A lot of labor goes into running a law firm. And it is very expensive. It is now possible for legal firms to outsource certain types of work that no one thought was feasible. And it is saving these firms millions.
Legal process outsourcing exists. Routine tasks including artificial intelligence (AI), stand-ins for court appearances, freelance lawyers to help with cases, will and trust writers can all be handed off to external service providers.
Outsourcing legal work allows lawyers to devote their attention where it matters most while keeping costs lower. It maximizes output and profitability all at the same time. Here are a few legal tasks that can be outsourced:
- Client Intake – According to The National Law Review, this is the most tedious and time-consuming aspect of running a law firm. Through artificial intelligence, lawyers can skip the draining manual process of data collection during this stage. In fact, a 2020 report showed that lawyers using legal technology like a CRM and client intake software collected 40% more revenue per lawyer compared to four firms that weren’t utilizing these technologies.AI also enhances client experience. Statistics show that nearly half of all law firms fail to reply to their prospects within three days. Legal software like client intake software can be programmed to reply instantly, creating a great first impression that is more likely to result in client conversion.
- Court appearances – Contrary to popular belief, are often brief. However, the waiting time for the matter to be called by the judge can take longer hours compared to the appearance itself. When you take into consideration the travel time, that’s a lot of wasted time.As such, billing disputes can arise. Clients may not agree with having to pay for the travel and waiting time when in reality, only moments were spent interfacing with a judge.You can, in fact, hire a company that makes court appearances for you for a flat fee, sparing you the commute hours as well as those spent idle in the courthouse.
- Staffing – There are companies that provide extra legal staff when you need litigation support. These companies provide assistance in finding qualified attorneys to come to your aid. This can be done remotely or in your office.
- Document Review – This can be the most expensive and laborious part of e-discovery. Piles of files relevant to cases have to be organized. Outsourced staff collect, process, filter, analyze and organize documents in less time and cost.
- Virtual Legal Assistants – Remote assistants can take care of menial tasks including document management, marketing automation, and research.
Time is money, so, time saved is money saved. Outsourcing saves you time which allows legal practitioners to focus on the real legal work and not on time-consuming menial tasks. And with the availability of competent professionals all over the world your talent pool becomes as big as it can get.