Introduction

Lawyers arrange their work in many ways. Much of how lawyers’ work is organised is dictated by the legal status and governance of their workplace (see the previous section on How Legal Workplaces are Organised). Below are common ways lawyers are compensated for their work.

Salary

Some lawyers receive an annual salary for their work. This type of arrangement is more common in nonprofit and clinic settings. The impacts of working on salary are significant. If the lawyer is working directly with clients or on projects, they often still docket time but their salary is not connected to their dockets.

Contract

Contract work offers specific compensation for the delivery of specific services for a limited period of time. Contract work can offer flexibility and work-life benefits but can also be precarious and unpredictable. Anecdotally, more new calls are doing specific tasks on files they might know very little about. This might include writing research memos or facta. This type of employment arrangement appears to be more common in many professions.

Per Diem

A form of contract work, some lawyers charge (or receive) a “per diem” rate of pay. Per diem rate is a flat rate paid to a lawyer for services “per day” as the name suggests. Frequently, these lawyers act as duty counsel or in other scenarios where specific and time limited services are required.

Client Fees

The most common way lawyers are paid is directly by their clients. Some firms use the billable hour structure. Others bill by service (for example, a will might cost a set amount for each client). Typically, clients are charged for a lawyer’s work as well as the work of others on staff (paralegals, for example), along with disbursements. Disbursements are simply the funds paid by a lawyer to work on a file. This might include photocopying, filing fees, medical or other expert reports, and so on.

Legal Aid

Some provinces have legal aid schemes in which a government-funded entity supports lawyers’ work on behalf of clients and/or communities. This varies widely from province to province. Legal aid schemes might support a legal clinic. Some legal aid schemes have a certificate program wherein a client applies for a certain number of hours of funded legal services. The client then approaches a lawyer who accepts legal aid certificates. The lawyer must report their hours to legal aid and then be compensated for their work.

Legal Services Plan

There are also large groups such as unions that join together to provide their membership with legal services at affordable rates (or for free). The Unifor Legal Services Plan, for example, provides legal services for certain areas of law. They are able to do so through union dues and a large membership base. Lawyers are then paid by the union for their work.

Commentary

Lawyers in the same firm can also have different employment arrangements. Increasing numbers of lawyers work in insecure employment arrangements such as short-term contracts and per diems. It is difficult to get specific data regarding how many lawyers are working in this way; however,  “[a]ccording to a 2016 Robert Half Legal survey of 350 lawyers at large law firms in Canada and the United States, a majority — 56 per cent — use lawyers on a contract or temporary basis for work on large projects that require more resources than are available at the firm, and 44 per cent use them for cases or matters requiring a specific type of expertise”.

There is a great deal of talk about outsourcing legal work to other countries. Although this does happen, there are significant ethical concerns about transmitting data to jurisdictions without data privacy legislation. Transmitting sensitive information across legal jurisdictions can compromise data security.