Lyceum invests in LPO domain

Lyceum Capital, private equity house, has committed £25m to support Laureate Legal Services (LLS). The latter is a business process services group.

This deal provides further impetus to the legal outsourcing industry as it is now getting evident that businesses have realized the profitability of legal outsourcing and the need to diversify.

Allen & Overy embraces legal outsourcing

Allen & Overy (A&O) becomes the first magic circle firm to benefit from the advantages of legal outsourcing. This step has been taken in an attempt to reduce their overheads and bring in cost effectivity. The firm has signed the deal with Integreon on a case-by-case basis. They would be outsourcing basic litigation document review work to India thus saving cost by 30-50 per cent.

With law firms getting into the outsourcing industry, it seems that initial apprehension regarding outsourcing has mitigated. Clifford Chance and Linklaters have both outsourced support functions. Many law firms after gauging the experience of law departments and pressure from clients have started exploring the option. The LPO service providers have with their breadth and depth of coverage; domain expertise; location advantage; data compliance with respect to regulatory standards; and management of business risks been able to change the skeptic mindset with respect to outsourcing legal services.

Mark Ross moves to Integreon

Mark Ross has recently moved to Integreon as Vice President Legal Services. He was earlier the Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at LawScribe. Mark Ross owing to his experience and acumen is considered as one of the thought leaders in the LPO industry. His write-ups at LawScribe blog have always been a source of interest to readers at large. This recent change in his profile is a move that would bring him into a more sales/consultative role at Integreon, while continuing in a thought leadership position. He would support Integreon’s global sales team in generating new legal outsourcing opportunities and revenue.

More law firms may join the outsourcing trend

Travers Smith, Hammonds and Halliwells are the latest firms interested in cutting costs by sending either legal or back office support work to outsourcing companies.

These firms like Pinsent Masons and Eversheds are in the process of exploring several benefits attached with offshoring legal work. Eversheds is to save up to £2m a year through an outsourcing deal with Exigent. National duo Hammonds and Halliwells are at an earlier stage of debate but both firms are considering outsourcing options for both legal and back office functions, although they have yet to make any decisions about which work, if any, they will eventually send out. Hammonds expects to make a decision within the next year.

Needless to say that outsourcing in the legal domain is no more a nascent phenomena. Rather it has become one of those events which are hard to ignore.

Integreon acquires Grail Research

Integreon, the back office outsourcing firm promoted by Philippines-based Ayala, acquired Grail Research, the captive research unit of the Monitor group for an undisclosed sum. “The acquisition gives us a delivery base in China and South Africa with further scope to expand there,” said Lokendra Tomar, COO, Asia Pacific, Integreon. The acquisition of Grail Research is its sixth so far. Its earlier acquisitions included three LPO firms and two KPO firms.

Mr Tomar said the $100-million company intends to raise money through a fresh issue of equity. A global private equity player will be used to fund more acquisitions in the KPO and LPO business, or to retire the debt it has taken to fund the Grail acquisition.