The bulk of the AMLAW 200 firm's word processing support staff was located in a central location, even though the firm had multiple offices. As a result, support in the other offices was limited. In addition, the firm knew it could achieve greater efficiency by consolidating staff in a centralized location and eventually outsourcing word processing completely. However, even though the firm was interested in outsourcing, it would only consider an onshore outsourcing option due to the nature and requirements of many of its clients.
The firm gradually implemented LawDocsXpress’ services, phasing out its word processing staff through attrition – first in outlying offices and finally in its central location. The firm implemented use of a dedicated workflow coordinator, who receives and routes work internally as well as to LawDocsXpress. The workflow coordinator serves as a single point of contact with LawDocsXpress. Certain tasks have been identified that are automatically routed to LawDocsXpress. The plan is to further improve attorney/support staff ratios over time now that restructuring has been completed.
The firm was able to gradually restructure the entire firm’s workflow through attrition, which resulted in improved quality and timeliness of support for the outlying offices. It also resulted in significant cost savings net of outsourcing expenses. Most importantly, the firm was able to accomplish the restructuring with a minimum of disruption during the transition.
