Consulting on Appellate Work Forum

[Anonymous User]

I've been in practice for a couple of years. I've written a number of appellate briefs, some in whole and some in part. I've gotten to be pretty good at it, to the point that I know I create similar product to partners at other firms who charge 2-3x my rate.

That difference in rates raises the question of whether there is any market for me to contract out my writing services. I'm pretty sure I could get my firm to allow this or else do it on the side. Has anyone ever heard of a person doing this? My instinct is that most firms wouldn't want to farm out the work for a number of reasons. On the other hand, people can get busy, and some people hate to write briefs but wouldn't want to lose the client by sending him elsewhere for that one service. There are also small/mid-sized firms that aren't particularly well-equipped to handle appellate cases. Finally, there's the question of whether this would be ethical for the other attorney to hire me without disclosure to the client. Just trying to get some thoughts.

[KidStuddi]

I've been in practice for a couple of years. I've written a number of appellate briefs, some in whole and some in part. I've gotten to be pretty good at it, to the point that I know I create similar product to partners at other firms who charge 2-3x my rate.

That difference in rates raises the question of whether there is any market for me to contract out my writing services. I'm pretty sure I could get my firm to allow this or else do it on the side. Has anyone ever heard of a person doing this? My instinct is that most firms wouldn't want to farm out the work for a number of reasons. On the other hand, people can get busy, and some people hate to write briefs but wouldn't want to lose the client by sending him elsewhere for that one service. There are also small/mid-sized firms that aren't particularly well-equipped to handle appellate cases. Finally, there's the question of whether this would be ethical for the other attorney to hire me without disclosure to the client. Just trying to get some thoughts.

Are we talking exclusively about small and midlaw here? I guess I can't speak to the business model of smaller firms, but what you're describing is called "being an associate" in BigLaw: we're all professional ghostwriters. Partner sells the work with their name -- way more work than he or she could ever do alone -- the firm's associates do all of the research and write the brief/motion/memo/etc., and then the partner comes in at the 11th hour only to read (sometimes) and sign it. Do your partners actually regularly write their own shit?

[Anonymous User]

I've been in practice for a couple of years. I've written a number of appellate briefs, some in whole and some in part. I've gotten to be pretty good at it, to the point that I know I create similar product to partners at other firms who charge 2-3x my rate.

That difference in rates raises the question of whether there is any market for me to contract out my writing services. I'm pretty sure I could get my firm to allow this or else do it on the side. Has anyone ever heard of a person doing this? My instinct is that most firms wouldn't want to farm out the work for a number of reasons. On the other hand, people can get busy, and some people hate to write briefs but wouldn't want to lose the client by sending him elsewhere for that one service. There are also small/mid-sized firms that aren't particularly well-equipped to handle appellate cases. Finally, there's the question of whether this would be ethical for the other attorney to hire me without disclosure to the client. Just trying to get some thoughts.

I know of a number of small law firms that farm out their appeals (particularly on contingency victories that involve a tricky issue) to boutiques or just lawyers who just do that. They view it as protecting their investment. But they have to actually think they might lose on appeal or they aren't going to freely give up income.

[Anonymous User]

I've been in practice for a couple of years. I've written a number of appellate briefs, some in whole and some in part. I've gotten to be pretty good at it, to the point that I know I create similar product to partners at other firms who charge 2-3x my rate.

That difference in rates raises the question of whether there is any market for me to contract out my writing services. I'm pretty sure I could get my firm to allow this or else do it on the side. Has anyone ever heard of a person doing this? My instinct is that most firms wouldn't want to farm out the work for a number of reasons. On the other hand, people can get busy, and some people hate to write briefs but wouldn't want to lose the client by sending him elsewhere for that one service. There are also small/mid-sized firms that aren't particularly well-equipped to handle appellate cases. Finally, there's the question of whether this would be ethical for the other attorney to hire me without disclosure to the client. Just trying to get some thoughts.

Are we talking exclusively about small and midlaw here? I guess I can't speak to the business model of smaller firms, but what you're describing is called "being an associate" in BigLaw: we're all professional ghostwriters. Partner sells the work with their name -- way more work than he or she could ever do alone -- the firm's associates do all of the research and write the brief/motion/memo/etc., and then the partner comes in at the 11th hour only to read (sometimes) and sign it. Do your partners actually regularly write their own shit?

OP here. And no, I don't imagining that biglaw firms would be my target market. Of course, without crunching the numbers, I'm going to wager that a significant majority of appellate cases nationwide are handled by non-biglaw firms. In my state, the percentage of appeals handled by non-biglaw firms is something approaching 100%.