The New York Times recently published an article about the slow-but-steady movement of law firms towards outsourcing. The driving factor? Cost, of course.

The latest is Clifford Chance, one of the largest law firms in the world, with 29 offices in 20 countries, which was to announce Friday a plan to consolidate and move big chunks of its administrative work, like accounting and technological support, to Delhi by next spring.

The shift to India could eventually result in as much as $18 million a year in savings, the law firm estimates.

As more client try to manage their skyrocketing legal expenses and keep lawyers’ billing rates down, more large firms will continue to push certain administrative and back-office tasks to lower-cost providers and areas. This is, and will likely continue to be, a relatively slow evolution in large firm culture and management:

About a year ago when White & Case, another law firm, considered hiring a company in India to handle word- processing activities, it wanted to make sure that documents going over its computer network could not be intercepted or that individuals working in India could not print out the documents or take them home.

And while Richard McKenna, the chief administrative officer for White & Case, said he had been happy with the work the outside firm had done and that some marketing functions had also been moved overseas, he had concerns about sending other documents too far from home.

“We do continue to look at outsourcing as a way to improve efficiencies and manage infrastructure costs, but it’s not a quick decision that we would make,” he said.

Law firms get outsourcing bug [via The New York Times]
“OUTSOURCING” - clients will prefer firms who do it, sooner than you think [via Gerry Riskin]