Outsourcing legal work has become a growing trend in the legal profession over the past few years due to the changing economic climate, and the needs of businesses. All companies will need legal support at some point, but many are now moving away from the traditional in-house set up.
Many legal resourcing and consultancy firms have now been set up by lawyers and other legal professionals, in an attempt to provide their services in an alternative and more budget-friendly way.
Advantages of legal process outsourcing
Here we’ve outlined some of the key benefits of legal outsourcing, so that you can determine whether this is the best option for your business.
1. Cost savings
Outsourcing legal work is often viewed as a key way to save costs within a business, as you are not having to invest in a full in-house team which will require salaries, HR support, holiday, sick pay, etc.
Outsourcing gives high quality work, with reduced costs – it’s a no brainer! Many legal consultancy and outsourcing firms will have different payment methods, so you can either pay on a consistent monthly retainer basis or pay per hour of work completed for ad-hoc projects.
2. Flexible and 24/7 support
By outsourcing legal services, you will be able to get legal support at any time of the day but will also be able to only access the support you need when you need it. Once a certain task or project is finished, you can end that support and then access legal services again should something else come up.
This flexible but accessible approach is attractive to many businesses who want to ensure their operations are as lean as possible. As mentioned above, this can also have cost benefits, as you are not having full-time staff who may be sat twiddling their thumbs when there’s not much to be doing in a legal sense within the business.
3. Access to external experts
Outsourcing legal research work to external firms allows you to access high-level experts which you may not have had access to before. Aid with virtual deposition, arbitrations, mediations and other legal processes is also made more accessible, which translates to many benefits in terms of both, time and cost savings. Whilst hiring an in-house legal team has its benefits, you can sometimes leave yourself a bit restricted in terms of the level of knowledge and the variety of expertise.
In comparison, legal outsourcing firms will be able to put you in contact with a member of their legal team who is best suited to your problem at that time. The next time you need them for a project, you might have access to somebody completely different due to their experience and their area of specialism.
Even if you have a small in-house team, access to external talent is really useful for filling gaps in internal competencies.
4. Speed and efficiency
One benefit of legal resourcing is that those completing any legal tasks are not facing the same distractions as in-house employees. Internal legal teams are often being called every which way, which can mean they take much longer to complete tasks.
Another benefit is that if you are currently working on a legal project, and want some further expertise or want to speed it up a bit, then legal outsourcing can help to increase the turnaround time for that project.
Legal outsourcing doesn’t have to be a permanent thing, it can also be used to boost your in-house capabilities at times that you need.
5. You can focus on business mission and bottom line
As a business owner, or a manager, you are not going to want to get involved with drafting up legal documents. Instead, you want to be able to focus more on developing and improving the product or the service you provide.
Legal resourcing helps you to do that. You don’t have to spend time and money managing a legal department or guiding your in-house teams, instead all of the work will be taken care of for you.
