Paragon Legal

At Paragon Legal, we're not just about providing legal talent—we're about transforming your legal operations with purpose and precision. Here's a glimpse into our impact by the numbers: 👥 Client Satisfaction: Our clients rate us 9.2 out of 10 for satisfaction. We're committed to delivering exceptional service tailored to your needs. 🌟 Attorney Satisfaction: Attorneys placed through Paragon give us a 9.4 out of 10 satisfaction rating. We support their career growth and professional satisfaction every step of the way. 🎓 Legal Expertise: Over 70% of our client service team holds law degrees, ensuring deep industry knowledge and understanding. 💼 In-House Experience: More than 90% of our candidates bring valuable in-house experience, ready to hit the ground running in your organization. 🌈 Diversity Commitment: Diversity is at our core, with 45% of our corporate and attorney team identifying as people of color. We believe diverse perspectives drive innovation and excellence. Ready to elevate your legal team's performance? Partner with Paragon Legal and experience the difference firsthand. Learn more: https://paragonlegal.com/ #FlexibleLegalTalent #LegalServices

Here’s some real talk and an untold truth about flex legal talent. There is a huge misconception that more candidates flex talent providers have in their network, the better. I disagree & here’s why The flex talent game moves VERY fast. I’m talking hiring in days, not weeks and months. So, yes, I concede having a threshold minimum of solid candidates ready to go across a multitude of practice areas is good, but at some point it’s too much because you need to actually know your candidates, have a relationship and trust. At Paragon Legal, in order to maintain relationships and be able to connect with our candidates quickly, we are doing the unheard of — we are purposefully taking people out of our network. Yes, we could keep adding and have a network of tens upon tens of thousands after nearly 20 years in this game, but that’s not helpful. It doesn’t make us move faster. It’s not a collection numbers game. At some point, more is not more. More can actually be less. If hiring flex, or FTE for that matter, were a simple keyword search, then every hire in every position for eternity would be perfect. But we all know it’s not. It’s figuring out the stuff that isn’t on the resume and solving for what would make a candidate successful in one environment, but maybe not another. It’s the boring stuff like a constantly updated database and the real stuff like keeping a close connection. And let’s be real, for flex talent, there is no “exclusive network” to any provider. We all have access to this wonderful platform here. So if it’s not the number of candidates in the network that makes the difference, what is it? It’s being able to quickly identify the right candidates for a role, the specific role at a specific company. It’s the judgement in the match. Oh, and then it’s knowing that making the match just gets you to the starting line and it’s the support for both the attorney & client to make the whole thing a success. Ok, ranty Friday has commenced. #legalops #inhousecounsel

📣 GCs & Legal Ops Leaders: Stop overpaying for outsourced legal work! ALSPs (Alternative Legal Service Providers) are here to save the day. Our latest article dives into: 1️⃣ The key differences between ALSPs & law firms 2️⃣ 4 strategic benefits of partnering with ALSPs 3️⃣ Real-world case studies of in-house teams thriving with ALSPs Real talk: You'll wish you'd discovered ALSPs sooner. 🤯 Get the full story on ALSPs and how they're helping legal departments do more with less. https://lnkd.in/g9yBcdm3 #ALSPs #InhouseCounsel #LegalOps #FlexibleLegalTalent

A prospective client recently told me, “It seems like your singular focus on flexible legal talent is a point of pride.” 🔨 The observation was spot on. It’s an intentional and conscious decision to specialize. Specialization drives greater focus and efficiency, improving quality and expertise. Chasing shiny objects or trying to be everything to everyone diminishes quality and expertise. As a productivity nerd, it reminds me of Warren Buffett's 5/25 rule. You write down your top 25 priorities and then create two lists. On List A, you put your top 5 priorities. On List B, you put the remaining 20. List A becomes your priority list, and List B becomes your "avoid at all cost" list. When the pie is growing and your share of it is growing, why would you allow yourself to get distracted? People are our product and our service, and it takes work to do it right. We’re not in the business of software - we can’t just copy and paste our attorneys to our clients. Every person and business is a unique case. Clients have inquired about other offerings to pair with our services, and I’d be lying if I said we haven’t been tempted before. But as a human capital business, it’s nearly impossible to do people well if you’re distracted by other things. So we don’t. We stay focused on our core, give it our all, and use our energy to grow these services to more clients.

🚗 Ready to take control of your job search? Paragon's Ann-Margaret Dudley shares practical tips to stay in the “driver’s seat” and master the interview process 👇 In our next installment of Recruiter Tip Tuesday, we’d like to introduce the concept of “staying in the driver’s seat” during your job search.  These two divergent concepts (driver's seat/control -> job search) feel very counterintuitive, almost as if saying….enjoyment and a root canal. And on a broader scale, how do you find any control in a process that seems so utterly out of our hands? As someone who has been career counseling and recruiting for the past 12 years, I wanted to share some tips to help you regain some semblance of control in preparation for and during the interview process.   🔦 It has been said so many times, but preparation pays off. You can control the level of preparation you put into preparing for your job interview.   Know your audience -> Research who you are meeting with. If you have any mutual connections or interests, this will provide a nice conversation starter. Know what type of interview this will be -> Be prepared if it will be a panel interview or a conversational meeting.  If a recruiter represents you, they should be able to provide this information.   Research the company thoroughly -> We can’t overstate the importance of understanding the company’s business model, culture, and recent legal challenges. You can look at the company’s website, press releases, and news articles. Highlight Relevant Experience and Skills ->  Tailor one’s resume and interview responses to emphasize your experience that aligns with the company’s needs. Prepare Thoughtful Questions -> Prepare questions that demonstrate your interest in the company and its legal department, such as inquiries about future projects or departmental goals. Practice Behavioral Interview Questions -> Familiarize yourself with the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to answer behavioral questions effectively if one is thrown at you.  Think of concrete examples and structure a solid answer following the STAR methodology. Demonstrate Cultural Fit -> To the extent possible, learn about the company’s culture and then demonstrate how your values and work style align. You can’t underestimate the importance of conveying enthusiasm for the company’s mission and values. In the coming weeks, we will cover “what not to do before, during, and after the interview.  Remember to stay in the driver’s seat and focus on what is within your control.  Reach out to us for more practical job-searching advice.  We are here for you! Check out #ParagonLegal for our #RecruitingTipTuesday series.  Our recruiting and sourcing team will continue to share cutting-edge information gathered from the front lines of the legal industry. #RecruitingTipTuesday #ParagonLegal #JobSearch #Careers  #FlexibleLegalTalent

I’ve interviewed a lot of people in my time at Paragon. Here are three questions I’ve found truly insightful when hiring: 1. Tell us why you’re here. (It’s basic, but essential). ✅ This is an opportunity to share your career journey and your growth through a compelling and concise story. Why did you make the moves you did, and what did you learn from each? Why does it make sense that you’re here today? I'm also looking here for preparation and communication. ❌ Don’t just read off your resume, I've already done that. Don’t take more than three minutes or you'll lose the room🥱 2. Give me an example of feedback you’ve received and what you did with it. ✅ This shows me coachability and humility. Has feedback and coaching had an impact on you? Can you reflect on feedback in a positive light? I want to see a candidate’s willingness to be grow, humility, and a drive to implement what feedback they received. ❌ If you can’t think of anything or you share feedback you didn’t agree with, that’s a red flag. 3. Tell me something about yourself that’s not on your resume. ✅ I love seeing a candidate light up about something - it’s humanizing, authentic, and shows beyond your professional polished side. I want to see your energy! ❌ Don’t fake your answer or think there's a “right” answer. Inauthenticity is obvious. We’ve hired four new team members in the last year, and we’re still going!

Legal leaders- budget season is fast approaching! what’s the way to get an FTE approved? Be prepared with data! 1. Do a time audit with your team. It’s simple. Go old school with a piece of paper and a pen. Ask your team to track how they spend their time for a few weeks. Not in 6 minute increments — directionally correct buckets. The hardest part of this very simple thing is to get your team comfortable. They’re going to be uneasy/scared/nervous about this. So get them comfortable. Do it yourself first. Show the results. Explain that the goal is to learn so you can help them. 2. Go through the data. Is your team working on the right stuff? If no, take note of what should be moved down, up, or out. Are the things on their plates taking a reasonable amount of time? If not, take note of areas for training. 3. Determine what is a reasonable capacity for each seat. I don’t care what it is — 40 hours, 50 hours, an output goal, etc— but establish what you believe an average week’s capacity should be that is long-term sustainable. (Some weeks can be more or less, this is average) Now you have the real data. You are powered to make the ask. You’ve also done some work to make sure you’re aligning each role to its capacity. Show that you’re overcapacity, that this is not a reflexive hire. And show that it’s not sustainable. Your team is not able to deliver for the business even if things continue like thsi. Also, attrition is quite expensive (DM me if you want a framework for this). This won’t guarantee you’ll get the headcount, but you’ll put yourself in the best dang position to make the case And you thought I was going to make another case for flex talent 🤗🥳 Reach out if you want to chat through in more detail. #inhousecounsel #legalops

I never want to see a contract again after I sign it. If I need to, I’m getting ready. But still The actions of getting to a signed contract is the most inportant thing a business can do. Let me share an analogy Before Trista Engel and I started working together we were friends. We did a lot of work to make sure it was right for us to partner together. One piece of that was scenario planning. We came up with 50 or maybe even more scenarios that could happen if we decided to do this. About life. About work. How would we handle X if Y happened. We talked through all of them how we would handle them when we were of rational thought and mind. Some of these scenario discussions got heated, but ultimately, we came to agreement, wrote down how we would handle, and not to give away the ending, we decided to work together. Now, if one of those scenarios comes up, do I refer to the document 8 years later? Not usually, but we may from time to time. We have a framework to work through it. And maybe we follow what we said many years ago, but usually, we have a new discussion. Leveraging the values and care of the original discussion. Now, if there’s a scenario that we never thought of because it seemed impossible, do we just go crazy because we have nothing to guide us? No, because again we have a framework to work through it. And let me tell ya, in 8 years, we’ve encountered a whole heck of a lot of “we never in a million years would have thought of this” scenarios. A contract may not be something I’m going to follow to the letter, but it’s a framework for how I’m going to work with someone. And is a guide for what happens if I hit a planned or unplanned scenario. Maybe I follow the original contract, maybe I don’t. I have a starting point for a negotiation. Either way, the actions in getting to a signed contract (of any kind) where you set the partnership up for success. Inspired by Laura Frederick’s awesome post yesterday. #contracts #inhousecounsel #legalops

Flex attorneys are a better option than law firms for in-house teams*. There I said it 😱 Here's why: 1) Significantly less expensive (think 50-70%, not 5-10%) 2) moves faster - you get attorneys with in-house experience that know supporting internal clients is the most important thing and they need to move at the pace of the business (I can speak on behalf of Paragon Legal here at the very least) 3) less work on teams - In-house teams do not have to be in the middle digesting & translating work from the law firm to their business-team counterparts -- you want a commercial attorney to interact directly with your sales/procurement teams (check), you want a product attorney directly working with marketing, engineering, compliance, etc (you got it). Not being in the middle gets it off your plate completely 4) no surprises — No work out of scope and 10x extra reviews that no one asked for -- the attorney is integrated into your team so you know what they are working on and you can quickly get them up to speed on your company's risk appetite (in a recent post on AFAs, folks commented that this "extra work no one asked for" can increase law firm spend by 20-50%) 5) no surprises (again) No switcheroo on timekeepers -- you think you're getting a partner, but really you're getting a 2nd year associate that then is reviewed by the 5th year associate that then is reviewed by the junior partner that this is reviewed by the senior partner, which is then reviewed by the powers that be in the infinite wisdom of everything in the world (the last review maybe I made up 😁 ) And even if #1 weren’t true (and it is), all of the other benefits get things of your plate so you can deliver more for the business, faster *most, not all. there are some instances where going to a law firm is 100% the right choice **Dedicated to my long-post lovers** #legal #inhousecounsel #legalops

Watch our on-demand webinar, The Future of Law: Interim Support, Rightsourcing, and AI in Legal Practice, and discover how to responsibly adopt AI, up-skill your workforce, and position yourself as an innovator in an AI-driven world. Featured Speakers: 🔹 Jessica Markowitz, President and COO of Paragon Legal 🔹 Otto Hanson, Founder and CEO of TermScout and Screens.ai Key Takeaways: ✨ Learn how Paragon Legal integrates cutting-edge generative AI technology from Screens.ai into their workflows. 📈  Gain insights from real-world use cases enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and client service delivery. 🔍 Explore the role of generative AI in rightsourcing. Topics Covered: 🔧 Screens.ai: Pioneering AI for Law 🚀 Paragon Legal’s Approach to AI Adoption 💡 Generative AI and its role in Rightsourcing Gain insights from industry leaders and learn how to harness the power of AI to drive innovation and success in your legal practice. Watch now and stay ahead of the curve! https://lnkd.in/evr_2cwt #LegalInnovation #AIinLaw #Rightsourcing #LegalTech #FlexibleLegalTalent #FutureOfLaw