LawSourcing Blog

The outsourcing of legal services has been gaining a lot of attention lately. Ellen Tanowitz wrote an interesting article this month in the New Lawyer, an online newsletter for the ABA General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division.

In the article, titled “Using an Independent Contractor in Your Legal Practice”, Ms. Tanowitz explains how solo and small firm lawyers can use independent contactor lawyers on a project-by-project basis when things get busy (rather than hire a full-time associate). Ms. Tanowitz, in fact, not only uses other lawyers to outsource some of her work when things get busy, but she also serves as an independent contractor for other lawyers in the Boston area when times are slow.

But why should Ms. Tanowitz be limited to working with lawyers in the Boston area? She’s not anymore. Thanks to the Internet, now lawyers can (1) outsource some of their workload to other lawyers anywhere in the world in an auction format, and (2) find additional work being outsourced by other lawyers when times are slow.

We think this can change the way some lawyers practice law. But we’d like to hear what you think.

Using an Independent Contractor in Your Legal Practice [via the New Lawyer]

Peter Olson, the founder and a principal in The Olson Law Firm in Chicago, mentioned LawSourcing in a recent post on his Blog (thanks Peter!). In his blog post, Peter said to

Check out the site. I think it just went online very recently…there aren’t too many projects posted as yet. But, I think it has potential.

Peter’s right, we did go online very recently (less than two weeks ago), and we’re working to get the word out as best we can so that people will register and start posting more projects on the site.

You can read Peter’s entire post on Peter Olson’s Solo in Chicago

More and more lawyers are jumping into the blogosphere; however, many are finding that it takes a lot of time and effort to maintain a blog. Edward Poll, the author of the LawBiz Blog, recently wrote an article describing 10 ways a blog boosts a law firm’s image. Number 8 mentioned that lawyers should consider outsourcing aspects of their blog.

8. Delegate.

Worried that you’ll spend too much time blogging? Consider hiring someone to manage the technical aspects of your blog, such as uploading posts and graphics, tracking replies to posts, working on search engine optimization. The expense may be far less than the time spent updating and managing — no matter how easy with TypePad or other tools — that take you away from other marketing activities or even from your practice.

Taken one step further, lawyers can outsource the entire function of their blog — they can have someone design the look and feel of the blog, have someone else write the content that is posted to the blog (with the lawyer reviewing the content prior to posting), and have someone else manage the technical aspects of the blog. The problem used to be finding the right people to handle these tasks; however, with more and more websites on the internet providing easy access to these resources, this scenario is likely to become commonplace.

You can read more about Edward Poll’s writings at the LawBiz Blog

Ten Ways Blogs Boost a Law Firm’s Image [Law.com]

Ron Friedmann at Prism Legal posted a nice blog entry about LawSourcing today. (Thanks Ron!)

In his blog post, he quotes from one of his recent articles where he wrote:

The core business of law firms is a combination of solving legal problems and helping clients cope with difficult situations. An old adage says that lawyers are finders (business getters), minders (relationship managers), or grinders (ones who crank out legal work). Today, lawyers who are great at “client hand holding” typically rely on a partner or associate to do the legal work. Could the minder instead outsource this to a lawyer in another organization? The point is that even in what many would consider the core business of law firms lie potential outsourcing opportunities.

We’ve designed LawSourcing to help finders and minders reach grinders. Frankly, we think this will play a fundamental role in the future of legal outsourcing.

You can read Ron’s entire post on the Prism Legal Consulting Blog.

New Legal Market Outsourcing Service [via Prism Legal Consulting]
Inside vs. Outside: When Does it Make Sense for Law Firms to Outsource? [via Law Practice Today]

LawSourcing went live at 12:40 am Central Time today. Please visit it at http://www.lawsourcing.com and let us know what you think.

Okay, so I’m waaaaay behind on posting to the blog. We’ve been getting things ready to launch LawSourcing and haven’t had much time to write blog entries. We’re really close to putting up the LawSourcing Beta site, so expect more blogging — and a really cool site — soon.