STRENGTHEN YOUR TEAM · BACKLOG, REVIEW & INVESTIGATION
Legal review and investigation support for backlogs and review projects
For legal review and investigation support, Alpinum Solutions provides review teams of lawyers and compliance professionals who clear backlogs of contracts, KYC files and documents and staff internal investigations. Teams work via staff leasing or freelancing in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, from junior to senior; your company sets the review standard, priorities and decisions.
A backlog is work that already exists: open contract reviews, incomplete client files, documents for proceedings or reports that need investigating. Day-to-day work continues, so the backlog grows unless someone tackles it deliberately. A separate team works through the existing stock to fixed rules while your core team handles new matters.
Typical assignments for backlogs, reviews and investigations
Example: KYC backlog at a financial institution
Periodic reviews have stalled and monitoring alerts are piling up. Compliance officers review files, request documents and record outcomes. Duration: several months. Workload: full-time, as a team with a team lead. More: KYC remediation and AML task forces.
Example: contract portfolio after an acquisition or new requirement
After an acquisition or a new regulatory requirement, the entire contract portfolio has to be screened, classified and partly renegotiated. Duration: a few weeks to several months. Workload: full-time. More: contract review lawyers.
Example: document review for proceedings
For litigation or a regulatory request, large volumes of emails and documents must be reviewed for relevance and privilege. Lawyers review to the protocol of the lead law firm or legal department. Duration: project-based. Workload: full-time, often with peaks.
Example: internal investigation
After a report or an audit finding, the investigation lead needs extra people for fact-finding, document analysis and minutes. Duration: a few weeks to months. Workload: part-time or full-time depending on the phase. The practice area page on litigation, investigations and eDiscovery goes deeper.
Practical example (anonymised): KYC task force at a financial institution
In 2025, Alpinum provided a financial institution with a task force of 8 FTE: compliance officers including a team lead, 100 %, via staff leasing. The work covered KYC remediation, KYC file reviews, transaction monitoring, alert handling and documentation; the team lead reported to internal compliance. Selected profiles were available within 48 hours, and the team started about two weeks after the order. The project was completed in 10 months.
Legal review and investigation support: how to clear a backlog
Count and triage the stock
Start with a list: what is open, since when, at what risk? Urgent and high-risk matters move to the front, similar matters are grouped.
Separate inflow from backlog
New matters stay with the core team, the backlog goes to the review team. That way the backlog stops growing while it shrinks.
Write down the review standard
A short review protocol sets criteria, categories, escalation cases and filing. It keeps results comparable, whoever does the review.
Sampling and metrics
A team lead or your core team checks samples and tracks completed, open and escalated matters each week. This shows when the backlog is cleared and the team can shrink.
Who works in the review team and what your company directs
A legal review team is usually tiered: many matters follow a pattern, a few need experienced judgement.
- Junior, 0–2 years: first-level review to protocol, classification, data capture, requesting missing documents.
- Mid-level, 3–6 years: second-level review, more complex files and contracts, summaries for the investigation lead.
- Senior, 7+ years: team lead, quality control, alignment with legal, compliance and outside counsel; if needed as an Interim Compliance Officer.
Your company sets scope, review standard, priorities and how escalations are handled. Leadership and legal assessment of an investigation stay with your legal department or the instructed law firm. In staff leasing, the team follows your professional instructions; in freelancing, the professionals complete the agreed mandate independently.
Engagement model for review teams in Switzerland, Germany and Austria
A review team working in your systems and under your guidance usually runs via temporary legal staff. A clearly defined package, such as first-level classification of a contract portfolio, can also go to freelance lawyers. Both models are available part-time or full-time, for one person or a team.
- Switzerland: staff leasing, locally called Personalverleih, or freelancing.
- Germany: temporary agency work (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) or freelancing; details on interim lawyers in Germany.
- Austria: assignments as freelancing or as staff leasing through Alpinum's German or Swiss entity.
Limit: Alpinum provides staff for review and investigation teams, does not provide legal advice and does not run investigations under its own responsibility.
Process: from backlog to a working team
1 · Describe the backlog
Type and approximate volume of matters, languages, systems, deadline and confidentiality level. From this we derive team size and level mix.
2 · Review profiles
Selected profiles reach you within 48 hours; you hold the interviews and decide who joins the team.
3 · Onboarding and pilot
Access, protocol and a first sample. You and Alpinum agree the start date together; it is not guaranteed.
4 · Clear and close
The team works through the backlog, is expanded or reduced as needed and hands over results, open items and documentation at the end.
What a review team costs
What drives the price
The price follows the mix: a team with many junior profiles and one senior team lead costs less per hour than an all-senior team. Models and worked examples are in the guide cost models in interim legal and compliance. All rates as of October 2026.
Hourly rates Germany and Austria, EUR excl. VAT
- Staff leasing: junior 60–90, experienced 90–120, senior 120–180+
- Freelancing: junior 90–120, experienced 120–170, senior 170–250+
Hourly rates Switzerland, CHF excl. VAT
- Junior 75–100
- Experienced 100–150
- Senior 150–225+
Questions on backlog, review and investigation
How large does a backlog need to be for a review team?
There is no minimum. One professional for a few weeks can clear a backlog; a team pays off when many similar matters must be done by a deadline.
How do you put together a legal review team?
By type of matter, language, volume and deadline: several reviewers at junior or mid-level plus an experienced team lead for quality and escalations. You select every profile yourself.
Does Alpinum run internal investigations?
No. Alpinum provides professionals for the investigation team. Your legal department, compliance or the instructed law firm leads the investigation and makes the legal assessment.
How is confidentiality maintained?
The team works in your systems and under your access rules. You decide who may see which data; confidentiality agreements are part of the assignment.
How does a backlog differ from a peak workload?
A backlog is work that has already built up and needs clearing. In a peak workload, more new work arrives for a foreseeable period. The other occasions are covered in interim legal support for companies and law firms.
Discuss your backlog
Describe the type and volume of open matters and the deadline. Within 48 hours you receive selected profiles for your review team.