In a recent major study conducted by Thomson Reuters and the Georgetown Law Center on Ethics and
the Legal Profession; entitled, “Alternate Legal Service Providers 2019, Fast Growth, Expanding Use and
Increasing Opportunity”, found growth in the Legal Outsourcing industry grew approximately 25 percent
from $8.4 billion in 2015 to $10.7 billion in 2017.
The study based on a survey of 335 law firms and 182 corporations focused on key back-office legal
tasks traditionally done by law firms and corporate legal departments; such as, Litigation and
Investigation Support; Legal Research, Document Review; eDiscovery and Contract Extraction /Analysis.
An overall major finding of the report was the fact that the market for Legal Outsourcing is experiencing
rapid growth at a rate exceeding expectations in both the law firm and corporate legal department
sectors.
Corporate Use Growing Faster Than Predicated
Corporate use of Legal Outsourcing is growing at a faster rate than predicted in the survey 2 years ago,
particularly for services such as litigation and investigative support and document review. In all, 74
percent of corporations surveyed are now using Legal Outsourcing in at least one service category,
compared with 60 percent in the survey two years ago. Corporations are using Legal Outsourcing both
directly and indirectly through outside law firms, with an increasing number of corporations reporting
internal pressures to use Legal Outsourcing to reduce legal expenditures.
Nine in Ten Large Law Firms Now Using Legal Outsourcing
Use of Legal Outsourcing is now commonplace among law firms. Eighty-seven percent of large law firms
surveyed say they are using Legal Outsourcing in at least one service category. Eighty-one percent of
midsize firms and 57 percent of small firms are doing the same. The most common uses of Legal
Outsourcing for law firms are e-discovery, litigation and investigation support, and legal research. More
than half of law firms surveyed say that Legal Outsourcing can help them expand and scale their
business, differentiate their services, and retain client relationships.
The Legal Outsourcing Market is Set to Undergo Continued Rapid Growth
The Legal Outsourcing industry is set to undergo rapid growth over the next 5 years and is predicted to
grow to a $40 billion market by 2024. Fueling this demand are corporate legal departments that are
under intense pressure to increase efficiencies and reduce costs in managing and processing the massive
volumes of legal documents in today’s digital age. Accordingly, the use of Legal Outsourcing for
conducting back-office legal tasks has created a paradigm shift in the way the legal industry performs
routine legal functions.
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