We read with interest a recently published Hildebrandt interview of Georgetown Law Professor Milton C. Regan, Jr on Outsourcing and the Impact on Legal Work . Professor Regan has thought long and hard about the future of law firms. He co-organized the recent Georgetown Law conference on the future of law firms, summarized in our recent post Law Firm Evolution or Revolution . At the conference, he presented ideas from a forthcoming journal article (details and link at end). The interview, like his presentation and paper, is thought-provoking. We agree with much of it but take exception to a crucial point. We disagree with his view that legal process outsourcers (LPO) can substitute for law firms, especially his view that LPOs can advise clients. We start with this disputed point and then comment on several on which we do agree. Advice. Regan observes that once clients break down work into components, they “can find lower cost providers, either domestically or abroad, lawyers or non-lawyers, [and this] could hollow out a good portion of a firm’s operations… Right now, the standard distinction is that LPOs do routine work and law firms provide strategic advice.” As LPOs understand their clients better, he suggests they will be “in a better position to provide advice.” As an LPO, we neither can nor should provide advice. We cannot provide advice because we are not licensed to practice can you buy prescription drugs online without a prescription law; our providing advice would violate the unauthorized practice of law rules. Moreover, we should not provide advice as a strategic business imperative. Specifically, we work with law firms (and law departments). So it is not in our interest to compete with firms. Instead, we seek to free-up outside counsel to provide more and better advice. Rather than represent a competitive threat, LPOs allow firms to offer clients better value by outsourcing repetitive and routine work. LPOs, with their expertise and investment in process engineering, quality control systems, and technology are well-positioned to perform these tasks. But we are limited to tasks that lawyers can, practically and ethically speaking, delegate and supervise. Project Management. Relating to the topic of high-volume work, Hildebrandt asks Prof. Regan about project management. He suggests PM is increasingly important for law firms. We agree that firms need people “who can analyze the different steps involved in providing a service” and “to do cost accounting in a reasonably precise sort of way.” Hiring the right personnel to decompose work into steps and analyze profitability accurately will allow firms to identify routine, high volume tasks
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