Most legal work that companies outsource isn’t exotic. It’s the volume work that eats senior lawyers’ weeks: reviewing thousands of documents, redlining the fiftieth NDA of the quarter, checking which contracts in a data room have a change-of-control clause.
That is what legal process outsourcing (LPO) is in practice. You hand a defined, repeatable legal task to an outside team, set the standard and the deadline, and keep the judgment calls in-house. Below are 12 tasks companies outsource today, what each one looks like in a real matter, and what usually stays with the internal team.
Document-heavy work
1. Document review
A regulator sends an information request, or a dispute moves toward disclosure, and suddenly 80,000 emails need first-level review. An outsourced review team codes documents for relevance and privilege against a protocol your lawyers write. Your team handles the second-level review and the privilege calls that carry real risk. This is the classic LPO use case, and it’s why document review is usually the first thing legal teams outsource.
2. eDiscovery support
Close to document review but broader: collecting data, processing it in a review platform, running search terms, and producing documents in the format the other side or the court requires. Companies outsource it because the volume is unpredictable and the platforms need specialist operators.
3. Due diligence
In an acquisition, a contract team reviews every customer, supplier and employment agreement in the data room and flags assignment restrictions, exclusivity, change-of-control and termination rights. The deal lawyers get a summary table, not 600 contracts. Outsourced M\&A due diligence is common because deal timelines don’t match internal headcount.
4. Lease abstraction
Retail chains, real estate funds and companies with large office portfolios need the key terms of hundreds of leases in one place: rent, renewal options, break dates, repair obligations. An outsourced team reads each lease and fills a standard abstract. It’s precise, repetitive work that rarely needs a senior lawyer.
5. Legal transcription and summaries
Hearings, depositions, interviews and board meetings produce hours of recordings. Outsourced teams transcribe them and prepare summaries that lawyers can search in minutes instead of rewatching footage.
Contract work
6. Contract drafting and redlining
Sales contracts, vendor agreements and SaaS terms follow templates, but every counterparty pushes back somewhere. An outsourced contract team redlines against your playbook and escalates only the clauses that fall outside it. High-volume contract review and drafting is one of the fastest-growing LPO categories, because commercial teams want answers in days, not weeks.
7. NDAs
NDAs are the clearest example of work that should never sit in a senior lawyer’s inbox. With a clear playbook (which terms you accept, which you reject, when to escalate), an outside team can turn most NDAs the same day.
8. IP docketing and portfolio support
Trademark and patent portfolios run on deadlines: renewals, office actions, oppositions. Outsourced teams track the docket, prepare routine filings and alert your IP counsel before a deadline becomes a problem. The strategy, such as what to protect, where and against whom, stays in-house.
Research, compliance and disputes
9. Legal research
A GC needs to know how five jurisdictions treat non-compete clauses before a restructuring. An outsourced researcher produces a memo with sources, and your lawyer decides what it means for the business. Outsourced legal research is especially useful for cross-border questions, where the internal team lacks local expertise.
10. Compliance monitoring
Regulations change constantly, from privacy rules to sanctions lists to sector-specific requirements. Outsourced teams track the changes, map them to your policies and flag what needs updating. The compliance officer stays accountable. The outside team does the reading.
11. Regulatory filings
Entity filings, annual reports, beneficial ownership reports and licence renewals are routine but unforgiving if missed. Outsourcing them to a team that runs the calendar and prepares the documents frees in-house lawyers for the filings that need judgment.
12. Litigation support
Building chronologies, preparing witness bundles, summarizing case law and managing exhibits all take time in the run-up to a hearing. Outsourced litigation support lets the trial team focus on strategy and advocacy.
What stays in-house
The pattern across all twelve examples is the same. You outsource the volume and keep the judgment. Decisions that carry real legal or business risk should stay with your own lawyers: privilege calls on sensitive documents, negotiation strategy, the decision whether to settle, and anything that needs deep knowledge of your business and its history.
A useful test is to ask whether a capable lawyer who doesn’t know your company could do the task well with a clear instruction sheet. If the answer is yes, it’s a candidate for outsourcing. If the task depends on knowing why a deal was structured the way it was three years ago, it isn’t.
How to choose what to outsource first
Start with the work that is high in volume, follows a pattern and has a clear quality standard. NDAs, first-level document review and due diligence checklists are the usual first steps, because they’re easy to define and easy to check.
Then look at the work that arrives in spikes. If a deal, an investigation or a product launch doubles the workload for two months, an outside team absorbs the peak without a permanent hire. That’s the model LawFlex runs on: vetted lawyers across more than 50 jurisdictions, deployed for a defined scope and stood down when the work is done. You can read more about how the model is changing law firms and legal departments in our piece on how LPO is transforming legal work, or see the full scope of our legal process outsourcing service.
FAQ
What is an example of legal process outsourcing?
A common example is first-level document review in litigation: an outside team reviews thousands of documents for relevance and privilege under a protocol written by the company’s lawyers. Contract redlining, due diligence and legal research are other frequent examples.
What legal tasks can be outsourced?
Most high-volume, repeatable tasks: document review, eDiscovery, due diligence, contract drafting and redlining, NDAs, lease abstraction, legal research, compliance monitoring, regulatory filings, IP docketing and litigation support. Strategic decisions and high-risk judgment calls usually stay in-house.
What is LPO in law?
Legal process outsourcing is the practice of sending defined legal work to an outside provider, often a team of lawyers and paralegals working to the client’s standards. It differs from hiring a law firm because the client sets the scope and the process, and pays for the task rather than for open-ended advice.
Is legal process outsourcing safe for confidential documents?
It can be, if the provider has the right controls: confidentiality agreements, secure review platforms, access limited to the team on the matter, and conflict checks before work starts. Ask any provider how they handle data before you send a single document.
