We read with great interest Goodwin Procter’s announcement on 15 July 2008 that is has created a new position, Director of Professional Development & Training for Administrative Professionals:
“Among law firms, Goodwin Procter is unique in establishing this directorship. The firm has grown rapidly, opening five offices in California since 2006, and a critical step in this nationwide expansion has been optimizing its organizational structure.”
For an excellent perspective on what this announcement means, see Jordan Furlong’s blog post, The other talent war. Furlong is the editor of the National, the Canadian equivalent of the ABA Journal.
Why, you might ask, is a legal outsourcing company interested? At Integreon, we view outsourcing as more than just reducing cost. For us, outsourcing is just as much about “optimizing organizational structure” to use Goodwin’s words.
Our years of experience working with law firms and investment banks on outsourcing high-end support and professional functions has taught us to customize services for each organization. Moreover, we understand that organizational transformation is at least as important as cost savings. So we assess each task and role for continuity, collaboration, and communication. The mix of these factors determines which tasks and roles can be outsourced and which are better staying at the firm.
As firms systematically assess the role of their administrative professionals, we think they can and should consider how outsourcing can help improve service. Many who read about legal process outsourcing may think LPO means only document review. But our services include document processing (”word processing”), business development research, presentation graphics, and finance & accounting support. Utilizing these and other “Middle Office” outsourced services, firms can enable many of their professionals – secretaries, financial experts, knowledge managers, HR professionals, and others – to focus on their their “highest and best use.”
Far from being a threat, outsourcing is an opportunity. By offloading high volume, judgment-based tasks, firms free their professional staff from to add more value. This improves their careers, enhances service to lawyers and clients, and can also reduce costs.
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