Running a small law firm can be rewarding, but there are a host of challenges involved that are directly related to having fewer resources at your disposal.
If you do not want your budding business to be hampered by its size, outsourcing certain duties to third party providers can make a lot of sense. Of course there are also some considerations and caveats to keep in mind before you dive in.
To bring you up to speed, here are the main facts about legal outsourcing you need to know if you want to cut costs, improve efficiency and help your legal firm blossom.
Lots of jobs can be outsourced
From legal research and brief writing to court appearances and more, effective outsourcing can take on many guises.
This also makes the best services a flexible option for organizations that do not have the ability to fulfill all of their responsibilities in-house, especially in the case of time-sensitive matters hanging in the balance.
Domestic and overseas outsourcing is available
The market for legal outsourcing has expanded rapidly in recent years, with technological advancements making it easier for small firms to hire help from lawyers and consultants based in other parts of the world.
Of course it is also still possible to recruit freelance lawyers on a temporary basis from within the local area, and the relative costs of doing so will vary depending on where you are based.
While there is no guarantee that there will be problems when outsourcing legal work overseas, many firms will prefer to seek support from domestic specialists because of the more tightly controlled standards to which they are beholden.
That said, the main perk of outsourcing with a provider that offers overseas support is that there will be no time restrictions on availability, thanks to the variety of time zones that operatives occupy. As such it is a case of balancing your needs against the importance of the work at hand and the schedule within which it needs to be completed.
Pricing is appealing
While there are plenty of differences between the prices and the pricing structures that legal outsourcing companies and freelancers offer, it is still possible to achieve complete transparency when it comes to the costs.
In particular the proliferation of flat fee deals means that you can know exactly how much a given service will cost upfront, which in turn means that you can make appropriate calculations within your own budget and set pricing for clients with a degree of certainty which might not otherwise be achievable.
Overheads can be minimized
Perhaps the best reason to embrace legal outsourcing if you helm a small law firm or are running a one-person operation in your own right is that it gives you a better chance of turning a profit.
This is simply because you can get more done without having to pay a full salary to a permanent member of staff when you outsource short bursts of work to someone else.
Every firm needs to make an outsourcing decision based on their own needs and budget, but it is no surprise to see that this strategy is being used by almost two thirds of firms.
