Guide to Procuring LPO Services in the Philippines

By Bruce Silverman and Dr. Tom Bohnert

With the growing global competition in almost every trade and industry, outsourcing has become increasingly popular. More recently, we see a similar direction being taken in the legal industry, a shift in the mode of delivery for legal services. These competing businesses outsource support functions from secretarial tasks to paralegal works, and now are expanding horizons to other legal duties.

Known as legal process outsourcing (LPO), this trend involves the acquisition of legal support services (works by attorneys, paralegals, and other legal professionals) from external vendors found domestically (inshoring) or overseas (offshoring). Offshore LPO services are procured from countries such as India, Australia, and the Philippines. As an industry and practice, LPO has existed for a few decades, dating back to as early as the 1960s.

Similar to other industries and lines of work, an increasing number of law firms have shown a tendency to adopt newer business management models particularly LPO services.¹² Irrespective of how small or big the business operation is, businesses are considering the gains of having a more streamlined enterprise throughout the globe. Outsourcing is one of the major facets that are aligned with this new and growing business system because of the several benefits it offers: expansion of in-house capabilities, flexibility, and overall cost reduction among others.