Don't want to be a partner? We have the technology

I have no idea if ItsMyLaw, the business currently talking to several substantial commercial law firms about using contract lawyers, will be a company that ushers in a breakthrough in the legal business model. But it would be surprising if the UK legal market didn't in future make more use of 'floating' lawyers instructed for specific mandates, as opposed to employed by law firms themselves.

After all, we are often told that many talented lawyers are not interested in becoming partners anymore and that junior lawyers increasingly value the chance to have flexibility in deploying their legal skills. In a good number of cases it seems the claustrophobic confines of the law firm career track force associates and partners with fundamentally different priorities to rub along together - frequently rubbing each other up the wrong way.

So with a large, skilled and presumably willing workforce of UK lawyers available thanks to sweeping job cuts over the last 18 months, and firms under pressure to cut costs, contract lawyers would seem one obvious solution.

It has, in various forms, been commonplace in the US legal market since the 1970s, when firms began shipping in armies of temporary lawyers to handle bet-the-company litigation. Ironically perhaps, some observers see this trend, combined with the widespread adoption at this time of the billable hour, as at the root of the current law model built on leverage and inefficiency. But in this case the focus is running in the opposite direction, being discussed as a means for law firms to improve efficiency, keep costs under tighter control and focus their work on where they can add value.

In some ways, the model being advanced resembles the virtual law firm concept, except the floating lawyers are servicing private practice rather than in-house legal teams. As our recent analysis of virtual firms suggests, success or failure largely hinges on the quality control of the retained lawyers.

In the case of firms such as Axiom and Keystone Law, where clients speak highly of the calibre of advisers retained, it appears to work and offer a convincing alternative for the traditional legal partnership.

If similar standards can be applied to contract lawyering, it looks to be a concept with real legs. In addition, the idea could be adapted in many ways. Where on one hand you could have a third-party business vetting and managing the lawyers, law firms themselves could set up pools of temporary lawyers. Allen & Overy is considering one such variant that would potentially create a pool of its alumni to draw on, which obviously make quality control and vetting easier, even if it would probably only work at the larger law firms.

So, in theory, this idea should work for cost-conscious clients, lawyers wanting flexibility and firms wary of hiring in an uncertain commercial environment. There may be lots of reasons floating lawyers can't handle many legal matters, but for the moment they are eluding me. If readers can't get enough of new business models, Adam Smith Esq is starting a series on that very theme.

For more, see Leading City firms in talks to bring in teams of contract lawyers.