If you follow the local and national news, you are aware of the US economy and rising unemployment rate. It’s difficult to ignore the dismal news as the topic is frequently covered in all areas of the media, from morning and afternoon talk shows, to radio and newspaper ads.

As a business owner, you constantly struggle with the thought of cutting back your costs and budget, and the possibility of having to lay off employees and add to the rising unemployment rate. But the fact remains, you are responsible for finding ways to keep your company viable while you deal with the current crisis. That means in many companies, layoffs are inevitable.

While you work hard to cut your budget and control your costs to deal with the business losses you’ve experienced, you may find you’re forced to downsize the number of employees in your company.

With that said, it’s not always simple to determine who will be laid off. While you may be able to fade out certain positions, you’ll find there are others you cannot afford to dissolve.

For instance, it may not be a good idea to completely fade out the legal services your in-house attorney provides to protect your company. In fact, it may be an absolute wrong decision as claims of wrongful termination and other employment disputes tend to increase when layoffs occur.

So, what can you do?

You can outsource to a local contract attorney many of the same legal services an in-house attorney offers. Does this mean you must completely dissolve your company’s legal department? No. But it does mean a contract lawyer can prevent you from having to hire more salaried in-house attorneys and support staff.

Although much of the news we hear focus on the loss of jobs once held by middle Americans, there are other industries that are often overlooked. The legal industry has been hard hit by the economy. It was already heavily saturated and very competitive, and the economy has only exacerbated that reality.

Now, instead of hiring more in-house salaried lawyers, many corporations hire contract attorneys to provide legal services they need. In many instances, a lawyer working on a contract basis has the same (and sometimes more) education and work experience as the typical in-house attorney.

Has your company considered outsourcing to fill in-house attorney positions following layoffs?