Legal process outsourcing refers to the off shoring of the various legal processes outside of the traditional 'in house' model either by law-firms or in-house legal department of various corporations. Although the industry has been around only for a very few years, yet it has matured considerably having had the benefit of learning from the many lessons of the outsourcing industry in general. However, it would be a constructive and fruitful exercise to take stock of various issues which need to be addressed positively for a successful legal off shoring experience, both from a client as well as from vendor’s perspective.

However, while the idea of off shoring is indeed profitable- turning the profits into reality through a successful establishment is far from easy as it involves inputs at various cross sections, like technology, quite outside the core competence for most legal firms.

On the bright side, the industry now has established consultants well equipped with the technical prowess required to help clients achieve the desired efficiencies, helping them gain ground through their experience in the arena.

To begin with, the industry follows one of the many possible alternatives with each of these having their own pros and cons. These alternatives include-

1. Captive centre
2. Third-party vendors

The first and the most crucial decision faced by a client looking to outsource is making this choice. The success of any outsourcing endeavor, to a large extent, depends upon this choice.
While a captive centre involves long term commitment it is the best suited for clients with prolonged needs or a sustained workflow. On one hand it ensures the benefits of hands-on quality control and control over confidentiality issues – on the other hand it requires establishing and operating an offshore entity.

The other alternative would be to hire the specialized services of third party service providers, who have specific subject knowledge and industry expertise. Once again on the flipside ensuring the best and best suited vendor for your specific needs is important.

For a client looking forward to offshore legal processes – making the correct choice between the two is critical to the success of its ventures. One of the possible ways of solving the dilemma is through employing the services of a specialist industry consultant to help you analyze the specific short term needs and also align them with your long term objectives. This will ensure that you make the right choice of picking the right option for you and also while opting for a third party vendor you are well assured of a right work profile fit.

On the other hand, there are other issues from a vendor's perspective which need to be addressed too.

A typical vendor has the choice of adopting many of the various possible models of delivery while entering into the market.

Importance of Strategic Consulting

The successful establishment of a legal outsourcing enterprise would depend upon a variety of factors. In a nutshell it is about the right product mix which needs to be made available to the right client market and at the right price. All these are strategic decisions and need to be addressed right at the outset.

The key areas here being –

Products: As described above, there are a variety of products that a vendor may choose to offer. However, to maximize returns on investment, it must carefully select the services it wants to offer as each service offered would also entail costs.

Pricing: Legal outsourcing is essentially a value proposition derived by leveraging upon the cost arbitrage. Thus, to stay competitive vendors have to keep pricing under check. However, to ensure a long term sustainable profitability and to be able to deliver quality services (which require steep costs in acquiring, retaining and training the right people), services must be rightly priced.

Right Market: The past two years have seen increased volatility in the fortunes of many sectors and many geographic locations. Recession hit the US financial sector heavily and along with it changed the fortunes of many vendors catering exclusively to it. LPOs thus must be on a constant look out for the next big market.

Right Marketing: Identifying the right markets is the first step and is beneficial only if the market is effectively targeted and captured through, once again, the right product mix and the right pricing.

All the above stated requirements need constant support which can only be provided by a sector specialist with a thorough experience of servicing clients across geographies.

On the second front, vendors have to also tackle the important elements of technology. While technology has never been the core competence for the legal industry, it is virtually the single most important enabling factor behind outsourcing. Vendors require the right technology to ensure an uninterrupted link between the outsourcing firm/corporation and the offshore establishment and all-through maintaining the highest standards of data security and reliability. This is another area where vendors would require the assistance of a reliable institution to help them establish and run the nerve centres.

About KPO Consultants

KPO Consultants is the pioneer consulting company which provides business solutions exclusively to the LPO industry. We work with the established and aspiring LPOs to set up their LPO ventures and overcome their complicated business problems and also help management make big decisions affecting top line growth of their company. KPO Consultants offers consulting in areas of strategy, operations, technology, marketing and sales, human resources, and strategic alliances. We also provide end-to-end support across entire business lifecycle; building business synergies from the scratch till realization of its benefits and ongoing developments. We have served several clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Philippines, Mauritius, India, Canada, Australia, and many more countries.

For more information, please visit our website www.kpoconsultants.com or write to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .