By Yara Simón in AI —

Outsource Legal Services: What Are the Benefits?

Outsourcing legal services can give you more time to focus on the most pressing tasks.

Outsource Legal Services: What Are the Benefits?

The Modern Law Firm series delves into how AI can streamline your law firm — whether it’s by saving you time and money, eliminating mistakes and redundancies or making your workflow more efficient. 

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Employees at law firms, such as bankruptcy firms, have a lot of paperwork to complete. But what if you could outsource legal tasks so you and your team could focus on the issues that most require your time and attention?

Learn more about why you might outsource legal services.

Legal outsourcing, also known as legal process outsourcing (LPO), is when a legal practice hires an external service provider to carry out tasks. Legal outsourcing companies can take on a wide range of responsibilities, such as contract review and document preparation, and can include lawyers, paralegals, or other professionals with knowledge and expertise on legal processes. 

Outsourcing can save legal firms valuable time and money.

Outsourcing is growing in the legal field, according to a Thomsons Reuters report. In a study of about 60 law companies, there was a 6.3% rise in how much firms spent in legal support services from 2021 to 2022. Even though AM Law 100 firms led this shift, mid-sized firms had also increased their outsourcing spend when compared to previous years.

Legal teams can get bogged down with routine tasks that, while important, are time-consuming. Here are a few other reasons legal businesses might look beyond their house team:

1. More Efficient Hiring

Hiring new staff members takes time. It might require that candidates interview with people in different legal departments or for your firm to look for ways to expand your talent pool. Outsourcing means you can save time by working with legal service providers that have already vetted its large pool of professionals.

2. Cost Effective

When you outsource legal services, you have less overhead costs—for example, you don't need to account for desk or office space—and you can outsource for only the hours you need. This cost savings can mean you can invest in other parts of your law firm.

3. Flexible

You may not always have an overwhelming need for help. Outsourced legal services can keep up with the demands or pare down for slower periods. 

What Tasks Can Your Law Firm Outsource?

Law firms can outsource a range of services. Here are just a few:

Document Review and Management

You can outsource document review. With Glade.ai, for example, when clients submit paperwork, an AI agent will review it and let them know if they need to resubmit documentation. This ensures that by the time lawyers review cases, there are less errors because the AI will have caught it first. Additionally, it can help you keep tabs of every single piece of document a client submits. This can be particularly useful for bankruptcy firms that have to secure many documents.

As one bankruptcy lawyer put it, "The biggest challenge that I face as a bankruptcy lawyer is chasing clients for documents."

Related: Glade.ai Makes It Easy to Collect Client Documents for Bankruptcy Cases

Contract Management

Outsourcing can help you with your paperwork as well. Legal service providers can do everything from contract drafting to ensuring you organize everything efficiently. Glade.ai can as well. When a client initiates their case, they will receive a contract. And since Glade works as sort of a customer management system, it also stores every client's information on their profile.

Client Intake

Glade's AI agents can carry out the intake process for you. The AI system will ask a standard number of questions (that you choose) and will help you qualify potential clients. While this is a necessary step in acquiring new clients, it can be something that takes time away from other duties.

Artificial intelligence has not yet become the norm for outsourcing. But there are services, like Glade.ai, that can support legal teams' work. For example, Glade.ai can send contracts, give clients updates, and review documents for bankruptcy firms, immigration firms, and personal injury law.

As Thomson Reuters says, while the legal industry has been slow to adapt to technology, when it comes to AI outsourcing, it's not "a question of if but rather of when."

Here’s how AI legal outsourcing can benefit your firm:

1. Adaptability

AI systems can adapt to your workflow. You can train them to complete tasks as you see fit. 

2. Speed

Human workers are not as fast as AI, especially when it comes to looking through sets of data.

3. Cost Effective

With AI, you might have fixed pricing. For example, with Glade, you can add as many team members as you’d like without any additional costs—meaning your entire team can work more efficiently without it affecting your bottom line.

4. Cutting-Edge Technologies

Using AI to outsource means your law firm can take advantage of the latest technologies. With law firms typically being slow to incorporate new tech, this can put you ahead of your competitors.

AI Outsourcing vs. Traditional Outsourcing

AI and traditional outsourcing both share the same goal: to make it easier for legal teams to turn their attention to more pressing issues by taking on more rote work. Traditional outsourcing relies on a team of legal professionals; meanwhile AI outsourcing uses artificial intelligence.

Traditional outsourcing is cost effective and is a viable option because service providers connect law firms with professionals with extensive legal experience. However, they are still slower than AI agents. They are also prone to mistakes.

AI can complete the work more accurately and quickly. They are also available on a 24/7 basis. For example, if you are trying to outsource the intake process, a potential client might reach out after hours and your AI agent can help them at any time. 

Here are a few options if you’re looking for legal outsourcing: 

Legal outsourcing is a growing field. Here are a few options:

Artificial Intelligence Outsourcing

Artificial intelligence outsourcing is a nascent field, but you can turn to Glade.ai to help with document review, document organization, client updates, and more.

Outsourcing legal work can save you time and money. Outsourcing enables you to hire teams on a case-by-case basis. AI outsourcing means you can use artificial intelligence to more quickly and accurately carry out tasks, like document management.

There are many reasons you might outsource legal work. For example, you may need help immediately and hiring a staff member can be a lengthy process. You might also only need help temporarily and outsourcing can fill that gap.