Welcome to our blog. We're on a mission to change the legal industry for the better. Browse our blog for industry insights, career tips, human stories and everything inbetween.

The Flex Legal blog

Welcome to our blog. We're on a mission to change the legal industry for the better. Follow our blog for industry insights, career tips, human stories, and everything in-between. Don't forget to sign up to our newsletter too!

The Flex Legal Blog

index

Welcome to our blog. We're on a mission to make the legal industry more human and agile. Follow our blog for Flex Legal stories, industry news and views, and career tips. Don't forget to sign up to our newsletter too!

Flex Legal Blog

Sign up for our monthly legal industry newsletter

If you would like to be kept up to date with the latest legal and paralegal insights please join our newsletter.

Service Areas

Flexible options to meet your needs

Our partners

Articles from our blog

Since Flex Legal was founded in 2016, we have really enjoyed placing thousands of paralegals with a range of top legal clients, from in-house teams such as Vodafone and ASOS, to law firms such as Dentons and BCLP.

We believe feedback should be given horizontally and vertically, and not just top down. That is why we ask everyone for feedback on their placements, and when it’s lovely - we love to share it!

We’ve taken the time to pull together some of our fave examples - take a look to see what they think about interim legal work through Flex.

**Additional Resources:**

* [How we helped Kraft Heinz meet their internal targets](https://flex.legal/blog/how-flex-legal-helped-kraft-heinz-meet-their-internal-targets) - perhaps these reviews have got you wondering what interim legal resourcing could do for your team? Take a look at this case study, where we break down how we helped Kraft Heinz meet their targets.
* [Hire a Flex Lawyer or Paralegal](https://flex.legal/hire/) - keen to get some valuable support during busy peaks of work? Click here to find out how interim resourcing can really help you.
* [Apply to be a Flex Lawyer or Paralegal](https://flex.legal/apply/why-join) - are you a lawyer who craves a better work/life balance or a paralegal who’s looking for that valuable legal experience to get into the industry? If so, then head here to apply to Flex today!

Placement Feedback Postcard Blog Banner

Apply now

What Flex paralegals think about their client placements

We’re delighted to announce a pilot run of our new blog submission scheme!

One of Flex Legal’s main objectives is to offer deserving legal professionals a chance to get their foot in the door of the industry. Now, we want to offer you a new way to get your profile raised without even needing to be on the Flex platform!

Submitting a blog to Flex Legal is a great way to get your work published on a widely-read legal blog, and get your name out there in the legal community! We’re currently  looking for a handful of good submissions to publish here on the Flex blog. This post will explain what we’re looking for, how you can submit, and some general guidelines on submissions.

## What can you write about?

  
To help keep your submissions relevant to our audience, we’ve pre-selected some broad themes we would like you to write about. Here is what we’re looking to accept submissions on: 

* “*How to do (X)*” - We’d love to get your thoughts on the best way to complete tasks in the legal world. Whether this is “*How to review a contract*” or “*How to complete a DSAR*” or even something more general like “*How to manage your inbox*” we want your expert tips for professional life in the law!
* “*A day in the life of (Y)*” - One of our favourite things about the legal industry are the human stories within it. We want to hear those stories, and we know our community does too! We are incredibly receptive to posts such as “*A day in the life of a trainee solicitor*” or “*A day in the life of a commercial lawyer*”. If you’re not sure your story would suit this, please feel free to get in touch!
* “*My advice on (Z)*” - Careers in the legal industry are often fairly linear, and legal professionals know which step they need to take next. If you have advice about steps you’ve taken previously, we’d love to share it with our community! If you have thoughts on topics such as “*My advice on training contract applications*” or “*What I wish I knew about working in-house before I started*”, we want to hear it!

## What are the submission rules?

1. Your piece should be 600 – 800 words long.
2. Your piece must be original. Unfortunately, we can’t accept blog posts that have been published elsewhere, or your old academic essays.
3. Your piece should be politically neutral and include no hate-speech of any kind. Flex Legal reserves the right to reject any submissions we regard as insensitive.
4. Submission of a blog post does not guarantee publication. As this is a pilot of the scheme, we will only be publishing a select handful of blog posts at this time.

## **General formatting and best practice guidelines**

* The title of your blog post should be short, and under 60 characters.
* Don’t keep readers waiting to get into the meat of your submission! Your introduction should aim to get to the point as soon as possible.
* The best online written content is super consumable. Keep your paragraphs short, your sentences shorter, and use a few subheadings to break your piece into easily digestible chunks.
* If your blog post relies on external links or additional resources, make sure you include these or send them to us separately so we can link them in the text.
* Make sure to write with your audience in mind! Our blog readers are legal professionals of varying seniorities, so make sure you tailor your writing to a junior or senior legal audience who might want to read your piece.
* We want your unique voice and tone to shine through! This is your work - and it should be in your voice. It should go without saying, however, that Flex’s general tone is positive and optimistic. We will naturally express a bit of a preference for tones aligned with ours.
* Please make sure you send us a good headshot of yourself to go along with the blog post. Ideally this would be a well-lit, high-quality photo that includes your full head and shoulders.

## **What does a good blog post look like?**

We have a lot of blog posts on our website that were written by the wider Flex Legal HQ team. They’re all a little different, and all great examples of what a good Flex Legal blog post looks like. They are:

* [5 helpful hints to ace your open days!](https://flex.legal/blog/5-helpful-hints-to-ace-your-open-days) by Client Services Associate [Jacob Darcy](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-darcy-388a6776/).
* [How Nathalie works as a remote lawyer from Mauritius](https://flex.legal/blog/how-nathalie-works-as-a-remote-lawyer-from-Mauritius) by Head of Lawyer Engagement [Emma McDowell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-mcdowell-35102642/).
* [Will the SQE affect diversity in the legal profession?](https://flex.legal/blog/will-the-sqe-affect-diversity-in-the-legal-profession) by former Intern [Isabelle Booth](https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelle-b-50899910a/).

# **How to submit your blog to us**

Please email your completed blog post to us as either a Word or Google document to [james.bosson@flexlegal.co.uk](mailto:james.bosson@flexlegal.co.uk)  
Please also include a preferred headshot of yourself, along with a link to your LinkedIn profile.   
  
If you have any questions about any part of this process, please feel free to email James at the email address above. Good luck!

Blog Submission Scheme

Flex Legal's Blog Submission Scheme

<p>On this week’s Virtual Lunch in collaboration with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/crafty-counsel/">Crafty Counsel</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/lexisnexis/">LexisNexis UK</a>, hosted by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-gould-95832316/">Sophie Gould</a>, Head of Learning &amp; Development at <a href="https://flex.legal/">F-LEX</a>, we were delighted to welcome <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-mcconnell-254a354/">Amy McConnell</a>, Head of Legal Operations at <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone-business/">Vodafone Business</a>, who set out an in-depth road-map on how her company is driving innovation among its in-house counsel.</p><h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><strong>Why do we need to innovate?</strong></h1><p>A truck is approaching an underpass. The driver assumes there is enough clearance room, but misjudges the height of the bridge and the truck becomes stuck. He alerts the Highways Agency, who bring in an engineer to assess the problem. First, the engineer suggests raising the bridge with a hydraulic jack to free the truck. However it becomes clear this is too costly and too dangerous to work. Second, the engineer digs underneath the truck. Again, this isn’t feasible. The engineer finally says they are out of options and the bridge must be demolished. At this moment a civilian walks past and says, “Why don’t you let the air out of the tyres?”</p><p>The above scenario arose because intelligent, professional people often base their solutions on their own experiences and perceptions of a problem, even when such solutions are not optimal. This approach is common-place among all professions and industries, not least the legal sector. This drives inefficiency and a culture of wasted internal resources. But if law firms and in-house legal teams recognise this problem, how can they solve it?</p><h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><strong>1. Getting Started</strong></h1><p>The easiest mistake to make with any project is neglecting the earlier stages of the process and jumping straight into the ‘ideas phase’. This is because it is the most appealing stage, where problems are solved and praise can be easily gleaned for your input. Nevertheless, fleshing out the basics of a project is key for its long-term success. Who are the stakeholders involved? How will the project be structured? Will a Project Manager be needed? It is also crucial to consider current data points before the project progresses. These allow future results to be bench-marked and the success of the project to be quantitatively determined.</p><h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><strong>2. Design and Thinking</strong></h1><p>This stage hails largely from the advertising and media sector, however it is easily applicable to legal teams too. When approaching a problem it is important to consider the end-user and their specific characteristics. For instance, a product aimed at the general public ought to have a set of terms and conditions that is user friendly, and can be meaningfully digested by a lay person. The objective should be to comprehensively solve the problem in the simplest way. To achieve this, the right people must be in the room to begin with. It can be easy for projects to be driven by people who aren’t necessarily the end-users of the solution being developed, yet the most valuable input is often from the consumers, who take the most practical perspective on what works and what doesn’t.</p><p>Linked to this is the sub-stage of understanding and defining the problem. Amy has found that, despite working towards a common end-goal, teams can have various misunderstandings of what that end-goal is. An effective way to mitigate this is to break down the problem into a single sentence which is understood by everyone. This helps to keep the project streamlined and to avoid time-consuming tangents.</p><h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><strong>3. Generating Ideas</strong></h1><p>Despite the leaps and bounds of technology in recent decades, the most effective way to brainstorm ideas is to gather team members around a table, give them a whiteboard and pen, and set them going. Of course, this can be interpreted metaphorically, given how common-place working from home has become. Either way, the premise remains the same: collective energy and different perspectives lead to original ideas.</p><p>The next step is to create the correct environment. Everyone has been in a situation where certain people drain the life out of a brainstorming session by criticising every idea that is put forward. To combat this, ideas must be built upon instead of being dismantled. This is beneficial in two ways: firstly, the initial idea may go on to be developed into the final solution through collective input and tweaking; and secondly, the atmosphere of the group becomes conducive to more ideas being thrown around, even if they sound off-the-wall. Once the fear of criticism and embarrassment is taken away, the group can become free to engage with its own creativity.</p><p>The final stage to effectively generating ideas is to forget all about them! By taking a break and letting the ideas sit in your brain without active thought, connections start to be made subconsciously. This leads to the ‘Eureka!’ moment in the shower or on the dog walk which we can all attest to, when the connections suddenly manifest themselves into the solution we were looking for all along but couldn’t quite grasp.</p><h1 style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><strong>4. Experiment</strong></h1><p>Finally, even when the winning idea has apparently been found, it is essential to experiment and trial different ideas in practice. This negates the usual debate of which idea should be used, a discussion which can never be backed up with accurate data because the idea hasn’t been tested yet. By trialling a selection of ideas, unforeseen issues can be identified and addressed accordingly. This approach ultimately reduces risk and allows ideas to collectively grow until one solution in particular presents itself as optimal.</p>

<div>
	<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/f-lex-virtual-lunch-in-collaboration-with-lexisnexis-and-crafty-counsel-tickets-104936351452" class="sqs-block-button-element--medium sqs-block-button-element" >Sign up here for next week's virtual lunch!</a>
</div>

The Flex Legal blog

What Flex paralegals think about their client placements

Flex Legal's Blog Submission Scheme

How To Think Creatively and Generate Ideas