The Rise Of Legal Services Outsourcing

As a market estimated to be worth $2.4 billion globally and growing rapidly, all legal firms and in-house counsels will need to consider the opportunities and risks afforded by Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO).

Economic globalization is transforming practically every service sector. The legal industry that has long remained insulated too has not remained untouched by the effects of globalization. The outsourcing of legal services in the past one decade has transformed the legal landscape. Legal outsourcing to India is becoming increasingly popular among U.S. and European law firms and corporations. This book broadly seeks to discuss three main topics surrounding legal process outsourcing (LPO): its emerging trends, the legal challenges it raises and the hitherto unrecognized potential it holds. Firstly, this book clarifies concepts of LPO and its operating models practiced by U.S. and U.K. law firms and corporations. Secondly, the outsourcing of legal services creates significant challenges for ethics rules including conflict of interests, attorney-client privilege, supervision and fee sharing. Thirdly, this research explores the hidden potential of LPO to improve access to justice. This book develops an altogether new proposal where Indian LPO professionals could help alleviate the access to justice problem among indigent and low-income populations of the United States.

Here, Mary Lacity, Leslie Willcocks and Andrew Burgess present practices used by clients, providers and advisors to realize value from LSO. The book is based on data from 27 LSO providers, interviews with clients, consulting assignments and lessons learned from prior Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) research. Based on the authors' deep understanding of the evolution of ITO and BPO, and their experiences of sourcing LSO, The Rise of Legal Services Outsourcing addresses the transformation of legal work, LSO strategy, provider selection and contractual governance, as well as predicting the trends that will come to shape the LSO market.

Economic globalization is transforming practically every service sector. The legal industry that has long remained insulated too has not remained untouched by the effects of globalization. The outsourcing of legal services in the past one decade has transformed the legal landscape. Legal outsourcing to India is becoming increasingly popular among U.S. and European law firms and corporations. This book broadly seeks to discuss three main topics surrounding legal process outsourcing (LPO) : its emerging trends, the legal challenges it raises and the hitherto unrecognized potential it holds. Firstly, this book clarifies concepts of LPO and its operating models practiced by U.S. and U.K. law firms and corporations. Secondly, the outsourcing of legal services creates significant challenges for ethics rules including conflict of interests, attorney-client privilege, supervision and fee sharing. Thirdly, this research explores the hidden potential of LPO to improve access to justice. This book develops an altogether new proposal where Indian LPO professionals could help alleviate the access to justice problem among indigent and low-income populations of the United States.

It’s refreshing that this book does not simply look to advances in technology and artificial intelligence as the cause or the future of the Great Legal Reformation. Through in-depth case studies and vignettes, Mitch Kowalski takes us on a tour to meet some of the trailblazers breaking the legal service provider mould, allowing us to eavesdrop on his conversations with them. This is not a glimpse into the future of how he and others might see the legal world developing as the Great Legal Reformation unfolds. This is insight into the here and now - into what these innovators have already envisioned and achieved. These are the platforms from which yet further innovation and re-formation of the market will be driven. From the power and opportunity of regulatory change to enable structural change, access to capital and the participation of people who happen not to be lawyers; through the need to focus on efficiency, continuous improvement, process and project management; to the enduring value of vision, culture, values, leadership, energy and employee engagement, these studies and conversations inform, reveal and challenge. They do not present the new world through rose-tinted glasses or deny the existence of risk: the story of Slater & Gordon’s mixed fortunes is testament to that. But they do show a different way of thinking and acting. Whether lawyers like it or not, these are initiatives that buyers of legal services welcome. —Stephen Mayson ,strategic advisor to law departments, legal services providers and regulators “This is an indispensable handbook for any aspiring legal innovator—a well-researched, accessible, and fascinating collection of dispatches from the cutting edge of legal business.” —Professor Richard Susskind OBE, author of Tomorrow’s Lawyers “Mitch Kowalski ... shows us what the new professional world actually does look like. He takes us on a tour of Great Britain, Australia, and the United States, and introduces us to lawyers in big firms and small, serving clients both private and public. The picture that emerges is of a new breed of legal service provider that embraces entrepreneurship, teamwork and technology in a way that seems both unfamiliar and obvious to all lawyers.” —Dr Ian Holloway PC QC, ,Professor and Dean of Law, The University of Calgary “This book will either give you hope or a much needed kick in the pants. Either way it's a win-win.” —Stephen Allen, , legal innovator, Hogan Lovells “Mitch Kowalski does it again. Diving deep inside some of the world’s most innovative legal providers Mitch discovers the future of law in the present. A must read for anyone involved in the legal profession.” —John Chisholm, leading Australian legal commentator and advisor

Is outsourcing right for your law firm?Law firms of all sizes are discovering opportunities from outsourcing some of their core operating functions that have traditionally been performed in-house. This Special Report outlines a highly firm-specific approach to identify and prioritise the components of a business case for outsourcing, as well as in-depth examinations of three representative types of outsourced services that are available to law firms:*Patent research;*Cybersecurity; and *Large-volume document review. It will examine their potential impacts on a law firm's bottom line, and the frequently encountered management challenges in a law firm's relationship with its external service provider. It concludes with a look at the future of outsourcing in the legal services industry.Edited by Norman K Clark, this report is a step-by-step guide to a well-informed outsourcing decision as well as a roadmap for implementing it in a way that produces the best return on the law firm's investment of management attention and resources. It will be of interest to anyone considering the option of outsourcing their core legal service functions, including small and mid-sized law firms, both those in general practice and specialised boutiques.

Outsourcing has been seen as a phenomenon allowing competitive advantages for organizations, but some studies do not include the causes and consequences of this particular strategy. Consequently, the objective of this book is to fill this gap by combining several studies from different perspectives. The various chapters presented here follow several approaches, which researchers explore in different contexts. This book intends, therefore, to add to the body of knowledge about outsourcing. Furthermore, it shows how the outsourcing strategy can stimulate organizations' development in various countries and regions worldwide.

Not only can services such as cleaning and catering be outsourced, but also governmental tasks such as making, applying and enforcing the law. Outsourcing the law is usually recommended for its cost-efficiency, flexibility, higher rates of compliance and its promise of deregulation. However, lawmaking is not the same as cleaning and rules are more than just tools to achieve aims. Outsourcing the law brings about profound changes in the way power is distributed. In this timely book, Pauline Westerman analyzes this outsourcing from a philosophical perspective. Outsourcing the Law analyzes the particular types of rules to which outsourcing gives rise (performance-indicators), as well as the techniques that are used (benchmarking, auditing) and identifies the key-implications of these shifts for democracy, the Rule of Law, judicial decision-making and even for how legal research is carried out. The analyses in this book will be a valuable read for legal academics and professionals, students of law, and all those with a keen interest in the relationship between law and regulation.