Mission
I am Melissa Weiland, founder and sole practitioner of Legal Adjunct PLLC.
In
my
previous position as General Counsel of a small but rapidly-growing and
legally complex organization, I frequently found myself frustrated by
the range of choices
available to me for assistance. On one end of the spectrum were salaried
employees, with which a company of our size could ill afford to saddle itself,
and on the other end were outside law firms, which did not
require long-term commitments but often billed upwards of $400 per
hour for associates with just a few years' experience. In between were contract attorneys supplied by the local legal
“temp” agencies, but these lawyers were often inexperienced or too narrowly skilled. I
made do with
part-time interns and other temporary solutions, but continued to feel
that there was a large niche to be filled in the legal services
industry.
In the current economy, that gap seems more like a
canyon. With budgets tighter than ever, there
is no good reason for businesses and entrepreneurs to limit
themselves to the traditional alternatives. Indeed,
wouldn’t the best clients want to avail themselves of a more varied
tool box than one containing employees or high-priced “big firm”
lawyers?
It
is on this basis that I formed Legal Adjunct. (And yes, I realize that
I just labeled myself a "tool"). The foundation of Legal Adjunct is to
offer clients a strong third choice between legal options that do not fit
every situation---i.e., between adding another attorney to the employee
headcount and paying top dollar for legal specialists (and their
offices, staff and newly-minted attorneys) when such specialization is not warranted. This gap can and should be
filled by a flexible "adjunct" lawyer who supplements existing in-house
legal teams (or pinch hits when no such team is yet in place), reduces
dependency on expensive outside firms, or both . . . all without
sacrificing quality.
Please take a moment to peruse the Legal
Adjunct site, including what I believe is my uncommon combination of
credentials and service focus. Then, if you think that Legal Adjunct may be able to help you with your corporate legal needs or if you require any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.