Law firms, in response to the more-for-less value challenge posed by buyers of legal services, are exploring different organization models. The win-win goal is to provide services of equal or better quality to clients at a lower cost while at least defending, if not improving, law firm revenue and profit. Models range from network affiliations and combinations with law and other professional service firms to unbundling and re-bundling of services through multidisciplinary platforms, and everything in between.
Here, we discuss why law firms might choose to create one such model: the “Captive LPO” (LPO stands for legal process outsourcing). A Captive LPO is a subsidiary wholly-owned by a firm, created to handle legal process work (think: repeatable work which can be performed efficiently, effectively, and less expensively through the application of streamlined processes, project management, and technology). There are many types of work LPOs can handle; here are a few examples: document review, contract extraction, IP management, and company formation and maintenance.
