, allowing us to maintain productivity and meet our business objectives. We highly recommend Flex to any company seeking reliable and efficient temporary staffing solutions."

We’ve also spoken with James O’Brien, Global Manager at Freshfields. This is what he said: "The Flex team are amazing. Their responsiveness is much appreciated, and they are indeed a valuable partner for us in maintaining the high levels of service delivery that our clients expect when they come to Freshfields."

Additional Resources:

• Hire now - Want to follow in Freshfields footsteps and discover the benefits of interim resourcing? Get in touch to hire high-calibre paralegals and lawyers now.
• Apply to be a Flex Paralegal/Lawyer - If you want to open yourself up to a world of exciting interim legal work opportunities, then click here to read why you should apply to work through Flex Legal.
• Kraft Heinz Case Study - Read all about how we helped Kraft Heinz to hire flexible, quality candidates during peak workloads and meet their internal targets.