The global pandemic has spawned a Working from Home (WFH) revolution. It’s also been a catalyst for fundamental and far-reaching changes in the way many business sectors operate.
In the legal profession, outsourcing has long been a standard practice as law firms strive to remain competitive. It helps cut costs, enables delivery of a wider range of specialised services and frees up key staff for more important tasks such as bringing in new, more profitable business.
But all existing projections for growth in the Legal Process Outsourcing marketplace have been blown sky high by COVID 19, along with an exponential rise in the number of lawyers and legal professionals now working from home. Permanently. In fact, the global Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) market size is now projected to reach USD 72090 Million by 2027, up from USD 10560 Million in 2020, at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 31.6% for the period 2021-2027.
This rocket powered rise is fundamentally changing the way law firms operate globally – helping to usher in a new world of global workforce engagement that is structured around and motivated by business’ needs to utilize specific talent and skills, no matter where they are located.
What’s Driving Change in the Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) market?
In addition to the COVID-catalyst, there are two key drivers behind the seismic shift:
- More and more businesses are expanding business operations into different countries around the globe, and these initiatives require that skilled talent is engaged for specific, location or time-dependent purposes.
- Talent and skills shortages are challenging businesses in their domestic markets, especially in developed economies; complemented fortunately by growing talent pools of diversely and highly skilled workers in developing and emerging economies,
Leading this charge for change over the past decade or so have been corporate clients concerned with rising legal expenses. First, the legal departments of larger corporations began using the services of smaller WFH lawyers and ‘white label’ legal services providers. Soon however these corporations began to pressure their contracted legal representatives to also outsource certain legal processes to cut costs.
Cost saving, of course, is the biggest attraction for firms that outsource their legal work. India’s legal services, for example, are widely considered affordable, efficient, and above all, skilled. For a legal job outsourced in India, an American firm pays around a quarter of what it has to pay in the U.S. for the same work.
Legal Process Outsourcing Offers Many Benefits
But there are also many other benefits to legal process outsourcing for law firms; among them:
- Expanding practice area expertise: By outsourcing specific law services to WFH or contract lawyers, firms can meet all the needs of your clients without having to hire a full-time employee.
- Enabling flexible staffing: By engaging freelancers, law firms can engage qualified legal help at any skill level for any kind of project or case. In addition, hiring a lawyer in a freelance capacity is a great way to try out the relationship before committing to a full-time hire.
- Moving towards flat-fee billing: Outsourcing lets firms engage talented lawyers to assist with discrete projects or entire cases on a flat-feebasis.
The Future for Legal Process Outsourcing?
As the industry expands globally, industry observers agree there are three legal process outsourcing trends worth watching:
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Artificial intelligence and automation
Streamlining processes and creating more efficient workflows for high-volume stages can make a big difference to a law firm’s success. Using artificial intelligence (AI) or automation software is especially useful for lawyers looking to move away from manual tasks.
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Hybrid outsourcing
As law firms look at the most efficient ways to tackle routine tasks, some are experimenting with using a hybrid combination of legal process outsourcing and offshoring for around-the-clock efficiency. No matter what time zone you’re in, you can get any task completed at any time of the day.
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A rise in e-discovery
Recent legal amendments and technology advancements making electronically stored information such as emails, e-calendars, and voicemails discoverable on handheld devices applicable in litigation mean the market for e-discovery services is growing. Legal process outsourcing is ideal here because of its convenience and cost effectiveness.
In addition to solo WFH lawyers, there are now also companies that offer access to white label legal services via a vast pool of contract WFH lawyers, all part of the new world of global workforce engagement structured around and motivated by business’ needs to utilize specific talent and skills.
The bottom line? Outsourcing many time-consuming and mundane tasks allows you to get more meaningful work done. It’s a win-win-win situation, for firms, clients and WFH contractors.
With operation in over 60 countries around the world, CXC is a leading supplier of compliant contingent workforce and outsourcing solutions across a vast range of business sectors, along with an unmatched suite of managed services for employers, contractors and recruiters. If you’re thinking of outsourcing or innovative ways to cut costs and need some advice and guidance, then don’t hesitate to contact us!
