Firm to pilot service that sees LoD teams take over routine work on larger projects

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) is mulling the use of a new legal project management service being piloted by Lawyers on Demand (LoD) as an alternative to launching its own outsourced process centre.

LoD – BLP's flexible working business – is launching a trial of a new service that will see it provide full teams of lawyers to take over the routine work on larger projects, with LoD acting as the project manager. 

The LoD service currently provides individual lawyers to clients either on a secondment basis or a pay-as-you-go service dubbed LoD On Call, giving clients access to legal help remotely to manage surges in workload.

BLP partners have suggested that, pending the successful conclusion of the pilot, the new project management service would be adopted as as an alternative to setting up a separate legal process outsourcing centre – an option the firm has been contemplating.

One partner at the firm said: "It would make much more sense for us to take advantage of the resources we already have in LoD – which has no overhead costs – rather than set up our own low-cost centre, which is incredibly expensive.

"By introducing a new division to the business it would act as a virtual low-cost centre with the lawyers continuing to work as they already do."

LoD is planning to offer the new service, initially using its existing 120 lawyers, to its current clients, which include BLP as well as other law firms and in-house teams.

BLP managing partner Neville Eisenberg said: "We have not yet taken any decisions and can't predict when the firm might use LoD's new managed service. We expect it will be piloted over the next few months with a view to assessing it before taking any final decisions."

Simon Harper, co-founder of LoD, said: "In trialling our On Call model we did a number of assignments that involved multiple LoD lawyers. We recognised that a layer of project management from LoD would be helpful to manage cost and workflow – our discussions are effectively about building on that with a specific client service line for this sort of work." 

Last week LoD announced it had hired BLP's former HR director, Geoff Griffin, to help advise on its new law firm strategy, and had been attracting more senior, partner-level lawyers into the team. Griffin's appointment follows the hire of former Financial Times GC Tim Bratton, who joined LoD as practice development director in September. 

LoD posted turnover of £9m for the 2012-13 financial year, following strong growth since its 2007 launch.