Building In-House Legal Capacity with Flexible Legal Resources

Predictable costs are another concern for legal leaders. While outside counsel is crucial, budgeting can be tricky. Gartner notes that only 20% of matters sent to outside counsel stay within budget. When the go-to solution is outsourcing more work, volatility can increase instead of decrease.

This is why many legal departments are shifting to a more adaptable team structure: a robust in-house core that can scale as business needs evolve. At PwC Switzerland, our Flexible Legal Resources (FLR) model is crafted for this purpose. It allows companies to boost their in-house legal teams on demand by aligning projects with legal professionals who have the right skills, enhancing team capability without the traditional hiring overhead. Key features include smooth integration and quick onboarding to ensure immediate impact.

Where does FLR add the most value? Often, it's where delays hit hardest. A contract backlog can slow revenue. A transaction can intensify due diligence and negotiations. Regulatory changes might need short-term expert input to meet deadlines. Sometimes, it's about continuity: covering parental leave, secondments, or vacancies so internal stakeholders don't feel a service drop. Increasingly, it's about transformation: freeing senior in-house lawyers to focus on strategic advice while flexible resources handle structured delivery work, remediation tasks, or process improvements.

A common myth is that flexible resourcing is just "extra hands." When done right, it offers control. With a defined scope, a company can decide what stays with its core team, what an embedded flexible resource should handle, and what goes to a law firm. It also allows for scaling support as workloads change, avoiding permanent costs for temporary demand. Key benefits include cutting fixed labor costs, accessing specialised legal skills as needed, and adjusting team size to match changing workloads. 

For companies new to FLR, starting small is wise. This might mean choosing one workstream with clear outcomes and a tight timeline, agreeing on success metrics upfront, and setting a simple schedule for prioritisation and progress reviews. A concise onboarding pack (including templates, preferred positions, system access, key contacts, and escalation paths) can ease the integration of an external resource and show its value to the business and finance teams.

Legal departments that scale smartly are better equipped to protect the business and drive growth, without overloading their core team or losing cost control. By carefully blending permanent and flexible resources, in-house teams can effectively tackle their current and future capacity challenges.