Legal Process Outsourcing for Corporate Counsel

Tariq Hafeez

First Reviewed : November 2, 2018

Last Reviewed: November 2, 2018

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Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) is an emerging trend for corporate counsel, on account of increasing pressure to cut costs. Law firms and corporate legal departments across America are outsourcing more legal tasks by the minute, leading to a boom in legal process outsourcing companies around the world. These companies, which are largely offshore, provide many services to corporate clients such as bookkeeping and billing, contract management and review, data analysis and management, document drafting and production, due diligence, general litigation support services, e-Discovery, Intellectual Property (IP) services, and legal research and transcription.

“Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releasing capital for investment.”

Outsourcing for the win

The winning quality of outsourcing legal work is the cost-effectiveness that it produces. Signing up with an LPO company cuts costs by offshoring routine administrative works[1].

Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releasing capital for investment. Investors encourage outsourcing because it allows companies to channel more capital into other revenue generating activities[2].

Employee management, a large challenge that law firms and corporate clients face, becomes more feasible with outsourcing. It reduces management issues such as discovering, recruiting, evaluating, and retaining staff. Another important feature of outsourcing is the flexibility in hiring an LPO firmdepending upon the ups and downs in the company’s workflow[3].

Delegating non-core legal work to an offshore service provider minimizes delivery time and workload, and frees up internal resources to focus on core functions of the company[4].

Outsourcers also perform multiple functions like legal and administrative services, such as surveillance, printing, collating, process serving, and research and document retrieval[5].

“Efficient outsourcing companies have the resources, know-how and flexibility to meet tight, ad hoc project schedules.”

Outsourcing helps corporate counsel stay abreast of cutting-edge legal technology, upgrading business processes and evolving trends in the legal spectrum. This gives them the added advantage they require in the competitive legal field. By outsourcing selective tasks, corporate clients can successfully manage challenging projects. Efficient outsourcing companies have the resources, know-how and flexibility to meet tight, ad hoc project schedules.

Concerns in outsourcing

Though there exists great value in outsourcing legal processes, corporate legal departments must keep in mind certain factors such as confidentiality, conflict checks, supervision, reporting, and communication. Corporate counsel must ensure that the LPO has proper procedures and policies tomaintain client and data confidentiality. The LPO must also have conflict-checking procedures in place. Adequate supervision and reporting structures, and timely communication are essential for maintaining a smooth and efficient outsourcing process.

Conclusion

During the past decade, legal process outsourcing has had an immense impact on the practices of top law firms and corporate counsel. Outsourcing companies apply the latest technology and harness the skills of legal process experts, relieving the burden on legal departments which are usually consumed by routine legal responsibilities[6]. Choosing the right LPO is a key factor that determines the success of outsourcing, and changes the universal corporate legal approach. LegalEase has over a decade of experience with providing legal services to law firms and corporate counsel all over the world. We have an expert team of attorneys, cutting-edge technology and tools, a rich and up-to-date database of legal resources, thus ensuring you superior results and quick turnaround times. If you’d like to outsource your legal processes to us, please contact us at contact@legaleasesolutions.com. We’d be happy to get onboard and solve your legal troubles for you.