Legal Outsourcing: The Law Firm Perspective

Overview 1
Introduction 1
Summary 1
Methodology 1
Executive Summary 3
The legal outsourcing market is experiencing a major upheaval 3
Unprecedented access to key decision-makers within the major law firms 4
Analysis of law firm response to the opportunities and threats posed by LPO and LSO 4
Table of Contents 6
Table of Figures 7
Table of Tables 8
The Evolving Legal Outsourcing Market 9
The primary market players: enterprise legal functions, law firms and LPO providers 9
Three different models for legal outsourcing: conventional, LPO and now LSO 11
Activity flows with the legal outsourcing market 12
A major shift from tactical to strategic LPO 14
LPO is spreading steadily up the value levels 15
The emerging LSO model 17
Market Growth Predictions 19
The 'perfect storm' 19
Stage set for dramatic acceleration in LPO and LSO 19
LSO will fuel additional growth in LPO 22
LPO and LSO have significant future growth potential 22
Law Firms: Drivers and Responses 24
Demand for flexibility and cost reduction from enterprise legal functions 24
Increasingly effective competition from non-law firms 26
Growing law firm recognition of LPO and LSO a major threat and opportunity 27
Law firm adoption of new operating models now gathering pace 30
LPO pilot strategies set to become 'business as usual' across firms 30
Need for an LSO response becoming more urgent 32
Conclusions 34
Proactive law firms will reap longer-term benefits 34
Appendix 36
Further reading 36
Ask the analyst 36
Orbys consulting 36
Disclaimer 36
List of Tables
Table 1: Major law firms surveyed for this report (UK/international) 10
Table 2: A selection of offshore LPO and BPO providers 11
List of Figures
Figure 1: Comparison of LPO and LSO 12
Figure 2: Legal outsourcing market dynamics 13
Figure 3: Primary LPO groupings by value level 16
Figure 4: LPO spreading steadily up the value triangle 17
Figure 5: Predicted two-year market growth for LPO and LSO 21
Figure 6: Predicted longer-term market growth 23
Figure 7: Priority of LPO/LSO initiatives: averaged across all firms 28
Figure 8: Priority of LPO/LSO initiatives: averaged most proactive firms 29
Figure 9: Status of LPO strategy 30
Figure 10: Law firm adoption of LPO provider relationships and LPO captives 31
Figure 11: Percentage of law firms engaged in each LPO area 32
Figure 12: Status of LSO strategy 33