By Andrew Mellett For Guest article in The Australian Corporate Lawyer
30 December 2011
'Virtual insourcing' is the engagement of lawyers on a flexible basis, who become an 'extension of the desk' to perform lower risk/lower value tasks or help manage workflow spikes. They are dedicated to the function so they are familiar with the business context, but bring the pickup/put-down benefits of a law firm.
Although this is perhaps the most popular service Plexus provides, we have seen functions use a similar approach through 'alumni lawyers' who may have left the team because of retirement or extended parental leave. The results from virtual insourcing suggest work is performed at under half the cost of a law firm, and more than half the opportunity cost of the in-house team.
Regardless of how you choose to address 'the value gap', the central question for legal departments in this era may not be “how do we do more with less?” instead, “how do we do less with less?”
