The economic recession of 2007-2009 forced many corporations to reevaluate major in-house processes and core values. It was detrimental to continue spending money at the same rate, and business protocols had to change and evolve with the fluctuating economy. One of the largest components reassessed was the operations of corporate counsels, and chief officers were forced to innovate and reexamine their procurement of services. In other words, corporations could no longer rely exclusively on the services of prestigious law firms due to their excessive fees. Instead, corporations developed creative fee structures, heightened price bidding among legal firms, and procured the amenities of legal outsourcing organizations.

LSO

Legal Service Outsourcing, shortened to LSO, defines the corporate practice of establishing partnerships with third-party legal providers to aid in corporate legal counsel. Such outsourcing firms either work in conjunction with a company’s legal team or in a tripartite relationship with both a client and it’s outside counsel. It’s a multifaceted process that opens up new avenues for corporate counsels.

Think about it, rather than bombard your legal team with piles of paperwork and frivolous briefings, you can outsource these mundane practices to a professional and educated legal outsourcing organization, thus freeing the time of your counsel for more important matters. Besides, you’ll save money by outsourcing entry-level procedures to an outside firm. There is no reason your private and expensive legal counsel should shift through endless files of document review, waste time on legal research and writing, draft pleas and briefs, or get tied-up with patent services. All these provisions can be completed by an LSO organization for half the price, and from a remote location. As such, any activity where personal presence or contact is not required, e.g. appearances in court or negotiations, can be completed through legal outsourcing.

Don’t waste the talent of your legal counsel. When your highly skilled lawyers have the freedom to focus on thebig issues, they can produce even greater results. So clear their desks of all the little, yet time-consuming, stuff, and give them the opportunity to excel. Why waste their talent on mundane matters when you have expertly trained and knowledgeable paralegal partners at your disposal?

Besides, by synchronizing the efforts of a LSO team and your legal counsel, you can streamline your law department, saving money and creating efficiency.

Using LSO Firms Efficiently

We all know the world of law is a confusing one. The intricacies of specific laws and legal protocol are mind-boggling and ever fluctuating to accommodate new values and market inventions. This is no different for the world of legal outsourcing, which has also become a highly complex enterprise that continues to evolve and fluctuate, being driven by market necessity and changing perceptions on the practice itself.

At an initial glance, LSO appears to be a simple arrangement between two enterprises – one being your big corporation, and the other a small yet prestigious legal outsourcing firm. Your company needs paperwork handled, and the legal firm needs works. Seems simple enough; but the marketplace of outsourcing is in constant motion to account for new players and new processes, which in turn changes the economic environment. And with change comes new business drivers and hence, new legal risks that must be addressed. In other words, a constant reevaluation on legal procedures is required.

When the landscape of legal outsourcing changes, new complications occur that firms must be prepared to manage. Often time’s new privacy and data security issues arise, or IP address conflicts emerge, or new contract terms and deal approaches are released, and the LSO firm working for you must know how to navigate such turbulence. So it’s not about hiring a paralegal outsourcing firm to do your paperwork, it’s about finding a professional company that can keep-up with the changing market and provide sound advising on sourcing transactions.

Employing a competent LSO organization is vital to the legal makeup of your corporation because it puts the right people in the right place and doing the right thing. Paperwork and outsourcing complications are managed by your LSO team, while your corporate counsel can focus on internal issues and contribute to business growth. It’s a simple matter of specialization that can provide enormous benefits when utilized correctly.

So don’t be afraid to hand over some of your legal work. The LSO market, although somewhat new, has already proven its invaluableness, and can be the life-saver for legal counsels drowning in an ocean of paralegal work and complex outsourcing transactions.

Daven Michaels is an award-winning outsourcer and author of the book, ‘Outsource This!’ Daven has been honored more than any other individual or outsourcing organization. You can get more information on outsourcing by visiting http://www.123Employee.com