We’ve noticed an increase in articles and commentary about law firm outsourcing lately. Our affiliate, Law.com, carried a piece by Karen Asner recently, The Inside Scoop on Law Firm Outsourcing, with White & Case mentioned as a case study. Booz Allen Hamilton also just released its study on The Globilization of White Collar Work.
Our own study on this subject, the 2006 Law Firm Outsourcing Survey, received some attention recently when consultant Mark Santiago was interviewed by the New York Times on the topic. Our survey examined the outsourcing of operational and administrative functions of law firms in areas including human resources, document production and management, IT support, and finances. The results of the study showed, among other things, that almost two-thirds of respondents said their firms had outsourced some functions within the past year and more than half reported that their firms had begun outsourcing some functions five or more years ago.
The most frequently outsourced functions were related to documents -- mailroom, messenger, and reprographics. The second-most frequently outsourced functions were administrative -- travel and food services. Less than 20 per cent of firms surveyed outsource IT functions, but many were open to doing so in the future. Very few firms outsource accounting functions or plan to do so in the future.
The full survey report is available from ALM Research for $250. The table of contents is available for viewing online before purchasing a copy.
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