The concept of outsourcing peripheral functions is not something new to law firms. For more than 25 years, firms have been farming out their duplicating, mail and messenger work to outside vendors. Past decisions to outsource were as difficult then as they are today but for very different reasons. In the earlier days, the overriding concern dealt with document confidentiality. There was a degree of concern as to whether or not you could trust a third party, who was not a member of the firm, with client information. Could the copying of sensitive documents be turned over to a stranger – in a sense, someone who had not been personally vetted by the firm before being hired?
There was less concern about confidentiality regarding messengers since there had already been established a custom of using outside messengers, commonly known as the bicycle brigade, to make quick and time-sensitive deliveries, but nonetheless there was concern about them roaming the corridors of the firm where confidential material could lay around for easy perusal. With the help of a few pioneers and the passing of time, these issues disappeared and a quarter of a century later, a firm that still handles these activities in-house is an oddity.
