Launch of Boutique Law Practice is Based on LPO Value Proposition

In a recent ABA podcast, I spoke on the melding of law firms and LPOs:
“Going forward I think it’s always a fair question of, are we going to see law firms acting like LPO’s or are we going to see LPO’s acting like law firms? And one of the trends… in the past 6 to 8 months is that we’ve seen a lot more law firms acting like LPO’s than LPO’s acting like law firms.” In this podcast, I predicted that we will also see some interesting melding between law firms and LPOs in the UK in the coming year with the implementation of Legal Services Act. My comments in the podcast start at 3:29 and 11:50.

In the New Year, we are already seeing signs of new LPO innovations and law firm/LPO melding. An example of such LPO innovation is the new technology, outsourcing and commercial law boutique launched by a group of partners from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, Latham & Watkins and Morrison & Foerster. This new firm, known as Radiant.law, will work with legal outsourcer Pangea3 on certain transactions yet will be responsible for managing the deal as a whole, according to a report in Legal Week. Instead of charging clients an hourly rate, the firm aims to offer price certainty by charging fixed prices for work in advance.

This endeavor is big news. This new boutique is the first of its kind to offer a value-proposition centered around LPO. As an industry, we are still exploring the relationship dynamics between law firms, corporations, and LPOs and this is big first step for a law firm taking on this much LPO involvement.

We will see more new and innovative enterprises cropping up this year, particularly in the UK. We’ve also seen additional law firm-LPO melding with the recent onshore outsourcing announcement by Herbert Smith.