Legal Process Outsourcing News from Across the Pond

It’s been a little while since I delved into news from back home in the UK. I thought I’d provide a quick round-up of one of the more interesting reports that I’ve come across relating to the UK legal profession’s take up and perspective on offshore legal process outsourcing.

The management consultancy princeOMC, in conjunction with Legal Business released in February the results of the inaugural legal industry outsourcing survey. Over 100 senior executives at leading UK and US law firms were surveyed for the study. Once again the major driver behind the growth of the offshore legal process outsourcing industry is identified as pressure from major corporate clients being brought to bear on law firms to reduce costs. Taking into account that those respondents contributing to the survey were indeed senior executives from leading law firms, one statistic that I found to be of particular interest was that over 53% of those surveyed expect commoditized legal work to be outsourced offshore over the next 5 years. Given that this is an entirely independent survey from within the legal profession I was pleasantly surprised by the degree of acknowledgement that offshore legal outsourcing is moving up the value chain from back office support to higher value fee earning work.

Now that the Legal Service Bill is law and multi-disciplinary partnerships and law firms floating on the stock market is surely just around the corner, it would be naïve to downplay the extent of legal work that comes within the bracket of commoditized legal processes. Included in this definition in my opinion would be virtually all pre-issue of proceedings personal injury and general civil litigation work, both claimant and defendant, conveyancing, will-writing, powers of attorney, due diligence and merger and acquisition document review, company formation, legal research, insurance claims management, patent searches, trademark searches, divorce and separation agreements and the list goes on and on.

Jack Diggle, principle consultant specializing in outsourcing and offshore at princeOMC states in his overview of the report: “This spread of outsourcing into the core fee-earning activity of law firms would be a hugely significant development for the marketplace and one that challenges the very definition of what a law firm is about.” Jack, I couldn’t agree with you more.

A full copy of the princeOMC Legal Industry Outsourcing Survey in association with LB is available from www.princeomc.com/legal08.html

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Legal Outsourcing Conference Season in Full Swing

With the legal conference season clearly in full swing if ever a legal topic could be referred to as being "in vogue" then legal process outsourcing would be it.

Funnily enough it wasn't until the Jan 2007 LegalTech convention that the subject of legal outsourcing even appeared on a main stream conference agenda. ALM's May 2007 Legal Outsourcing Forum for Work Product and Support Service (what a mouthful!) witnessed the first ever legal conference dedicated solely to the issue.

Well in 2008 you can really rack up the air miles on the LPO circuit. All the major conference organizers are lining up legal outsourcing events, awash with esteemed panels featuring highly recognizable figures from major law firms, corporations and leading legal process outsourcing companies. I don't wish to disparage any of the conference organizers or cast aspersions on the merit of attending such events as clearly the industry is still in its early formative years where education of the legal profession on the subject matter is of the utmost importance. I just wonder how long these conferences will continue in their current format. Inevitably without panelists from different LPOs liaising with each other as to the content of their particular "slot" one is left with a certain amount of duplication and repetition. Having said all of that two that particularly caught my eye and that I’ll be attending or speaking at are detailed below.

On April 25th, The Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, a new research center at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law is hosting a conference entitled International Outsourcing of the Legal Profession. Speakers include LawScribe’s President and CEO, Kunoor Chopra, Connie Brenton, Assistant General Counsel from Sun Microsystems together with representatives from Microsoft Corporation, Cisco Systems, and many others. Andrew Guzman, Professor of Law, Boalt Hall will open the conference with an overview of trends in legal outsourcing. The morning panel will focus on why some companies are outsourcing and some have stopped or have chosen not to outsource. The afternoon discussion will focus on corporate experiences with outsourcing patent drafting and patent searches. The final panel will analyze the economic implications of outsourcing highly-skilled projects, both for the U.S. economy and the legal profession overall.

I’m personally intrigued by the final panel session of the day. For a long time now I’ve been extremely interested in how legal outsourcing will impact the legal professions and the wider economies in India, the U.S. and the U.K. My own view is that the traditional law firm operating hierarchical structure is both outdated and awash with inefficiencies. In today’s fast moving, liquid, global economy, size is no guarantee of longevity. Even the largest law firms over time will struggle if they fail to adapt and modify their operational structures. Remember that over half of the Fortune 500 from 1980 no longer even exist as independent entities any more.

I’m looking forward to a trip back to the U.K. very soon. I’ve been invited to speak on the LPO panel at The Financial Times Global Outsourcing and Offshoring Conference ’Raising the Bar - Next Generation Outsourcing’ being held at the Landmark Hotel in London on May 12-13. The FT conference will explore emerging issues on the industry horizon from the frontline perspective of the global services managers, service providers and leading city analysts. Also appearing on the LPO panel will be Chris Bull, Chief Operating Officer from the internationally renowned law firm Osborne Clarke. For more information click here

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