Outsourcing legal work is nothing new. Secretarial services within the States have
been taking on legal paperwork for years, and more than a few overwhelmed
lawyers have sent off their legal busywork to LPO[1]-focused legal firms. What is
new is the expansion of that legal outsourcing to offshore LPOs in countries
like India, many of
whom dangle a tempting price tag in front of financially strained attorneys.
While outsourcing in the United States often means paying $7-10 per page for legal work, workers in India are now offering those same services at an average of $1 per page—a nearly 100% decrease[2]. Price differences that extreme add up very quickly for larger, paper-heavy firms, many of whom are now dropping their in-house fees in favor of saving their clients (and themselves) a heavy chunk of change.
More on making outsourcing part of your marketing plan in the next LegalMatch newsletter.
[1] LPO: Legal Process Outsourcing.
[2] Rubenstein, Michael. "Call My Lawer... In India." Time Magazine, April 2008.
