A contract attorney is an attorney who works on contract legal cases. This type of work is generally temporary in nature, often without guaranteed employment. This type of work is generally temporary in nature, often without a guaranteed length of work. In areas of New Mexico where there are no law offices of the Public Defender's office or in cases of conflict of interest in a criminal case, Contract Counsel Legal Services coordinates a contract with private attorneys to represent indigent clients.
On average, CCLS works with 120-130 private attorneys across the state. These private attorneys, who consider themselves contractual advisors, receive contracts through a request for proposals process every 1 to 3 years. Contract Counsel's legal services oversee the administration of contracts and whether the contracted lawyer complies with their contractual and ethical obligations to their clients. All contract attorneys must meet the performance standards of the law offices of the public defender.
Contract attorneys resolve contract-related disputes. They deal with legal issues associated with the creation, negotiation and execution of contracts. If litigation occurs related to a contract, they can help relevant parties understand how the contract should be interpreted or executed. Private practice attorneys who hire the State Public Defender to provide legal representation to indigent individuals entitled to court-appointed counsel play a vital role in Iowa's indigent defense system.
Additional resources are also available to assist contract attorneys and public defenders in their practice defending indigent individuals in the Defense Resources menu. To date, contract attorneys represent a growing segment of the labor market for lawyers of all levels of experience, which I think is good for all parties. In these types of projects, contract attorneys can review tens of thousands, if not millions, of pages of documents and mark them as conforming to a particular request, or if they are protected as a product of an attorney's work or by attorney-client privilege.
