Outsourcing Offers New Ways for Law Firms to Improve Efficiency & Profitability. The explosive growth of e-Discovery is making it impossible for the legal industry to keep up without outsourcing. MCS Management Services is a leading provider of on-site business support services, including mail center operations, shipping and receiving, records management, document and print center management, in-house litigation support, managed print services and related professional services.

1. Legal Process Outsourcing
Outsourcing Offers New Ways
for Law Firms to Improve
Efficiency & Profitability
September 2012

2. Growth of e-Discovery
• In 2006, the legal industry adopted into law the e-Discovery amendments to the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedures.
• More than half of the 50 states have implemented rules
for electronically stored information (ESI) and electronic
data discovery.
• While legal administrators believe e-Discovery will
improve efficiency and profitability, it has added
complexity, as well as infrastructure and staffing costs.

3. Litigation Support Services
• With adoption of e-Discovery, litigation support services have been stretched
beyond capacity even at the biggest law firms.
• Some large firms are hiring chief knowledge officers to manage the non-IT
portion of e-Discovery.1
• This is not an option for small and midsize firms, forcing them to find alternative
means for conquering e-Discovery challenges.
Enter Legal Process Outsourcing

4. Rise of Legal Outsourcing
• The practice of legal process outsourcing (LPO) appeared around 1997.
• By 2010, it was estimated that less than 15% of law firms had outsourced
any activities.
• A survey of corporate counsels reported that the
overwhelming majority had not used legal process
outsourcing but were either researching or starting to use
it for the first time in 2011 or 2012.2
• However, corporate legal departments comprise the lion’s
share of the LPO market, which was estimated at
US$857 million in 2011.

5. • The explosive growth of e-Discovery is making it impossible for the legal
industry to keep up without outsourcing.
• Several factors make outsourcing litigation support services good business:
• Laws concerning outsourced work in the legal industry have been clarified.
• The federal cost-recovery statute was amended.
• Outsourcing no longer means offshoring. Onsite, non-employee staffing
gives law firms outstanding control over the work.
• It is cost effective.

6. Legal Outsourcing Today
• In its formal opinion 08-451, the American Bar Association approved the use of
outsourced legal and ancillary services to support a core legal team.3
• That same year, an amendment to the federal cost-recovery statute changed the
wording of 28 U.S.C. §1920(4) to include practically all copying of any relevant
materials, not just paper duplication.
• These decisions opened the door for lawyers to increase the
use of e-Discovery and other technology-based processes.
• This has increased the workload for technology specialists
in practice support and drive more firms toward
outsourcing to keep up. (C) MCS Management Services 6

7. • The legal process outsourcing industry has changed significantly since it began.
• Outsourcing doesn’t mean the same thing as offshoring.
• Outsourcing doesn’t mean that services are provided offsite.
• The trend is to provide onsite, non-employee staffing. This is not the same
has hiring a temp.
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8. Value of Outsourcing
• Bringing outsourced litigation support in-house is typically a long-term (one year
or more) arrangement.
• It allows a law firm to benefit from highly skilled technical specialists without
adding headcount or making a large investment in training.
• This contains backend costs such as health insurance and other benefits, while
allowing the firm to keep up with growing demand.
• It gives leadership close control over technology staff, which is often the
underlying reason that outsourcing is discounted.
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9. • Onsite staff can be monitored every day.
• LPO providers stress a systematic approach and cost reduction.
• LPO providers rely on industrial disciplines that include:
• Process improvement and metrics
• Service level agreements
• Formal governance plans
• Lower cost of labor
• Defined accuracy rates and progress reports4
• This is typically more oversight and process structure than most firms provide
their own employees.
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10. Financial Sense
• Outsourcing litigation support makes financial sense for midsize firms and
corporate counsels because:
• Lawyers are able to focus on more high-value tasks.
• Studies have shown highly-skilled, highly-paid employees underutilize their
qualifications/experience when saddled with low-value tasks that are below
their pay grade just because there’s no one else to do them.5
• This is often the result of austerity measures that
include cutting litigation support staff.
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11. Conclusion
• The legal industry is grappling with many issues that are changing their
operations and, in some cases, eroding their profitability.
• There is more pressure than ever to grow profits today.
• Emergent technologies and broadening applications for e-discovery are putting
pressure on managing partners to adopt or fall behind.
• By outsourcing litigation support services, law firms and corporate counsels can
gain control over their technology burned, empower their lawyers to focus on law
and effectively maintain their margins.
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12. References
1. Raths, D. KM innovators lead change in the legal field. KM World. February
2012.
2. ALI Report. Corporate Counsel: Agenda 2012. As reported in Law Technology
News, February 2012.
3. Jacoby, CJ. ABA Outsourcing Opinion: What it Means to You as a Litigation
Support Professional. Litigation Support Today. February 2, 2009.
4. Friedman, R. The Impact of Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) You Might Not
Have Noticed.” Law Practice Today. January 2012.
5. The LPO Program. 3rd Floor, 85 Broadway, New York 10006.

13. Company Background
MCS Management Services is a leading provider of on-site business support services, including
mail center operations, shipping and receiving, records management, document and print center
management, in-house litigation support, managed print services and related professional services.
Over 30 Years of Business Support Experience
Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBENC)
96% Client Retention Rate since 1993
Senior management team of experts has an average tenure of over 15 years