This is part one of a series on managed services.
Managed services are well established in many sectors and industries, but it took time for the legal industry to offer a true managed service model. A managed service within the legal world can be defined as the practice of outsourcing to an external legal service provider the responsibility for managing a certain workstream for the purpose of improved operations and reduced budgetary expenditures. The workstream is frequently high volume and consumes costly internal resources such as in-house lawyers and clerks.
Managed services are distinguished from the traditional legal model by the following:
There are many benefits to the implementation of a managed service model. For instance, by outsourcing high volume but repetitive work, a managed service arrangement can free up internal legal resources, allowing them to focus on more strategic work. Managed services eliminate the need for legal departments to hire, train and retain adequate resources to service a business unit or workstream. The risk of handling surge demand, attrition and work reductions is passed on to the external service provider. Through careful development of standard service levels, a client can achieve better results. Internal legal departments often find themselves competing with their own operations groups to obtain support on purchase and deployment of technology which would make their jobs easier. A managed service provider has already invested and tested the technology and is ready to immediately apply those efficiencies. Finally, through the application of process driven efficiency and technologies, the client can benefit from a significant cost reduction when compared to the cost of keeping resources on staff and the occasional need for ad hoc support.
The managed service delivery model is particularly well-suited to commercial leasing. Large owners and developers typically maintain a large team of legal professionals to service the heavy demands of their shopping centre, office and industrial class assets. Similarly, tenants with a large national footprint struggle to meet the competitive needs of the real estate market. By outsourcing legal functions, both owners and tenants can benefit from high quality and responsive legal services and focus on their core business.
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