“With effective outsourcing, the financial
impact… can result in both lower costs
to the client and more profit to the firm.”
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documents, rote data entry, making
copies, filing, etc. — then the firm would
be able to bill only $500 for the same
workday, even though you’re probably
being paid your same salary.
Or, let’s imagine a firm that charges
a flat fee for work done – say, $1,500 to
write a certain kind of will. In the old
days, the lawyer would write up the will,
maybe spending five or so hours to get it
done, including the hour spent meeting
with the client on the intake side and
probably another hour at the end
explaining it all and obtaining signatures.
What if, instead, you train someone in a
completely different part of the country
(or world) how to go through an intake
questionnaire with clients by phone and
input all the information into the firm’s
software that then in turn spits out both
a form containing all the information the
client provided, as well as a draft of the
will? Your job then becomes to look over
the draft and make sure it looks good, so
that you can give it to the attorney for a
final review that ideally should take them
just a few minutes.
Maintaining Confidentiality
On a cautionary note, one potential
pitfall of outsourcing is that, as
information is dispersed beyond
the walls of the firm, there is more
potential risk of breaching the firm’s
confidentiality obligations to its clients.
There are multiple ways to address this
logistically, but the key is to keep it and
other similar ethical and professional
responsibilities of the firm always in the
forefront of your mind.
One way to maintain confidentiality
is to only provide the minimum amount
of information necessary to get the job
done. For example, if you are outsourcing
a data crunching project, you might be
able to redact names or other portions
of the documents so that in essence
the person entering the data is just
transcribing numbers from one place to
another without having any idea why or
who or what the case is about. This, of
course, isn’t always possible, depending
on the kind of project at issue.
Another key is for the firm to have a
standard confidentiality agreement that
sets forth clear guidelines about what
can and cannot be discussed or shared
outside the firm. Where possible, it’s also
a good idea to have a short list of “go to”
people or organizations whom you know
from past experience treat the firm’s
information with care and discretion.
The Big Secret
Most lawyers are “too busy” for one
reason or another to think about these
kinds of things. While it does take a bit
of effort to reprogram your (and maybe
your lawyer’s) way of thinking, the
benefits of outsourcing — to you, your
lawyer, the firm, and the firm’s clients —
are innumerable. Give it a shot!
Penn Dodson founded the innovative
workers’ rights firm AndersonDodson,
P.C. (www.AndersonDodson.com), which
is dedicated to recovering unpaid and
underpaid wages from employers who
overstep. Dodson is also the co-founder of
Sunnyside Services, Ltd. (www.SunnysideLaw.
com), a budding as-yet-unlaunched company
whose ultimate goal is to revolutionize the
way legal services are delivered and conflict
resolution is obtained. Prior to and during law
school, Dodson worked as a paralegal, runner,
receptionist, law clerk, and legal assistant
in various firms. Though constantly on the
move, Penn can often be spotted in New York,
Georgia, and Colorado. She can be reached at
penn@andersondodson.com.
/(www.AndersonDodson.com)
/(www.SunnysideLaw
link