Outsourcing and Document Processing

May 14, 2009

Law firms, lately to improve financial results, have started focusing on improving operating efficiencies and controlling costs through centralizing document processing and other support services and also reducing or eliminating secretarial overtime or increasing the ratio of secretaries per lawyer. This seemingly has achieved savings, but at the cost of disrupting traditional lawyer-secretary and other long-established staff relationships. The option of cost reduction with less disruption relates to outsourcing of document-processing. Enabled by modern telecommunications outsourcing offers benefits in form of cost reduction cost without sacrificing quality or confidentiality; an improved turnaround time in document processing; and also preserving important working relationships. In fact, secretaries free from high volume or complex document processing tasks enables them to perform more like executive assistants, focusing on higher-value work and improve their job prospects. Thus on the whole, outsourcing may recast the role of support staff. Just as outsourcing solved several law firm management problems decades ago, it can solve the secretarial problem.

Law firms began outsourcing administrative jobs like payroll in the 1970s. Over the next decade firms broadened outsourced tasks to photocopying and mailing, travel arrangements, and food service, for example. Those were followed in the new century by outsourcing more knowledge-intensive tasks such as litigation support (document production and management) and legal research, some of it to offshore support centers.

Administrators pursuing the outsourcing option should find a vendor that offers domestic as well as offshore document processing centers. The dual-shore approach provides the option to work through domestic contacts to assign tasks to offshore centers. This way, staff interacts primarily with the onshore based staff, which handles job intake and in turn assigns work to centers in fully vetted offshore locations, while closely monitoring deadlines and quality control.

While a dual-shore approach allows more flexibility some may find that after a period of adjustment, dealing directly with offshore personnel is easy. With delivery centers in multiple time zones, administrators can be assured of business continuity, an increasingly important concern today. Law firm administrators have a choice of several established outsourcing providers today. Firms typically use a combination of consultants, internal resources, and vendor expertise to analyze workflow and cost efficiencies and develop a customized plan to meet the firm's long-term needs. With the right vendor, firms can be sure to have a flexible, customizable, and scalable solution.

Practicing law is partly about building relationships. Successful lawyers value and protect relationships, not only with clients, but also with their support staff. Administrators must nurture these relationships but, at the same time, fulfill their imperative to control costs.

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