WilmerHale Insourcing

Some interesting new insourcing developments occurred this week with the D.C.-based law firm WilmerHale. The firm is launching an onshore delivery center in Dayton, Ohio which will provide a host of support services.

According to the official press release posted on the WilmerHale website, services to be performed include traditional back office services such as “finance, human resources, information technology services, [and] operations.” Additional services to be performed also include traditional legal outsourcing services such as document review and management.

The stated goal of the initiative is to “provide improved efficiencies for administrative teams and the firm, and reduce significant operational expenses.”

This announcement directly affirms the findings and projections of our 2010 Global Sourcing Study, which is currently available online at: www.fronterion.com/globalsourcing2010/

As noted in the Global Sourcing Study, legal outsourcing vendors will face increased indirect competition if law firms do indeed become more efficient on their own. It will be interesting to see if similarly positioned firms in high-cost jurisdictions seek to improve the competitiveness of their firm through consolidation and domestic cost arbitrage.