Outsourcing allows law firms the chance to rejuvenate their services, says Margaret Lang
While consolidation and competition continue to exert pressure on law firm management in the UK, the legal profession has followed commerce and industry’s example: importing outsourcing as a management tool. This apparently simple concept has long been regarded in the corporate world as a key mechanism to deliver effective business strategies and tactical objectives such as improved customer response, faster delivery times, reduced assets or headcount, as well as converting fixed overhead costs into variable contracted costs. In many organisations functions such as IT, finance and human resources (HR) have been outsourced to expert providers who service a number of similar businesses and can therefore deliver economies and efficiencies of scale which are passed back to the client.
Incentive to outsource
Although relatively unexplored within law firm management—with a few high-profile exceptions in the largest firms—the outsourcing debate has moved quickly in the last two to three years. Firms increasingly seek to improve client service levels, positively impact partner profits and allow the senior management team to focus on strategy
