Legal innovation talent, on demand.
The models are everywhere. Domain expertise is not.
Legal AI is still emerging. Firms are making expensive bets on permanent innovation hires for roles and tools that are still being defined. Counselerate lets you move now instead of making a permanent innovation hire.
The models are everywhere. Domain expertise is not.
The AI models are powerful and widely available. What makes them work in legal is practicing lawyers who know how the work is actually done in a given practice area, from litigation and employment to contracts, restructuring and more, and who can turn that knowledge into workflows, playbooks and training.
Counselerate matches each project with a lawyer who has the right practice-area expertise, not a generic technologist.
Generalists can't make these models work. A model does not know how a restructuring actually runs, how a litigation team builds a privilege log, or what a private equity buyer flags in diligence. Lawyers who have done that work do.
Making AI work inside a law firm or legal department takes a litigator for litigation workflows, a restructuring lawyer for restructuring, an M&A lawyer for deals. Not a generalist, and not a generic technologist.
Practice areas we match
We match each innovation project to a lawyer who has practiced in that area.
- Litigation
- Restructuring & Bankruptcy
- M&A
- Private Equity & Venture Capital
- Intellectual Property & Patents
- Employment & Labor
- Corporate & Commercial Contracts
- Securities & Capital Markets
- Regulatory & Compliance
- Privacy, Data & Cybersecurity
- and more
Roles still being defined
Legal engineer and innovation lawyer roles are new. Firms are making permanent bets on jobs nobody has fully defined yet.
The work is project-shaped
Capture workflows, build playbooks, pilot and roll out tools, then hand off. That is a project, not a forever seat.
The skills you need change
Month 1 is workflow capture. Month 6 is adoption and new tools. One permanent profile cannot cover both.
Two ways to bring in the right lawyer
Scoped projects for defined deliverables, or a deeper interim lead while you build the function.
Special Projects
Moonlighting lawyers for defined, scoped work: workflow capture and playbooks in about 6 weeks per practice area, legal AI tool pilots, prompt libraries, and evaluating legal AI outputs.
Learn moreInterim Engagements
Fractional or interim legal innovation leads, typically 6 to 12 months. Drive adoption, train teams, manage tool rollouts and stand up governance. Optional temp-to-perm.
Learn moreBuilt for teams adopting legal AI
Permanent hire vs. Counselerate
46%
For management and professional roles, benefits add roughly 46% on top of wages.
Source: BLS ECEC, June 202625%
Legal recruiters typically charge about 25% of first-year salary (commonly 20% to 33%).
Source: BCG Attorney Search; Lateral Link| Permanent hire | Counselerate |
|---|---|
| Base salary | Pay for the project or interim term only |
| Onboarding ramp | Experienced lawyers who already know the work |
| Locked to one skill set | Swap talent as needs change |
Permanent hire
- Base salary
- Onboarding ramp
- Locked to one skill set
Counselerate
- Pay for the project or interim term only
- Experienced lawyers who already know the work
- Swap talent as needs change
Legal AI innovation, explained.
It is the work of making AI tools actually useful inside a legal practice: capturing how the work gets done, building workflows and playbooks, and training the team.
Counselerate was founded by Michelle Ross, a restructuring lawyer and consulting leader who ran project-based professional staffing at RGP and launched consulting practices at RGP and AlixPartners.
The tools alone don't deliver.
Recent reporting shows firms adopting frontier AI are largely on their own for workflows and training. That is exactly the project work Counselerate lawyers do.
From scope call to handoff
- 1
Scope call
We learn your workflows, tools and goals, then define the project or interim role.
- 2
Matched lawyer
We match an experienced lawyer with the right practice background and AI fluency.
- 3
Deliverables
Workflow maps, playbooks, prompt libraries and pilot results, built with your team.
- 4
Handoff
Your team owns the work. Or extend the engagement, or convert to a permanent hire.
Need legal innovation talent?
Tell us about the project. We will scope it and match the right lawyer.
Work with usA lawyer who wants this work?
Flexible moonlighting, project and interim roles in AI and legal innovation.
Join the benchSources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 4, June 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.t04.htm
- BCG Attorney Search, FAQ about Legal Recruiting. https://www.bcgsearch.com/article/60401/FAQ-about-Legal-Recruiting/
- Lateral Link, Who Pays a Legal Recruiter?. https://laterallink.com/who-pays-a-legal-recruiter/