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ILTA White Paper Practice Management 14 D ecision Strategies International, Inc. recently published the Legal Transformation Study — Your 2020 Vision of the Future, which identified key global trends and uncertainties that will likely shape the future of the legal industry. The study focused on 11 trends and concurrent uncertainties, many relating to the way legal services are delivered. Examples of trends included unbundled, outsourced and bifurcated legal services and an increased application of technology. Concurrent uncertainties included what purchase and delivery models will develop for legal services and which litigation model will prevail globally. The study's intent was to encourage professionals to position their organizations to compete, empower the next generation, reduce risk and identify new opportunities and strategies. Given this information, legal process outsourcing (LPO) is one way that law firms and corporate legal departments are responding to global changes in the way legal services are being delivered. LPO might be the future for legal service delivery. evALuATIng And IMPLeMenTIng LPo Forrester Research predicts that by 2015, more than 79,000 legal jobs in the United States will be sent offshore. The majority of tasks being outsourced are those typically done by junior lawyers or paralegals, such as objective document coding, first-level legal review and research. How can an organization benefit from engaging in LPO? Some advantages are: • Cost savings — Quality legal work can be performed at rates far less than standard North American legal rates, which leads to savings for the client. • Efficiency — There's an opportunity to take advantage of 24/7 resources. Also, dedicated project teams can be engaged to perform very matter-specific tasks. • Improved quality assurance — Skills and services can be provided by highly trained legal professionals with a keen interest in gaining repeat business. Given these advantages, how can an organization successfully run an LPO project? Key areas to focus on are: • Define business requirements with the client before contacting an LPO provider • Obtain multiple price quotes • Communicate project parameters to all providers quoting costs, ensuring you can compare "apples to apples" • Establish a project plan that defines tasks, timeliness and responsibilities • Establish a quality control plan • Assign a legal project lead at the firm or corporate level who can communicate with clients and the LPO provider • Assign a technical project lead to monitor technology resources • Prepare a case information package for the review team hoW To hIre A QuALITy LPo ProvIder With so many contract reviewers on the market, how do you know if you're hiring the best? While organizations should be Stay Competitive with Legal Process Outsourcing keLLy ingLeSe mccarthy tétrauLt LLp