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How ALSPs work with traditional firms
The provision of flexible legal resourcing from ALSPs to traditional law firms generally
works on three levels:
1. Backfilling the law firms own teams to support with gaps in resource for longer-term team
absences or for spikes in workflow;
2. Provision of secondees to their clients in order to honour panel requirements in a more
cost-effective way or as a way of added value/customer service; and
3. Working with the firm’s alumni to offer a flexible resourcing career option for former team
members and an accessible pool of pre-vetted and known talent for the law firm.
Traditional law firms tend to have more similar structures than in-house teams; the
implementation of flexible legal resourcing can still vary. Here are a few examples of how it works
for law firms with different requirements.
Example 1: Magic Circle law firm, implemented own flexible resourcing
programme. Branded service managed by bespoke internal team.
Example 2: Leading global law firm with a multibillion-dollar revenue instructed
Law Company to provide flexible legal resourcing programme presenting as a joint
solution to clients demonstrating range of services and transparency.
Example 3: New entrant regional law firm, working with Law Company to provide
flexible work force as part of overall strategy of main law firm and to provide wider
range of services to end clients by providing legal operations and project managers
alongside generalist in-house and specialist private practice lawyers in curated
teams.
Managed Services
The trend toward outsourcing complete tranches of end-to-end legal work has been
growing. In the flex legal resourcing sector, the latest iteration of this solution is for entire legal
teams or departments to be taken over by the service provider and managed to achieve cost
reductions. Some recent examples include:
ElevateNext and Univar
ElevateNext, using data analytics and consulting from Elevate Services Inc. (its partner),
assessed the performance of outside counsel, their efficiency, and adherence to sound budgeting
and decision-making processes. They identified ways to streamline efforts, lower costs, and
improve outcomes. ElevateNext now handles legal matters directly for Univar, acts as coordinating
counsel for certain matters that remained with other law firms, and serves as “chief of staff” to the
law department.
163
The provision of flexible legal resourcing from ALSPs to traditional law firms generally
works on three levels:
1. Backfilling the law firms own teams to support with gaps in resource for longer-term team
absences or for spikes in workflow;
2. Provision of secondees to their clients in order to honour panel requirements in a more
cost-effective way or as a way of added value/customer service; and
3. Working with the firm’s alumni to offer a flexible resourcing career option for former team
members and an accessible pool of pre-vetted and known talent for the law firm.
Traditional law firms tend to have more similar structures than in-house teams; the
implementation of flexible legal resourcing can still vary. Here are a few examples of how it works
for law firms with different requirements.
Example 1: Magic Circle law firm, implemented own flexible resourcing
programme. Branded service managed by bespoke internal team.
Example 2: Leading global law firm with a multibillion-dollar revenue instructed
Law Company to provide flexible legal resourcing programme presenting as a joint
solution to clients demonstrating range of services and transparency.
Example 3: New entrant regional law firm, working with Law Company to provide
flexible work force as part of overall strategy of main law firm and to provide wider
range of services to end clients by providing legal operations and project managers
alongside generalist in-house and specialist private practice lawyers in curated
teams.
Managed Services
The trend toward outsourcing complete tranches of end-to-end legal work has been
growing. In the flex legal resourcing sector, the latest iteration of this solution is for entire legal
teams or departments to be taken over by the service provider and managed to achieve cost
reductions. Some recent examples include:
ElevateNext and Univar
ElevateNext, using data analytics and consulting from Elevate Services Inc. (its partner),
assessed the performance of outside counsel, their efficiency, and adherence to sound budgeting
and decision-making processes. They identified ways to streamline efforts, lower costs, and
improve outcomes. ElevateNext now handles legal matters directly for Univar, acts as coordinating
counsel for certain matters that remained with other law firms, and serves as “chief of staff” to the
law department.
163
