Outsourcing

Innovative legal practice Radiant Law has moved to an in-sourcing model for some of its work by opening an office in South Africa last week – while also applying for an alternative business structure licence to enable a leading retailer to become its chairman.

Alternative business structures (ABSs) will create additional demand for legal services outsourcing (LSO) and could in time become LSO providers themselves, a new book has predicted.

Riverview Law has announced a collaboration with US technology pioneer Legal OnRamp to offer a service that can cope with massive regulatory burdens imposed on financial institutions to avoid a repeat of the 2008 banking crisis.

A UK legal process outsourcing company has obtained an equity investment of double the amount it was seeking to fund ambitious expansion plans, using the ‘crowdfunding’ method of appealing to investors.

The legal outsourcing business that uses former City solicitors to provide temporary support services to law firms and in-house teams, has surpassed its original goal of having 500 lawyers on its books and grown 400% in the past year.

A human resources (HR) outsourcing one-stop shop involving both lawyers and non-lawyers has been launched by City firm DAC Beachcroft, with plans to roll out the blueprint to other areas of legal services.

The legal process outsourcing industry is currently worth $2.4bn worldwide and is set to expand into higher value, more complex work, according to research conducted by the London School of Economics.

Our regular round-up of important news nuggets includes the newest SRA-licensed ABS, an advice contract for the Co-op, a survey of top firms on how they are changing, a probe of SRA files to identify any racial discrimination, heavy fine for spam texters and much more.

Nearly 60% of top 100 law firms view mergers and acquisitions as a leading growth opportunity in a challenging legal services market – with the prospect of alternative business structures starting to snap at their heels, according to a prestigious benchmarking survey.

Big Four accountancy firm PwC has launched a new service aimed at helping in-house lawyers look at how they operate internally – and also manage their external legal advice. PwC has hired Stephen Allen, formerly director of innovation at City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, to head it.

Mahy: something that somebody should have thought of before
Using ex-City lawyer parents looking to return to practice is a way for in-house lawyers and law firms to onshore services that many people are saying should be offshored, a former FTSE 100 general counsel said this week.

The global legal process outsourcing market will double in value by 2015 to more than £2bn but general counsel are increasingly freezing out law firms and buying outsourced services direct, according to new research.

Our regular round-up of news you may have missed includes an international online directory, Scotland looking for a piece of the LPO market, worsening cash-flow at law firms, a free probate offer, and much more besides.

A groundbreaking new law firm that handles personal injury claims for other practices on a white-label basis has launched in the north-east of England. Questus says it is the first dedicated outsourcing law firm of its type.

Well-known business services provider Jordans Ltd is to set up an alternative business structure aimed at handling outsourced legal work for both companies and law firms, it has emerged.