Top 100 law firms forced to consider outsourcing
Financial pressures have driven nearly a quarter of top 100 law firms to consider outsourcing core services such as litigation support and document drafting.
A survey of finance directors revealed the number of law firms likely to use outsourcing this year has risen to 22%, compared with 17% in 2011.
“Some legal-sector watchers may be surprised at the number of finance directors considering outsourcing M&A due-diligence work, as this is usually regarded as a core function,” says Teri Hawksworth, managing director of Thomson Reuters Sweet & Maxwell, which carried out the survey.
“Outsourcing at law firms, until recently, was associated purely with support functions, such as secretarial, administrative, and IT support. This research shows that top law firms are becoming more aware of the cost and performance improvements that outsourcing of core services can deliver.”
Finance directors are becoming less worried about loss of control over service quality—last year, 94% of firms thought this was a very important concern, compared with 79% this year.
One in five expressed concern that predicted costs savings might fail to materialise, compared with 59% who shared that concern in 2011.
