Legal Process Outsourcing to the rescue
The billable hour is a mainstay of the traditional law firm.
Direct links can be drawn between law firm input, output, and revenue. However, it is increasingly viewed as a problem that is limiting law firm growth and efficiency. If only there was a solution.
Legal process outsourcing (LPO) – a convenient way to increase capacity – is taking the legal world by storm.
A lawyer’s primary focus should always be the law. However, incidental non-billable tasks often compete for a lawyer’s attention. With mounting pressure to keep up with the evolving expectations of clients, many law firms often categorise legal research, managing client relationships, recording time entries and other crucial administrative tasks as non-billable hours.
To scale operations and increase billable hours, law firms are turning to legal process outsourcing in ever-increasing numbers.
- The global legal process outsourcing market size was valued at USD 10.77 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.9% from 2022 to 2030.
- According to Alternative Legal Services Providers 2023 Report, published by Thomson Reuters and the Georgetown Law Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, $6.2 billion is spent annually on legal process outsourcing, e-discovery, and document review service providers.
With more law firms leveraging legal process outsourcing to increase capacity and lower costs, legal process outsourcing is on the rise across the globe.
More law firms are turning to legal outsourcing to stay competitive and profitable.
According to Thomson Reuters and the Georgetown Law Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, many large firms consider it more profitable to outsource routine corporate filings and low complexity contracts.
This suggests that large law firms are increasingly opting to outsource for relatively routine and unchallenging practice matters. Use of legal process outsourcing in this way could free up some of partners’ and associates’ time to do more high-value legal work such as tending to client relationships.
At its core, legal process outsourcing providers are a convenient way to increase capacity, focus on the strengths of your law firm, and increase profitability. In fact, 62.1% of law firms in the Altman Weil Survey Report who leaned toward outsourcing legal processes “resulted in significant improvement in firm performance”.
In what ways can legal process outsourcing benefit your legal team? Let’s take a look.
Administrative Tasks
Legal outsourcing can take care of a law firm’s administrative tasks. Rudimentary tasks like issuing invoices, recording time entries and even phone calls can be outsourced to a third party. No muss no fuss.
Research Services
Effective legal research is crucial for legal decision-making. Legal research services can be outsourced for a multitude of reasons whether that is legal drafting or risk and compliance. Also, each law firm may not be an expert in all fields. Outsourcing research services enables a law firm to tap into expert talent without the expense of hiring a full-time lawyer.
E-Discovery
E-Discovery is a time-consuming process that creates the base for litigation cases. Lawyers need to exchange vast amounts of information through thousands of documents. Law firms and lawyers need not waste their valuable time and resources in completing tasks like coding, document review and redactions.
Legal process outsourcing is the way to go.
Legal Process Outsourcing for a competitive advantage
In an increasingly competitive legal landscape, firms must differentiate themselves and improve the client experience without increasing firm overhead or overloading employees.
Legal process outsourcing is an excellent solution to improve efficiency and productivity and allow lawyers to focus on the work they do best.
Working with an external provider makes managing finances easier as you pay only for the services rendered. Most importantly, by delegating time-consuming functions to an external provider, you and your team can focus on tasks that have a direct impact on your case at hand.
Contact LawFlex to learn more about the world class legal process outsourcing services we offer.