Small Law Firms providing Legal Process Outsourcing – An Overview

Whenever Legal Process Outsourcing is talked about, attention concentrates on the 5-10 big guns of the industry. But, I think on proper study of complete LPO industry one will definitely find that at least 60% of total revenue of LPO industry is spread over small scale sector. However, target clients outsourcing the projects know little about such small law firms providing legal process outsourcing services.
Recent trend in industry seems to be that small conventional law firms procure some tech savvy professionals including lawyers, chartered accountants, doctors and engineers to form its Legal Process Outsourcing Department. They are able to provide vide range of services including litigation related document review, legal transcription, scanning & indexing of evidence in litigation cases, legal research, etc.
Generally, such small law firms provides their services to US & UK based solo attorneys, small law firms and legal departments of small companies, who get energized to outsource their jobs as either they themselves are too small to hire big guns Legal Process Outsourcing industry or they don’t have regular and large projects to outsource.
Such small law firms are capable enough to provide legal process outsourcing services at approx. 20-25 % cheaper rates than that of big names in LPO industry. Another big advantage of those small law firms is that they are competent enough to provide legal process outsourcing services in customized way. In other words, besides their standard service they are always ready to work on clients specific requirements thereby developing new product and services. Small law firms are more flexible on final product than that of big legal process service providers.
It is seen that such small law firms providing legal process outsourcing services begins with personal network based marketing. But, as they work for some considerable period, they become confident of growing further with complete satisfaction of old as well as new clients. Then those legal process outsourcing service providers transform their network based marketing approach to business-needed marketing approach. That’s where the growth comes in to their way.
US & UK based clients who use to outsource their projects sometimes hesitate with hiring such small law firms for the first time because of mainly quality issue. But in many cases, by doing so, they loose quality wise equivalent products being offered at more competitive rates. In my opinion, they must understand that cost-advantage without compromise on quality is the essence of outsourcing. Hence, they must take a chance by assigning projects to small law firms.
Although, hiring small law firms blindly can never be suggested. I would suggest that US & UK based clients intending to outsource may enquire about the partners and employees of the small law firm during initial discussions so that they may have some idea about their potential capabilities. Further, previous sample work may be seen. Besides, small firms are always ready to work on trial basis, which is the best way to assess potential capabilities.