Maine-based freelance legal services provider acquired by Ohio company
file photo/TIM GREENWAY
Nicole Bradick, founder of Custom Counsel, has joined forces with a Dayton, Ohio-based company.
Custom Counsel, a Maine-based provider of freelance legal services, has been acquired by a Dayton, Ohio-based company that provides outsourced law practice management services.
CuroLegal announced the acquisition on Tuesday and said that Custom Counsel Founder Nicole Bradick will join the company as an owner and its chief strategy officer. Financial details of the transaction, which closed on Jan. 9, are not being disclosed.
Chad Burton, Curo’s CEO, said in a prepared statement that “the model that [Bradick] has created with Custom Counsel just makes sense for so many reasons, and it is a perfect addition to the service offerings we have in place at Curo.”
Bradick, whose legal startup was featured by Mainebiz in 2012, said Custom Counsel’s service of providing contract lawyers to law firms will continue. But, she added, it will now be promoted as a product of Curo, which provides operational support outsourcing for law firms.
After having 25 contract lawyers in her company’s freelance network in fall 2012, Bradick said that network has since grown to around 150. The network’s capacity is about 1,000.
“We started in Maine and quickly developed a national presence because demand was remarkable,” Bradick said of Custom Counsel in a phone interview with Mainebiz.
The acquisition comes after Curo and Custom Counsel began a strategic partnership last year, allowing Bradick’s firm to provide contract lawyers to Curo’s clients, Bradick said. She described the decision to merge with Curo as a “perfect marriage.”
“It was truly mutual,” Bradick said. “It was one of those things where the stars aligned.”
Bradick, who will remain in Maine, said her role as chief strategy officer will have her working on Curo’s daily operations. But she said she will also be working on new initiatives, which will involve the development of new technology tools and paying attention to industry trends.
She said Curo and Custom Counsel seeks to help new and existing law firms create efficiencies and become more profitable by offering a mix of outsourced services, like cloud-based legal technologies and virtual legal assistants, along with contract lawyers who can be hired when law firms face larger workloads.
Bradick said the contract lawyer services are being offered as a solution for existing law firms that are losing profitability with associates who aren't billing enough hours during periods of small workloads,. She added, “when you’re carrying less-than-profitable associates, it becomes more difficult to [grow the company].”
But, Bradick said, some newer law firms are beginning to incorporate Custom Counsel’s service into their business plans, allowing them to easily scale when a rush of work comes in.
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