Larger Firms being necessitated to look at LPO

The LegalEase blog has an 'unconventional' trend to report: that of larger law firms being adopters of LPO to differentiate themselves in the new workd - marred by financial unease. To quote:

The trend that we're seeing take root is that of large firms actively aligning with an LPO to then present their services to corporate counsel in a convergence that benefits each party. The large firm gains an advantage over their competitors with the significant savings the LPO provides; the LPO benefits by the association with well established domestic firms; and the in-house counsel enjoys the dual benefit of cost savings managed by a firm with whom they already have a business relationship.And it doesn't seem unreasonable to conclude that the driving force behind the trend is the recent financial crunch, which has forced corporate counsel to demand changes from the firms they traditionally hire.

I met a partner from a large law firm a few months ago whose straight question was: I don't have a doubt that LPO is good, but how do we (the firm) benefit from it? The answer, it appears, is easy to come by when competitive forces start to show up. Differentiate yourself.