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?
