December 2022- ALSPs: Increasingly Recognized as Part of the Legal Team

QuisLex is proud to be a sponsor of the 15th Annual Law Department Operations Survey, published this month by the Blickstein Group. Among the findings in this year’s report is an increased understanding within law departments of the importance of alternative legal service providers. QuisLex director of sales operations and channel partners David S. Cochran shared his insight on this trend in an “Inside the Numbers” piece included on page 27 of the survey report. In his article, “Law Departments Showing Increased Understanding of the Importance of ALSPs,” Cochran discusses the collaboration among legal operations, outside counsel and ALSPs as analogous to a three-legged stool with each carrying an equal share of the burden to achieve balance and success.

For years, law departments relied on their outside counsel to provide additional expertise and support in handling the ebbs and flows of varied workloads faced by in-house counsel. Today, that work is shared among internal legal operations teams, outside counsel and ALSPs, the latter two increasingly recognized with equal importance. In fact, when asked to rank what’s important to them in selecting outside counsel and ALSPs, this year’s LDO survey respondents identify the qualities of expertise and experience among the top criteria in selecting both partner types.

The growth and expansion of ALSP offerings have run parallel to the recognition and growth of dedicated legal operations professionals. Initially recognized for providing document review services at a lower cost, ALSPs today offer much more, including M&A support, contract review and abstraction, legal operations support, compliance and privacy and legal spend management, to name a few. The best ALSPs are always striving to learn, improve and become a better partner and ally to the law department. An experienced ALSP is always accountable and constantly providing a consultative approach to the challenges the legal operations team are dealing with on a day-to-day basis and offering thoughtful, creative insights and recommendations for continuous process improvement.

This year’s LDO survey also highlights the top challenges faced in managing the law department functions: “Implementing business processing improvements” and “cost containment” were at the top of the list. Leading legal operations teams rely on their ALSP subject matter experts to provide guidance and consultative support to minimize cost and for their breadth of knowledge and experience in a particular area, whether it be technology selection, Six Sigma workflows or other business functions.

The continuity of learning, rethinking approaches, listening to and understanding the new needs and challenges of the legal operations team provides value to the law department as ALSP partners become more embedded within the team. It’s no longer “they,” but “we” when discussions occur within the three-legged stool.

Download the 15thAnnual Law Department Operations Survey Report to read Cochran’s full article, along with survey results and other interesting insights and commentary from industry experts.