A Letter To An Aspiring Lawyer: Why The Gig Economy Should Be On Your Radar

By Terri Schofield, Aspiring Lawyer

I’m going to start this article with a word that my fellow
millennials will be all too familiar with, Uber. Believe it or not,
Uber was founded just six years ago, but it’s already one of the
fastest growing companies in the world. The peaks really do come
with the plummets though, and the Uber sensation hasn’t always been
an easy ride, especially not for those behind the wheel. It was
only last year that the company faced the Court of Appeal (UK) in a
landmark case which could set a precedent for millions of workers
in the gig economy.

So, What Is The Gig Economy?

In short, the gig economy is a working pattern for individuals
who hold self-employment status and pick up ‘gigs’ or a string of
one off and short-term jobs, then receive payment for their
services. Putting that into perspective, the Uber driver works for
themselves (control) with this own car and insurance (materials)
and pays their own taxes (PAYE). The driver therefore runs their
business and takes responsibility for its success or failure. This
working style is becoming increasingly common in many types of
profession, even the industry of legal professionals.

Sounds Good, Right?
Many of the benefits to workers are clear. They include flexible
schedules, the ability to work remotely, even the opportunity to
select projects that interest them. It is thanks to technologies
like ‘the cloud’, that allow us to work from wherever we are,
reducing the need for people to attend the same office space at
prescribed hours to do work assigned to them by someone else. Quite
naturally, if this was the end of the article, I am sure people all
over the world would be considering making the leap to this way of
working, but with the highs come the lows.

What’s The Catch?
As an aspiring lawyer, someone who is trying to think with a
balanced mind, you will no doubt be thinking “sure, that sounds
great but there is a gap in that model” and you’d be right. The gig
economy, for the most part, grants the worker self-employment
status, and as self-employment status comes through the door,
employment rights make their way right out of it.

Are The Risks Being Managed?
Simply put, self-employment or worker status does come with reduced
employment rights. Redundancy pay, sick pay and holiday pay are
reserved for those with full employment status. In an attempt to
remedy this issue, the government assigned Matthew Taylor, together
with other specialists in the field, to develop proposals in the
employment rights for U.K. Citizens in what would become known as
Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices.

The aim of the review is based on a single overriding ambition:
all work in the UK economy should be fair and decent with realistic
scope for development and fulfilment. The Taylor Review’s solution
was to alter the third employment category of worker, changing it
to ‘dependent contractor’. As the Good Work report stated:
“Government should retain the current three-tier approach to
employment status as it remains relevant in the modern labour
market but rename as ‘dependent contractors’ the category of people
who are eligible for worker rights but who are not employees.”

How Might This Affect My Career In The Legal
Industry?
Making the connection between how people want to work, and the
acceptance and utilisation of technology is key. Legal businesses
cannot be wedded to service-based practices if they want to move to
this model. The truth is, there is a whole generation of lawyers
who have not married the two.

The gig economy provides an environment where legal
professionals can tap into all the resources they need for their
businesses, to ensure they are agile and flexible enough for both
themselves and the businesses they service. The advantage for
lawyers is they can work flexibly, avoid the legal profession’s
long hours culture, choose how much attention they pay to marketing
versus fee-earning, and keep a higher percentage of the fees they
charge. It’s a model well-suited to parents or those who don’t want
to commute.

Until now, gig-economy companies have been quite resistant to
change. Their business model is often based on offering a
technology service (usually an app) that connects customers with
people who can do the job. This is especially the case for Uber,
which for years presented itself as a digital company and not a
transport one.

Thanks to the increased rights that have developed from the
Taylor Review, millions of flexible workers will receive new rights
under major government reforms, as the UK becomes one of the first
countries to address the challenges of the changing world of work
in the modern economy.

More Changes Ahead
Jon Cartwright, partner at Hazlewoods, said: ‘The continued growth
of platform law firms reflects the enthusiasm in the legal sector
to adapt to new ways of working. It is also part of broader trend
among lawyers to be more entrepreneurial, to strike out on their
own. Some because they want to do things their way, some because
they feel big law firms involve too much politics, and others
because they feel they are not getting enough out of the fees they
earn.’

New agile working trends are changing the face of the legal
profession and technology is the key enabler. The growth of
platform law firms is part of a growing trend for lawyers to work
outside of the traditional law firm structure allowing them to take
more control of how they work and to be more entrepreneurial.
Platform law firms offer the option of working ‘flexi-time’,
avoiding the long hours culture of the legal profession and of
allowing the lawyer to keep a higher percentage of the fees they
charge. Lawyers at these firms are self-employed, work remotely and
use a back office and other shared services such as accounting, IT,
marketing and compliance provided by a central hub. Some
commentators describe it as part of the gig economy. The
self-employed business model enables lawyers to choose when they
work and how much attention they pay to marketing versus
fee-earning. Having lawyers working remotely means platform law
firms often have fewer overhead costs on rent and on-site IT staff
for example.

Points To Remember
Aspiring lawyers, it is 2019 and we are already seeing a rise in
platform law firms and remote working relationships for lawyers.
Virtual courts and subscription based legal advice is a reality
now. The chance of you having to attend a big city law firm
sporting your best business attire is now a thinning prospect. The
big city law firms are very much still there (and still
fascinating), but even those businesses are advancing flexible
working agreements with their employees and it is more unlikely
that you will see the same partner sat in the same seat every
day.

As a trainee however, it is also unlikely that flexible working
in the gig economy will become your immediate reality. Firms and
chambers utilise training contracts and pupillages to gage an
understanding of their trainees and to assess the likelihood of a
continued career. To do that, they have to see you in action. It is
when your business cards transition from trainee/pupil to
solicitor/barrister that you will see the gig economy impact on
your career.

The best take away piece of advice I can give you in this
scenario is to be aware of the gig economy and its ever growing
impact on the legal industry. It WILL change the way we work and
deliver legal services.

Terri Schofield^[1] is a first year LLM
with LPC student at BPP, Manchester. Alongside completing her post
graduate studies, Terri works full time at DWF Law as an Employment
Law Legal Adviser. Terri also sits as the UK Chair of DWF OutFront,
their LGBT+ Network, where she is proactive in increasing
visibility and sourcing opportunities for DWF’s LGBT+
employees.

This article does not constitute legal advice

The opinions expressed in the column above represent the
author’s own.

CENDAL Hosts SDGs Summit in ABU

As part of the mandate of the Centre for Development and
Advanced Learning (CENDAL) to promote educational excellence in and
around the sustainable development goals of the United Nations,
CENDAL would in collaboration with Connected Development host the
first Universities SDGs Summit in Ahmadu Bello University.

The Summit which is scheduled to hold from February 27th – 1st
March 2020 seeks to host students and professionals from different
institutions in Nigeria to drive more awareness around the United
Nations Global Goals for sustainable development.

The Summit would be featuring Panel Discussions and Paper
Presentations from VCs and other key individuals from the academia
and other institutions. Awards would also be issued to students and
other institutions for their active contribution to the Global
Goals.

With just ten years 2020 until the next review for the SDGs, the
pertinence of collaboration cannot be overemphasized.

The summit is to hold annually in different universities around
the country leading up to the next review of the United Nations and
every year a compendium of the summit detailing students concerns,
communiques from the summit panels and suggestions on how the
government and the United Nations itself can further advance better
achievement of the goals would be published. This compendium is to
serve as a referral document for public consumption.

The Centre invites Universities, Organizations and other
promoters of the SDGs to join in on the summit.

By PRNigeria^[1]