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It is now commonly accepted business practice to adopt outsourcing as a means of refocusing organisations on core matters, reducing non-core operational risk, improving quality and staff morale and reducing cost. Although law firms have been relatively slow on the uptake to date, the legal sector can still take advantage of outsourcing and offshoring. Magic circle giant Clifford Chance has led the field by moving back office and secretarial support to its own office in India, in order to carry out much of the company's administrative work. The outsourcing programme is expected to yield more than £9.5m in annual savings. Similarly, Pinsent Masons announced a deal to offshore its bulk typing and transcription services as part of a move to change the role of its secretaries.

Lawyers and their support teams exist to serve their clients’ requirements. Clients’ requirements are always satisfied directly by lawyers in a personal relationship. The success of any law partnership is dependent on the successful delivery of services to clients by all the lawyers in the firm. However, at the moment a series of challenges have surfaced which has made this more difficult: escalating costs; lack of office space; backlogs in letter production and documentation due to staff shortages; the necessity of using temporary staff to alleviate short-term staff shortages; changes to the Legal Services Bill and a lack of qualified staff. Legal process outsourcing is undoubtedly an option that can help law firms address key challenges, but only if done correctly.

So how can a firm best go about using legal process outsourcing to their advantage?

Minimise set up and management time . If getting an outsourcing arrangement right requires too much effort or time from fee earners, the direct cost savings will be lost, and it will lead to much in-house frustration and a lack of buy-in from key people. For example, dictation per minute/per line is hugely time consuming (in terms of set up and constant management) for the law firm. Fee earners should be spending their time on their core activities, servicing clients and billing for these services and not on the firm’s outsourcing contracts. It should not be expended on systems changes and personnel issues. When an outsourcing relationship is set up, this potential pitfall must be avoided.

Implementation needs to be evolutionary . The implementation of an outsourcing strategy need not be the cataclysmic, big-bang scenario that some might suggest, but an evolutionary process leading to business transformation. This needs to be characterised by a lack of redundancy for permanent back office staff, the implementation of progressive systems and the contracting of a UK company to manage the offshore relationship. By developing an outsourcing relationship that maximises the benefits of an offshoring strategy while minimising day-to-day disruption, the impact on the firm can be managed effectively.

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