There’s been a lot of bad press lately about contract lawyers.  Between legal actions for overtime pay and articles in bar publications and elsewhere, it’s easy to conclude that all of these warriors in the legal workforce are overworked and underpaid in this post-financial-crisis world.

Yet, I just had a corporate general counsel in my Advanced Business Associations class last week who regularly uses contract counsel and, based on his description, those he works with seem to be a relatively contented lot.  He has gone ahead and hired a few of them (although he notes that some prefer independent contractor status for its flexibility).  So, I wonder whether many of us make the same mistake with the press on contract lawyers that we do with the press on law schools: generalizing a description and drawing conclusions from limited, nonscientific data (i.e., one-sided or narrowly drawn press reports). For one thing, most of what I read focuses on contract lawyers performing e-discovery reviews or rote due diligence.  I know that there are more varied assignments out there (even if those two areas represent most of the territory).

I do know former students who, for a variety of reasons, have worked as contract lawyers after graduation or during a career interruption.  In most cases, this has been intended as and has been in fact a temporary position.  But (although I do not stay in touch with everyone after graduation) I am sure that some have ended up staying in contract lawyering longer than they had planned . . . or wanted.  Still, I have not heard about any abusive behavior or unusually long hours.  I have heard complaints about the routine and unstimulating nature of much of the work.

What information do you have about contract lawyers?  Are they a uniformly mistreated lot because employers–especially maybe Big Law and other large firms–take advantage of them and view them only as low-cost, low-quality providers of legal services?  How often do those who use contract lawyer services hire the lawyers in as employees?  How many contract lawyers continue in that role for more than two years?  Let me know what you know.