|
Legal outsourcing, also known as legal process outsourcing (LPO) refers to the practice of a law firm or corporation obtaining legal support services from an outside law firm or legal support services company (LPO provider). When the LPO provider is based in another country, the practice is called offshoring and involves the practice of outsourcing any activity except those where personal presence or contact is required, e.g. appearances in court and face-to-face negotiations. When the LPO provider is based in the same country, the practice of outsourcing includes agency work and other services requiring a physical presence, such as court appearances.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.practicepro.ca/LAWPROMag/StrategicResourcing.pdf )〕 This process is one of the incidents of the larger movement towards outsourcing. The most commonly offered services have been agency work, document review, legal research and writing, drafting of pleadings and briefs, and patent services.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=IP Legal Services by Intellectual Property Attorneys and Lawyers )〕 This phenomenon has been a part of the legal experience since the 1950s, where it was restricted only to patents. Later, firms began to contract certain services to back door firms. The process of subcontracting part of the legal process to different countries is at a nascent stage, with relatively consistent market growth. Legal process outsourcing has predominantly been to countries that had previously taken advantage of the business process outsourcing wave. LPO providers have established themselves in Canada,〔 India,〔http://www.bizandlegis.com/india-desk.htm〕 the Philippines, the United States, Israel, and Latin America. ==Overview== The concept of legal process outsourcing is based on the division of labour principle, prevalent in law firms, where various time consuming and onerous processes like due diligence are delegated to paralegals, document reviewers or interns. This allows the firm to address the various legal issues that arise on a daily basis while being able to streamline productivity. The process involves a contract, with due consideration, between both firms. The following are the various methods by which the process could be initiated: *Direct Contract – This is the most straight forward means of establishing contact. The firm needing legal services directly approaches the legal process outsourcing vendor. *Managed Outsourcing – This is a case where the firm establishes contact with a legal process outsourcing vendor and retains a traditional law firm to coordinate the vendor's activities and to ensure quality control. *Required Outsourcing – This form of outsourcing occurs when the firm mandates a certain level of outsourcing in the legal process, either to reduce costs or to fulfill statutory requirements. *Multi-sourcing – This involves segregating the work assigned to LPO providers in order to reduce risk and take advantage of each provider's strengths. This approach is helpful in cases where expertise is required on matters of jurisdiction and merits. Having more than one provider "on deck" also allows a service recipient to obtain more favorable pricing. On the other hand, multi-sourcing can be more complicated than other approaches. Successfully managing multiple, competing providers requires strong and effective governance procedures. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Legal outsourcing」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|