Freshfields Managing Partner: "LPO Inevitable and Will Change Legal Market"

The Financial Times released their Innovative Lawyers report rankings on Friday. This was the third year of the FT report examining change and innovation within the legal profession. It was particularly gratifying to read the lead article “Thought Leaders” by Reena SenGupta and Paul Solman. Issues that I’ve blogged about many times, that in my opinion are inextricably linked to each other, all featured, including the future of the global law firm, the U.K. Legal Services Act, the impact of globalization, LPO to India, and the traditional hierarchical law firm structure.

In fact the report’s lead article went so far as to say that:

“The trend that is having the most impact on the thinking of the partners at top law firms, is the impact of globalisation and its intersection with people and technology. In particular, the way in which legal work is resourced and the location in which it gets done is coming under greater scrutiny. Outsourcing to India was the theme of many top-ranked submissions both from company legal departments and private practice”.

Freshfields managing partner, Ted Burke is quoted as saying:

“LPO is inevitable and will radically change the legal market. We will see more unbundling of the way legal services are currently delivered.”

Click here to access the FT Innovative Lawyers home page.