EVOLUTION AND IMPACT ON LEGAL INDUSTRY

Posted by skjjuris on November 7th, 2019

Legal process outsourcing (legal support services) refers to the practice of a law firm or corporation to obtain legal support services from a legal support services company (LPO provider) is also trending among lawyers and law firms with the advancement of the technology which has in-house expertise to perform paralegal tasks such as litigation database maintenance, law-suit management, contract management, administration and clerical work. This phenomenon has been a part of the legal experience since the 1950s. The concept of legal process outsourcing (legal support services) is based on the division of labour principle where time constraint and work pressure has become rampant in the legal firms and this allows the firm to address the various legal issues that arise on a daily basis while being able to streamline productivity. The leading proponents of this process have been corporate clients concerned with rising legal expenses. The biggest attraction for the western firms that outsource their legal work is cost management. Legal outsourcing services (legal support services) are tremendously cost- effective and the legal support staffs are competent enough to serve the attorneys with pro-active, quality driven results within committed time frames.

Legal support services are rendered byparalegals and legal staffs and have become indispensable in the recent years due to the increasing intricacies in the field of law and litigation. Legal support services play a very significant role in the management of workload of the lawyers in a more organised and efficient manner. Legal support services traces its history back to the times when the lawyers have worked alone withpapers and pens. Legal support services include responsibilities ranging from legal research to writing briefs, to adapting complex and rapidly changing legal technology. A survey held by the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics states that in recent times, more than one quarter- million paralegals and legal support staffs are working across the U.S. which is likely to increase by 17 % by 2022.Legal support staffs have clear knowledge of various facets of litigation processes and skill to adapt the way the law works. They are counted for the experience and talentthey possess,to proficiently tackle tasks related to legal support activities.

The roles of the legal support staffs have also substantially changed in the law firms with the changing times. They perform legal research tasks for cases, efficiently handles discovery processes that involves large volumes of documents, extract relevant information for lawyers from the documents, prepares legal documents, contracts and other arguments, provide litigation support and a lot more. Legal support staffs have become multi-taskers who have the practical knowledge of the legal sector and customer service skills as well as legal technology expertise. They have clear knowledge in legal terminology, familiarity with computers and in-depth understanding of the area of law they working in. They have major intra-personal skills as they encounter potentially tense situations with ease and comply with the applicable requirements.