Interim counsel ‘no longer primarily a backfill solution’

Growing use of interim counsel

In conversation with Lawyers Weekly, MLA partner (in-house counsel recruiting) Olivia Seet and partner (interim legal talent) Cynthia Barnardiston said the biggest change in how departments are using interim counsel this year is that such counsel are “no longer being used primarily as a ‘backfill’ solution”.

“Historically, companies would engage interim lawyers to cover parental leave, unexpected departures or hiring gaps. In 2026, we are increasingly seeing organisations use interim counsel to access specialist expertise, support transformation projects and navigate complex regulatory or cross-border challenges,” they said.

What is driving that shift, Seet and Barnardiston said, is the growing gap between the work legal departments are being asked to do and the resources they have available.

“Many legal teams are facing increased demands around AI, privacy, compliance, cross-border expansion and post-acquisition integration, often without the ability to add permanent headcount quickly,” the pair said.

“We are also seeing that the burden is not necessarily the headline transaction itself. Increasingly, it is the operational legal work that follows, including entity governance, KYC requirements, ownership tracking, data transfer requirements and ongoing compliance management across multiple jurisdictions. Companies are turning to interim lawyers because they can provide immediate expertise and capacity in these areas.”

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Some interim engagements, the MLA snapshot reported, are now lasting well beyond the traditional ‘temporary’ assignment, and in some cases, stretching into years. When asked what this tells us about the evolving role of interim counsel, and when engaging interim talent makes sense as a longer-term strategic resource, Seet and Barnardiston said these contractors are increasingly becoming part of a broader workforce strategy, rather than simply a temporary staffing solution.

“Many of today’s legal challenges do not fit neatly into a six-month assignment. We are seeing interim lawyers leading post-merger integration programs, supporting large-scale regulatory initiatives, helping companies build legal functions from the ground up and managing multi-year transformation projects,” they said.

“In some situations, organisations deliberately use interim talent as a bridge while they determine what their long-term legal team should look like. In others, they use interim specialists because the expertise is needed consistently but not necessarily on a full-time permanent basis.”

MLA, Seet and Barnardiston pointed out, has seen examples where organisations engaged interim lawyers during acquisition programs, used them to build processes and legal infrastructure, and ultimately converted some of those individuals into permanent hires as the function matured.

This, the pair said, reflects a much more strategic use of interim talent than was being seen even just a few years ago.

Challenges and regulatory pressures

Two of the other headline takeaways from MLA’s snapshot are that commercial contracting “remains the workhorse” of interim demand, and AI, technology, and data-related roles are growing quickly. According to Seet and Barnardiston, this points to two different challenges: capacity and capability.

Commercial contracting, they said, is largely a capacity issue: “Businesses continue to generate significant volumes of contracts, whether through growth, market expansion, procurement activity, or M&A. Legal teams often need additional bandwidth quickly and interim lawyers are an effective way to manage peaks in demand without committing to long-term headcount.”

AI, technology, and data-related work, Seet went on, is more of a capability challenge.

“Many legal departments have strong commercial lawyers, but relatively few have deep expertise in AI governance, cyber security, data strategy, cross-border data transfers or emerging technology regulation. The pace of change has simply outstripped the market’s ability to build those skills internally,” the pair said.

“As a result, we are seeing companies use interim talent to access specialised expertise while they assess whether those capabilities should become permanent parts of their legal teams. Privacy, cyber security, and technology-related compliance continue to be among the most common areas where organisations identify skills gaps.”

Effective engagement of interim counsel

When asked what law departments need to consider when deciding between interim counsel, outside counsel, and a permanent hire, Seet and Barnardiston said that it will come down to urgency, duration and the nature of the expertise required.

If the need is immediate and requires someone to work as part of the business, they said, interim counsel is often the most effective solution. “An experienced interim lawyer can typically integrate quickly, work directly with stakeholders and start delivering value almost immediately”, whereas outside counsel is often the better option for highly specialised advice, significant litigation, major investigations, or issues where independent external expertise is required, and a permanent hire makes sense when the need is expected to be ongoing and strategically important to the organisation’s future.

“However, given the pace of regulatory and technological change, many legal departments are increasingly using a combination of all three models,“ Seet and Barnardiston said.

“They engage interim counsel to address an urgent gap, rely on outside counsel for highly technical issues and simultaneously recruit for a long-term hire if the need proves sustainable.”

And, on the question of what legal and compliance leaders need to do to ensure they can access the right talent heading into 2027, the pair said that those best positioned will be those thinking about talent planning now, rather than when problems arise.

“Legal leaders should start by identifying where they have the greatest concentration of risk. For many organisations, that will be AI governance, privacy, cyber security, regulatory affairs, investigations and specialised commercial work. They should also assess where they have single points of failure within the team. If only one person understands a key regulatory framework or business-critical process, that creates vulnerability,” they said.

“Equally important is building access to trusted specialist talent before it is needed. The companies that move fastest are usually those that already have relationships with interim providers, recruiters and external advisers who understand their business and can respond quickly.”

Finally, Seet and Barnardiston continued, legal departments operating across multiple jurisdictions should take a regional rather than country-by-country approach.

“Increasingly, the challenge is not understanding a single regulation but managing multiple overlapping regulatory regimes across markets. Building flexible access to experienced legal and compliance professionals who can operate across jurisdictions will be a significant competitive advantage over the next several years,” they said.