Running a law firm means going through tons of paperwork every single day, a time-consuming process for lawyers whose time and energy are needed more by their clients. Outsourcing your legal process to a quality service provider may benefit you and give your law firm a competitive edge.
Offshore outsourcing has been there for decades but it was only a few years ago that the western companies started to engage with legal process outsourcing companies in the Philippines. The rising popularity of this subset of business process outsourcing is slowly contributing to the growth of the outsourcing industry in the Philippines.
What is Legal Process Outsourcing?
Legal process outsourcing or commonly known as LPO is the subcontracting part of your legal process to a local or offshore outsourcing service provider. The most common functions law firms outsource are document review, contract drafting, legal research, and document processing and coding.
Most countries that engage in legal process outsourcing are the US, UK, and Australia. The growing need for legal services is one of the reasons for outsourcing due to law firms need more time-to-market which involves face-to-face negotiation with their clients. In fact, lawyer and legal related services are one of the most expensive keywords on Google Adwords which means searches across the internet are extremely high.
The global revenue forecast of legal process outsourcing services is expected to reach at USD $35.9 billion, a CAGR of 31.9% from 2018. Contract management outsourcing, e-discovery, litigation support and review services are the top services outsourced by law firms and corporations.
As these western countries are based on English common law, India and the Philippines lead the offshore LPO market due in Asia to its population of English speakers and it is used as an official language. However, some countries provide legal process outsourcing services for its local capabilities such as China, Singapore, Argentina, and South Africa. While some countries may be the first ones to dominate the market, the Philippines’ LPO industry is slowly growing and is now considered to have more edge in terms of overall competitiveness.
Advantages
Reduced costs
One of the most attractive reasons why companies outsource to the Philippines is the cost advantages. The market rate for legal services in the country is relatively just a small percentage of what lawyers in the US or UK charge to their clients. Also, large corporations in the US are forced to outsource a part of their legal department due to the increasing costs in legal processes.
Access to top-notch talents
The Philippines produced some of the best lawyers from top universities in the country. Also, the country has a lot of law practitioners that graduated from some of the top schools in the US and the UK. Also, the quality of English speakers in the Philippines is at par with native speakers both verbal and written communication.
Reduced time
When you outsource a certain legal function, you gain access to streamlined processes that are handled by a team that makes efficiency and quality output at the core of their services. The timezone difference in the Philippines is also an advantage and it can make it work for you 24/7 to deliver projects within a short period of time.
Increased Flexibility
In the Philippines, outsourcing in general can benefit you in terms of engaging with a service provider. It gives you more flexibility with the type of engagement models that suit your needs. You can either contract on output-based projects, or you can hire top-level talents that you can directly manage offshore to the Philippines.
Maximized growth
Lawyers spend most of their time in face-to-face meetings with their clients and court appearances. Outsourcing legal services can help you focus more on solving problems and give you more time-to-market.
