Outside GC joins rush to offer discount legal services in Washington

Another legal firm aiming to capitalize on dissatisfaction with traditional law firms is expanding in Washington.

Outside GC was founded in 2002 on the idea that it could provide on-demand, in-house legal services to corporations at what the company says is less than half of what it costs businesses to rely on traditional law firms or hire their own legal teams.

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The company was formed in Boston but it announced last week that it would expand into the Washington and New York areas. It has already hired a local attorney, Stacey Heller, former corporate counsel for RLJ Development, now a part of Robert L. Johnson’s RLJ Lodging Trust.

Jon Levitt, Outside GC co-founder and principal, said in a press release that the company chose Washington and New York in part to grow its technology and media practices. It already has done work for clients including Massachusetts biotech Genzyme Corp., Monster.com and Reebok. Outside GC has partnered with Micah Green, a former executive at AOL, to drive expansion.

“Having proven our model in Boston and having built a reputation for providing our clients with the highest caliber in-house lawyers for a fraction of the cost of traditional law firms, we decided it was time to expand into other markets,” Levitt said in the release.

Less-expensive answers to traditional law firms are growing in Washington, even as the local economy picks up. The alternative legal services firm Axiom, which bills itself as a “law firm on a diet,” has been operating a Washington office for two years and has about 25 attorneys engaged in issues for D.C.-area clients. Another alternative firm, Clearspire, launched in Washington in October.

Two more leave McDermott for Chadbourne & Park

First, Abbe D. Lowell announced he was leaving McDermott Will & Emery to return to Chadbourne & Parke. Now, the high-profile defense attorney has brought some of his longtime litigation team with him.

Last week N.Y.-based Chadbourne announced that it had lured back two other members of the special litigations and investigations group who had left Chadbourne for McDermott.

Pamela J. Marple and Christopher D. Man, both former partners at McDermott, will rejoin Lowell at Chadbourne as partner and counsel, respectively. Marple’s clients have included insurance, electronics and telecommunications companies and their executives. Man focuses on criminal defense in securities law cases.

Lowell left Chadbourne in 2007 after leading the firm’s white-collar defense and special litigation and investigations group for four years. He returned to the position this month and wasted little time landing former U.S. senator John Ensign as a client.

(Ensign, the former Republican senator from Nevada who acknowledged having an affair with a political aide, is fighting allegations that he broke federal laws in an attempt to conceal the relationship.)

Boucher joins Sidley

Former Virginia congressman Rick Boucher has joined Sidley Austin as a partner in the firm’s D.C. office. He is heading up Sidley’s government strategies practice.

Boucher, a Democrat whose district covers the southwest corner of the state, played a key role on technology, energy and environmental issues during his 28 years in office, and was one of two founders of the Congressional Internet Caucus.