Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO)

Updated February 14, 2025 | Argopoint Consulting

lpo Overview & OBJECTIVES

As legal department staffing models and reporting structures evolve, most top legal leaders have considered alternative or hybrid models involving outsourcing and/or offshoring routine legal services – known as Legal Process Outsourcing.  Legal service providers (LSPs) and Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) can be an opportunity to achieve significant cost savings in an industry where costs are historically high and rapidly rising. 

High-volume, low-complexity, routine and/or repetitive tasks can be ripe for outsourcing and worth consideration for a department looking to reduce legal spend. However, risk reduction being one of the chief aims of the legal department, decisions surrounding outsourcing of any legal support must be carefully considered. Some departments have moved toward legal process outsourcing only to pull back into domestic firms.  When done correctly and carefully, the prohibitive cost of traditional legal staffing models can be mitigated, helping legal departments save money and get the most out of their legal service providers. 

In order to capitalize on this sourcing and savings opportunity, some legal departments may wish to have outside validation of the initial Legal Process Outsourcing assessment as well as assistance in the development and implementation (including effective vendor management) of the transition plan. 

PHASEd approach: steps in TRANSITION & IMPLEMENTATION

The primary goal of a successful Legal Process Outsourcing sourcing initiative is to capture significant cost savings for the corporation.  Typically, this involves evaluating leading providers (possibly conducting an RFP), designing a transition plan, and developing and implementing vendor management tools (evaluation, assessments, metrics, etc.).  Support from experts can accelerate this process, rounding out the opportunity assessment and moving to a structured sourcing approach designed to achieve cost savings in the short and long term.

successful lpo: SOLutions and Savings

Argopoint can provide significant management/facilitiation and implementation support for legal process outsourcing initiative. This includes developing (and customizing) vendor management tools and structured transition plan, including: 

• Completed legal process outsourcing opportunity assessment and recommendations 

• Initial cost savings potential analysis 

• Business requirements/provider selection criteria (e.g., legal research and e-discovery) 

• Formal quantitative and qualitative “scoring methodology” (e.g., how legal process outsourcing providers are evaluated using selection criteria 

• Request for Proposals (RFPs) 

• Scorecards, Metrics and protocols (summarizing evaluations of legal process outsourcing providers) for ongoing vendor management optimization

• Robust “make vs. buy” financial analysis, overall sourcing strategy recommendations 

• Recommendation of preferred providers 

• Transition plan for legal process outsourcing solutions