Few would argue that the outsourcing of legal services by law departments to LPO companies offers the law departments a number of benefits — the most notable of which are significant cost savings, productivity and efficiencies. The big question however that is yet to be definitively answered is how does outsourcing of legal services by law firms benefit the law firms? Until this question is settled, I think it’s safe to assume that law firms are going to drag their heels on implementing a LPO strategy.

Let’s face it, law firms are businesses. It’s that simple. Law firms, like any . . . [more]

Over the past few years, various pundits and critics have raised all sorts of issues with legal process outsourcing (LPO). One way or another, these issues have largely been put to rest to the satisfaction of the legal industry and LPO clients.

So is quality the next issue? Is the quality of LPO work comparable to the quality of the same type of work being done onshore (i.e. in Canada)?

In February this year the American Conference Institute (ACI) held an India LPO Summit in New York. On the second day of the proceedings, Maria McMahon from Baker McKenzie reportedly . . . [more]

Three recent surveys have forecast a positive outlook for the legal process outsourcing (LPO) sector. Surprised? Given the current economic crisis, you shouldn’t be.

Before I elaborate on these surveys, let’s take stock of where we are at present. We all know what shape the global economy is in. So how is the legal industry shaping up? These are some of the recent headlines.

“Closings, layoffs come to U.S law firms”
“Wilson Sonsini cuts 113 jobs, freezes associate pay”
“White & Case lays off 70 associates”
“Orrick lays off 40 attorneys, 35 staff”
“Cooley Godward fired 50 lawyers and 60 . . . [more]

These are some of the words being bandied about these days. It’s not all that promising. Or is it?

With the global economies struggling, these are undoubtedly challenging times. But with every crisis, there always seems to be some opportunities that present themselves. For the legal services sector, that opportunity comes in the form of the legal process outsourcing industry (“LPO”). What began as an idea in the United States a number of years ago has now become a robust industry. The legal process outsourcing industry started out with only a few vendors in the United States. The industry in . . . [more]

A recent WSL Blog posting on legal outsourcing to India (a topic covered quite extensively on SLAW), reminded me I was going to mention the panel that spoke on this topic a few weeks back at the Canadian Law and Technology Forum in Toronto. One speaker discussed offshore outsourcing and the other speaker discussed outsourcing domestically to Canadian lawyers.

The offshore outsourcing speaker was lawyer Gavin Birer of Legalwise Outsourcing Inc. (who wrote a good introductory article on the topic here on SLAW earlier this summer). Given good high-speed Internet, secure communications and a body of qualified lawyers in India, . . . [more]

I had everything planned for this week’s column. But, as with many things in life, you can’t always plan for the unexpected. So, since my last column, there have been two very significant events that have taken place in the US with regard to the legal process outsourcing (“LPO”) industry. This week’s column is dedicated to those events.

Significant event number 1…..

Previously, the Bar committees in New York City, San Diego County, and Los Angeles County have ruled, that US lawyers may outsource legal work to foreign lawyers (or non-lawyers) outside the US, provided the US lawyer (a) supervises . . . [more]

In this, the first of hopefully many columns, I wanted to take a few moments to introduce myself. My name is Gavin Birer and I am the founder and president of the first Canadian offshore legal outsourcing company. I am called to the Bar in Ontario and admitted as an attorney in the Supreme Court of South Africa. My legal experience is as a corporate commercial lawyer, practicing in Bay Street law firms and in-house as a General Counsel.

This month’s column is going introduce you to the offshore legal outsourcing industry (also commonly known as “legal process outsourcing” or . . . [more]