Example 1: Contract Drafting for an In-House Lawyer

• Project: Linda, a corporate securities lawyer, was recently hired as the first lawyer at Acme Inc. Linda needs to put together a form (a) employment agreement, (b) confidentiality agreement, and (c) reseller agreement.

• The Old Way: Linda discusses the project with Acme's outside counsel, Smith, Jones & Johnson ("SJ&J"). SJ&J estimates that it will cost $6,000 to complete the form agreements, which is significantly more than Linda's $2,000 budget. Linda must therefore complete the agreements herself; however, with all of her other work, two months pass before Linda can complete the agreements (which take a total of 25 hours for Linda to complete).

• The LawSourcing Way: Linda posts each project separately on LawSourcing. After one week, Linda has multiple bids for all three projects and determines the following are the best bids based on costs and qualifications: (a) an employment lawyer in Texas offers to complete the employment agreement for $400; (b) a transactional lawyer in Atlanta offers to complete the confidentiality agreement for $250, and (c) a corporate lawyer in Illinois offers to complete the reseller agreement for $650. After communicating with each lawyer and explaining her specifications, Linda's projects are completed for a total of $1,300 in just over two weeks from when Linda posted the projects. Linda spends two hours on each agreement reviewing and customizing the agreements.

• Result: Linda saves $4,700 based on her outside counsel's cost, comes in $700 less than her $2,000 budget, and is able to have the projects completed six weeks before she could have completed them herself. Linda also saves 19 hours of her own time (25 hours minus the six total hours of reviewing the agreements completed on LawSourcing), which she uses to help structure and negotiate several revenue-producing transactions for Acme.

Example 2: Writing an Article to be Published

• Project: David, a solo practioner who specializes in intellectual property law, would like to publish an article that discusses the ramifications of several new patent cases, including how those cases represent a shift from prior caselaw. David believes the exposure could lead to new clients and possible interviews with several other intellectual property legal publications.

• The Old Way: David spends a total of 30 hours over a six-week period researching the law and writing the article (which, at $250/hour, has an opportunity cost of $7,500 to David).

• The LawSourcing Way: David posts a project on LawSourcing requesting that someone "ghostwrite" his article. After three days, several lawyers and law students bid on the project. David determines that Elizabeth, a law student at the University of Texas who offers to write the article for $500, is the best choice. Elizabeth completes the article in two weeks. David spends five hours reviewing and revising the article, which he then submits for publication under his name.

• Result: David's article is published. David also sends the article to current and prospective clients, which leads to additional business. David spends $500 for the article through LawSourcing, but because it would have taken David 30 hours to write the article himself, he now has 25 hours (30 hours minus the five hours he spent reviewing and revising the article) that he can instead use for billable work. Thus, by using LawSourcing, David was still able to publish an article, and he was able to generate an additional $6,250 in revenue (i.e., 25 hours at $250/hour). He also was able to complete the article almost four weeks earlier than he could have if he would have done it himself.

Example 3: Legal Research

• Project: Mark, a lawyer, has a client who needs a 50-state survey on the licensing requirements for selling contact lenses nationally on the Internet. Mark's hourly rate is $200/hour.

• The Old Way: Mark estimates that it will take three hours per state to determine the licensing requirements and summarize those requirements for his client (for a total of 150 hours). At $200/hour, Mark would bill his client $30,000. Mark, however, is in trial for the next month and does not have time to complete the project for his client. Also, his client cannot afford to pay $30,000 for this project.

• The LawSourcing Way: Mark posts a project on LawSourcing for the 50-state survey. Mark receives eight bids, ranging in price from $7,500 - $25,000. After reviewing the bids and qualifications, Mark selects Steve, a lawyer in Colorado who bid $10,000 to complete the project. Steve completes the project and submits it to Mark for review. Mark spends ten hours (at $200/hour = $2,000) reviewing and revising Steve's work product and provides the information to his client for $12,000 (or more, depending on the billing arrangement Mark has with his client).

• Result: Mark saves his client up to $18,000 and doesn't have to refer the matter to another lawyer.

Example 4: Developing a Law Firm Website or Legal Blog

• Project: Susan Rhodes and Michael Baker decide to leave their current firm and start a new firm that specializes in employment law. They want to have a professional website for Rhodes & Baker, as well as a legal "blog" on employment law that showcases their expertise.

• The Old Way: Susan and Michael spend two weeks talking to several other lawyers to get names of who they used to have their website designed and developed. They then spend two more weeks calling developers at several different companies and interviewing those developers. They decide on a developer, who then takes three weeks to develop their website and employment law blog for a total of $5,000.

• The LawSourcing Way: Susan and Michael post a project on LawSourcing to have the website and blog designed and developed. Several website developers submit bids during the first week after posting, including some from India and China. During the bid review process, Susan and Michael ask the website developers to see other law firm websites and blogs that they have developed. After a detailed review, Susan and Michael select a website design and development company from India that has designed and developed more than 20 law firm websites and blogs. They are able to communicate over the LawSourcing Private Message Board. The total cost for the website and blog is $900.

• Result: Using LawSourcing, Rhodes & Baker is able to have its website and blog completed one month earlier at a savings of $4,100.

Example 5: Creating a New Law Firm Identity (e.g., Business Cards, Letterhead, Logo and Brochures)

• Project: Craig Newman has started his own law firm, "The Newman Firm". Craig needs the following designed and printed: business cards; letterhead; and marketing brochures. Craig also would like a law firm logo designed.

• The Old Way: Craig looks through the Yellow Pages and talks to friends and colleagues to see whether they know of anyone who can help him. After several weeks of phone calls and meetings (totaling 10 hours), Craig finally selects one company to design and print the business cards and letterhead, and another to design the logo and marketing materials. Craig pays a total of $3,000 for the services.

• The LawSourcing Way: Craig posts a project to have the business cards, letterhead and marketing brochures designed and printed, and to have the logo designed. After five days, Craig receives multiple bids from several highly qualified graphics designers who have experience working with lawyers and law firms. While reviewing the bids, Craig requests that the graphics designers submit samples of their work and provide references. After reviewing the samples, references and bids, Craig selects a graphics designer from California to complete the project for $800. Craig spends a total of three hours of his time between posting the project, reviewing the bids, and reviewing the final work product.

• Result: Craig is able to quickly and easily find a highly qualified graphics designer who has worked with lawyers. Craig saves $2,200, and he was able to save seven hours of his time in the process.