Outsourcing Or Collabroation

Build A Solo Practice has a post by Rahul Jindal of the blog Legal Process Outsourcing discussing the prospects of outsourcing legal related work to India.  Susan Cartier Liebel is not endorsing this practice, she is just reporting on it.  And, it is good that these issues are discussed.

Outsourcing occurs because lawyers are trying to maximize the amount of work they can reasonable accept, without the need to employ staff, lease space and run a traditional law firm.  In order to process the work properly they have to outsource particular aspects so that they may concentrate on certain portions of the work.  It can be like having a temporary staff that only gets paid only when you need them, and therein lies the benefit.

I liked the way Rahul Jindal described the need.  "The ability to scale up without having to buy the mahogony future, indulge in firm politics, or getting your head grey is something that LPO should be able to offer to enterprising solos".

But the process of shipping work to India seems all too complicated for a solo who must choose a vendor, monitor the vendor, have to worry about confidentiality, provide for data security, train the vendor in what you want, and travel to meet the vendor, to name a few concerns.

This said, I do outsource in a manner of speaking.  Only, I call it "collaboration".  I learned a long time ago that as a solo I have a hard time managing all aspects of litigation, from marketing, to client intake, to investigation, to pleading drafting, to managing the technical aspects of an ongoing case, to discovery and preparing for trial.  When I concentrate my energies on one the others areas suffer. When I am preparing for a trial, for example, my marketing falls through the floor and I suffer a lack of money or earnings later on.

The solution for me was not to add staff, which I would have to pay even when cashflow was not happening.  I did not want the administrative burden.  And, I did not want to start another traditional law firm in which a bunch of lawyers get together, hire staff, lease an office, and load up of furniture and tech.  That is too costly.

The solution was collaboration in which I outsource portions of each case I take to other attorneys.  In return I do not pay then a salary, I do not provide them a work space.  I do not provide them a computer or phones.  I do not pay their bar dues and the like.  We each work from where we want, how we want.  What we do is split the earnings of the case in accordance with how we agree this should be done at the beginning of the case.

For $50 a month I have Basecamp, which is a relatively good web-based tool that lets you manage and track cases and allows you to quickly create client/project extranets. From this, one lawyer takes the case, interviews the client, discusses with me whether it is a case that meets our requirements, then investigates and time lines the matter, drafts all of the pleadings that must be filed, prepares the summons, retainer agreements, and initial letters, and files the case with the Court.  It is really a big undertaking.  Then another attorney takes over to make sure the suit is served on the Defendant, the certificate of service is filed, the case is managed throughout the process, scheduling conferences and management meetings are properly met, and the client understands what is going on at any time.  And, I concern myself with the initial marketing, settling the case, discovery and/or trying the case.

You may break a case up in any way that best suits your needs and core competencies.  I, for example, am not that detail oriented.  I admit this.  But, I surround myself (online at least) with anal retentive lawyers.  It helps.

We work together almost exclusively through telephones, email and Basecamp.  Call it outsourcing.  Call it collaboration.  It is not India, but it is, however, a system that has worked well for me.

Comments

[Jim Allen]

I'm also a lawyer and I've tried Basecamp for collaboration too. But it turned out to be a disaster, cause there so many project IDs for each person and its was a complete nightmare when I found out that one of my partners also has a Basecamp account. Now I'm using Wrike http://www.wrike.com/ and I like it better cause it lets me store all the e-mail communications right there.

[Inbound Call Center]

Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, like product design or developing to a third-party company.The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, technology and resources.