LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JUNE 2017 53
| OUTSOURCING |
backup provider in place to handle conflict
work, if needed, at the same PwC rate.
Back at Osler, while the firm is using
multiple outsourcers, it is also building its
own low-cost centre called Osler Works.
Based in Ottawa, the 22-person group
offers some of the same services an out-
sourcer would, such as e-discovery. On the
transactional side, Osler Works does due
diligence and contract analysis and man-
agement, which Millar calls "the growing
piece right now." It, too, offers the same
soware as the outsourcers and has its own
servers. So far, the firm only has the scale to
handle smaller pieces of work but is looking
at building up, she says.
Torys LLP has something similar. In
2015 it started Torys Legal Services Centre
in Halifax. e lower-cost centre has five
lawyers and a paralegal who do corporate
work that has a repetitive element such as
due diligence, contract review and corpor-
ate-reorganization implementation in sup-
port of lawyers in Torys' other offices. In
short, no firm is immune to the clamour
for better value.
BORDEN LADNER GERVAIS LLP be-
lieves building up internal capacity while
using various partners is the way to do that,
says Chief Operating Officer Rob Mor-
ris. Take e-discovery. BLG has 22 lawyers
in-house and "we've been investing heav-
ily in our platform for discovery services."
e firm has a hosted e-discovery solution
with KPMG using what he calls "the lat-
est and greatest" soware. What it doesn't
have is a firm tie-up with KPMG; it's what
Morris calls a "best-friends" arrangement.
On very large files, BLG's e-discovery team
can bring in outside contract labour "if we
want to go down that route."
In some areas where law firms have been
going outside for the past few years, tech-
nology and automation is superseding
labour, says Morris — which means more
work can be kept inside the firm. "Before
you had very clunky technology … so it
took a huge amount of time and effort.
erefore, you needed that labour arbi-
trage. What you're seeing now is, you've got
really good sophisticated soware, so what
you need is really good practitioners who
can use the soware with a scalable plat-
form. at's what we've done."
Morris says the firm is looking at a num-
ber of outside partners that have platforms
in other areas, although he won't reveal
whether due diligence, document manage-
ment, document review or contract man-
agement are on the table. "I can't disclose
that at the moment," he says. "I would say
for you, though, that for the most part we
are trying to do a lot of that with technol-
ogy. When you've been doing procurement
as long as I have, everyone says outsourcing
is the Holy Grail for getting efficiencies and
cost savings. But it's not always
— it all de-
pends on technology."
With high-quality outsourcers replacing
law-firm lawyers, and automated technol-
ogy with artificial intelligence having the
potential to replace high-quality outsourc-
ers, only one thing is certain. e tradition-
al law firm model is gone for good and it
isn't coming back. e bottom line for law
firms? Fail to adapt at your peril.
Sandra Rubin is a Toronto-based writer
and strategic consultant.
t 416.304.1616 tgf.ca
We concur.
We congratulate our partner D.J. Miller who
recently received the:
2017 Lexpert Zenith Award
2017 Turnaround Management Association
(Toronto) Women of Excellence Award
for her career achievements and signifi cant
contributions to the advancement of women
in the legal profession.
