When a client is looking for an attorney, they are not looking for detachment. They are probably looking for a zealous advocate. Your ability to advocate for your clients is your virtue. It is also your headache, as it may keep you up at night and have a deleterious effect on your stomach lining.

One of the hidden virtues of a per diem attorney is detachment. Your client is not my client - you are. You can be a zealous advocate for your client; my job is to give you the material you need to do that. I do the research and legal analysis without the client, the adversary, or the court breathing down my neck. I review your file and the relevant law and give you my honest judgment of the best way for you to proceed. It’s your case, and you get the final say, but sometimes my perspective opens things up.

In one hotly contested motion I worked on recently, the vituperative language in opposing counsel’s brief put me in mind of a quote from a popular comedian. Pointing it out to the attorney of record (my client) enabled her to get a little perspective on counsel’s blow-hard tactics, and we wrote our reply brief with lightened minds, able to point out just how ridiculous he was being.

It can be hard to keep an eye on the bigger picture in the midst of aggressive motion practice. In another recent case where motions upon motions have been flying thick and fast, I was able to point out to my attorney-client the reasons that one particular motion needed no opposition from him, saving him and his client some time and money.

When you bring me in you get the value of my legal experience and expertise, but you also get the perspective of someone a step removed from the fray.

- Megan Oltman

I often meet attorneys who have never considered using a per diem attorney. It has simply never occurred to them. Yet when I ask solo practitioners “how’s business?” they will often complain of a busy caseload, and wish they could afford some help. Hiring a full time associate is a problem when you can’t be sure to generate enough work to keep the associate busy full time. Bringing me in to pinch-hit for you is a highly cost effective alternative - you can bill my time to your clients at a higher rate than I will charge you, and you can leverage your time and better manage your caseload. Bring me in and you bring on an extra pair of hands, an extra legal-trained mind, an experienced, reliable and meticulous practitioner who is dedicated to making your life in the practice of law easier. Research, motions, appeals, conferences, depositions, document production, estate planning, contracts, matrimonial cases… have law degree will travel!

- Megan Oltman

Why would you need a pinch-hitting attorney? Has anything like this ever happened in your law office? Imagine you are a sole practitioner with one associate. Your top client is being sued. You have three days to file a responsive pleading, which will involve a dozen or more exhibits. Your associate is in court all week; you will be working into the wee hours to get this pleading filed.

Of course your phone still rings, and your other clients still need attention. You speak to clients and adversaries, putting out small fires as you go along.

Into the middle of this comes another issue – a matrimonial matter where you represent the wife. The husband has taken unilateral action which harms your client. You emailed opposing counsel taking exception to the husband’s action, and today you received the reply. Counsel claims that not only was his client justified, but that some unspecified case law would impose liability on your client for opposing his position. It’s not an everyday issue, and though counsel’s claim doesn’t sound right to you, you can’t recall the law off the top of your head. It is a time sensitive issue, and you must respond.

This clearly called for a pinch-hitter. The practitioner described gave me a call, spent fifteen minutes getting me familiar with the case, and gave me copies of the relevant emails. I researched the point of law, asked a few more factual questions, and presented her with my analysis of the relevant law as applied to her client. (By the way, the adversary was blowing smoke, big time!) The practitioner outlined a few points for the response, I drafted a letter to the adversary, and sent it to the practitioner to revise if she liked, sign off on, and send to her adversary. The whole thing took me about two hours, and the practitioner was able to respond to her adversary in less than twenty-four hours. A real pinch-hit.

- Megan Oltman