Fronterion Managing Principal Michael Bell has been invited to participate on a panel for an upcoming legal outsourcing conference in the UK this March.
The panel will also include Mark Lewis (Partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner) and Mark Ford (Director of the Clifford Chance Knowledge Centre). Both are also recognized thought-leaders in the legal outsourcing community.
Topics to be addressed in the panel discussion:
• How to communicate with clients (of the law firm) about outsourcing initiatives.
• What are the insurance exposure issues that must be addressed?
• Specific points to review during the vendor selection process.
• Building in cultural nuances of the onshore client when offshoring.
• Different types of engagement structures when working with outside vendors.
• Core vs non core outsource/captive/offshore?
• Lessons learnt to date: People/Process/Technology/Knowledge Transfer issues
The UK, which has seen a number of significant announcements regarding legal outsourcing initiatives recently, is a geography of growing interest for alternative delivery of legal services.
More details about the upcoming conference are available through EMRG.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Vendor News Round-up
Here is the round-up of several of this week’s vendor announcements. These announcements reflect a number of the trends anticipated by Fronterion in the Ten for 2010 trending release in December 2009.
CPA
CPA Global announced a 47% equity management buy-out by the London-based Intermediate Capital Group. The deal was led by DLA Piper and was priced out at $709 million for the near majority stake.
It will be interesting how the buyout will affect the management and direction of CPA Global. Results are yet to be seen. At the very least, it does appear to be a good indicator in regard to the unfreezing of global capital markets.
As predicted in Ten for 2010, Fronterion noted that, “As capital markets improve in 2010, these larger players will access outside capital investment to drive further growth and acquisitions.”
Integreon
A joint announcement revealed Integreon will be one of the vendors involved in an innovative e-discovery initiative by International law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. The offering known as PEARL (Pillsbury’s E-Discovery Alliance of Resource Leaders) is an alliance of undetermined formality to link together an end-to-end e-discovery solution for Pillsbury clients.
In addition to Integreon, other vendors in the alliance include ACT Litigation Services, Discovery Services, Protiviti and TransPerfect Legal Solutions.
This is a major step forward to have an American Global 100 law firm publically announce they are outsourcing significant aspects of their legal services. We can be fairly certain that this will not be the last.
Another interesting component of the alliance is it’s pricing structure. It is one of the first formal offering of an e-discovery solution by a law firm with per gigabyte pricing.
This also reflects trending predicted by Fronterion, “As organizations continue to publicly broadcast their outsourcing initiatives and leverage their outsourcing engagements as a competitive differentiator, vendors who are part of high-profile deals will be in a position to build substantial brand awareness.”
CPA
CPA Global announced a 47% equity management buy-out by the London-based Intermediate Capital Group. The deal was led by DLA Piper and was priced out at $709 million for the near majority stake.
It will be interesting how the buyout will affect the management and direction of CPA Global. Results are yet to be seen. At the very least, it does appear to be a good indicator in regard to the unfreezing of global capital markets.
As predicted in Ten for 2010, Fronterion noted that, “As capital markets improve in 2010, these larger players will access outside capital investment to drive further growth and acquisitions.”
Integreon
A joint announcement revealed Integreon will be one of the vendors involved in an innovative e-discovery initiative by International law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. The offering known as PEARL (Pillsbury’s E-Discovery Alliance of Resource Leaders) is an alliance of undetermined formality to link together an end-to-end e-discovery solution for Pillsbury clients.
In addition to Integreon, other vendors in the alliance include ACT Litigation Services, Discovery Services, Protiviti and TransPerfect Legal Solutions.
This is a major step forward to have an American Global 100 law firm publically announce they are outsourcing significant aspects of their legal services. We can be fairly certain that this will not be the last.
Another interesting component of the alliance is it’s pricing structure. It is one of the first formal offering of an e-discovery solution by a law firm with per gigabyte pricing.
This also reflects trending predicted by Fronterion, “As organizations continue to publicly broadcast their outsourcing initiatives and leverage their outsourcing engagements as a competitive differentiator, vendors who are part of high-profile deals will be in a position to build substantial brand awareness.”
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Legal process outsourcing facing a ‘watershed’ year
Fronterion’s trending release Ten For 2010 gained further recognition this week in a piece in the Law Society Gazette, Legal process outsourcing facing a ‘watershed’ year. While India remains the unequivocal leader in outsourced legal services industry, the article notes the growing interest in South Africa, particularly by firms in the UK.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Technology Applications
Outsourced legal services is not the only innovation in the legal profession helping legal firms and corporate councils manage the cost of legal services. A recent article featured in the Wall Street Journal notes that, technology and software platforms are being adopted at increasing rates to help lower costs, as well.
As noted in the foreword of the book Implementing a Successful Legal Outsourcing Engagement, Bruce MacEwen writes in regard to the adoption outsourced legal services, “I may disappoint you to report that what I believe is far more parochial: the adoption of outsourcing will be firm by firm, activity by activity, year by year. Like much of the march of progress, change will be less drastic in the short run than many imagine, and more revolutionary in the long run than most can foresee.”
The same is true of the adoption of innovative technology applications, as noted in the article. Innovative outsourcing solutions will happen in concert with technology developments. Often changes begin slowly at first, but expand into a number of exciting possibilities as they mature.
Links between these innovative technology platforms and outsourcing include improved monitoring and collaboration with remotely based outside vendors. With increasing transparency, general counsel will have greater capacity to monitor the productivity of their outside counsel and thus, their outside legal spend.
As noted in the foreword of the book Implementing a Successful Legal Outsourcing Engagement, Bruce MacEwen writes in regard to the adoption outsourced legal services, “I may disappoint you to report that what I believe is far more parochial: the adoption of outsourcing will be firm by firm, activity by activity, year by year. Like much of the march of progress, change will be less drastic in the short run than many imagine, and more revolutionary in the long run than most can foresee.”
The same is true of the adoption of innovative technology applications, as noted in the article. Innovative outsourcing solutions will happen in concert with technology developments. Often changes begin slowly at first, but expand into a number of exciting possibilities as they mature.
Links between these innovative technology platforms and outsourcing include improved monitoring and collaboration with remotely based outside vendors. With increasing transparency, general counsel will have greater capacity to monitor the productivity of their outside counsel and thus, their outside legal spend.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Challenges in 2010 for UK firms and others
For many, the new year means a new start. But that is not the case for some major law firms who are still slogging through flagging legal markets. As noted in a recent article featured in The Lawyer, many lawyers still seem to be holding their breath watching uncertain markets in the coming year. The article does point to the impact on outsourced legal services, particularly in the UK legal segment, which is expected to change fairly significantly in the coming year in anticipation of the implementation of the Legal Services Act.
Developments likely to have an impact on the market over the next 12 months include the expansion of the legal process outsourcing (LPO) market, changes in fee models and the impact of the Legal Services Act.
Efficiency has quickly become the watchword for those with their hands on the purse strings at major firms. Whether this means changes to outsourcing policy, client charging or further rounds of redundancies remains to be seen.
Despite the concerns expressed in this piece, many of the firms that we have talked with remain positive on the new year.
Developments likely to have an impact on the market over the next 12 months include the expansion of the legal process outsourcing (LPO) market, changes in fee models and the impact of the Legal Services Act.
Efficiency has quickly become the watchword for those with their hands on the purse strings at major firms. Whether this means changes to outsourcing policy, client charging or further rounds of redundancies remains to be seen.
Despite the concerns expressed in this piece, many of the firms that we have talked with remain positive on the new year.
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