Integreon

Fronterion, a “leading international management consultancy advising law firms and corporate counsels on outsourcing options”, has published its top-10 list of legal outsourcing (LPO) trends for 2010.

Here is the list:

1. A dynamic legal landscape. Economic pressures and the changing regulatory environment will continue to put pressure on organisations to turn to outside vendors.
2. Alternative legal delivery. Traditional delivery of legal services are unbundled allowing firms to offer clients new, streamlined services and create greater efficiencies.
3. Shift in focus. Legal organisations will take a more strategic approach to their outsourcing arrangements as opposed to an ad hoc, cost-focused approach.
4. Expanded work flow. Projected increases in litigation and rising economic activity will prompt organisations to source more work to LPO vendors.
5. A proving opportunity. In 2009, legal outsourcing caught the media limelight. 2010 will be the acid test for the legal outsourcing industry, when it must prove its value to new consumers.
6. Engagement structures. For 2010, the primary avenue for law firms and corporate legal teams to participate in outsourcing arrangements will be through third-party vendors and virtual captives.
7. Emerging sourcing destinations. The leading LPO location India, will face competition from emerging nations like South Africa and the Philippines.
8. Dynamic vendor landscape. Increased competition as traditional business process outsourcing (BPO) providers ramp up their LPO capacity. Mid-size LPO providers face a choice between consolidation and specialisation.
9. Talent Development and Migration. As legal outsourcing vendors gain prominence in 2010, they will have much greater access to talent as more lawyers consider outsourcing as a genuine career path.
10. Industry Transparency. 2010 will mark an increased focus on transparency that will result in more efficient markets and heightened credibility of legal outsourcing initiatives for both buyers and vendors.

By and large, we agree with these predictions.  We have discussed many of these trends and reasons behind them in prior posts so will limit our comments here to one point.  On the prediction “Emerging sourcing destinations”, I would add onsite and onshore destinations to the list.  From the our vendor perspective, we see strong interest, in both the US and UK, in a mix of destinations, including onsite, onshore, offshore, and multi-shore.

Out only a few days now, Fronterion’s predictions have already garnered press coverage:

• The ABA Journal prediction #9 in an article New Career Path for U.S. Lawyers: Outsourcing Firms
• Noted UK-based e-disclosure commentator Chris Dale also focused on the career path prediction in his blog post UK interest in outsourcing on the rise
• The Orange Rag (aka Legal Technology Insider) by Charles Christian, reported on Fronterion’s Top 10 outsourcing predictions for 2010

On a related note, Michael Bell of Fronterion, the author of this list also wrote a recent major LPO study, Implementing a Successful Legal Outsourcing Engagement, published by Managing Partner, an Ark Group property. This is in-depth study provides extensive background on outsourcing considerations and practice and contains numerous helpful case studies. My colleague Mark Ross and I each contributed short sections; in addition, Integreon client Osborne Clarke is the topic of a case study.