Businesses are likely still in the process of evaluating the long-term impact that COVID-19 will have on their legal spend budgets, and what that means for their interest in legal technology or relationships with alternative legal service providers (ALSPs). But decisions may ultimately depend on a simple calculus made by each organization: Does the comprehensive range of services offered by many ALSPs trump the return on investment offered by purchasing a piece of legal tech for in-house use?

For some corporate legal departments that have seen their head count drastically reduced, the answer may be "yes." However, that isn't necessarily a cause to worry for legal tech providers, some of whom were already starting to sell their products directly to ALSPs long before COVID-19 hit.

David Carns, chief revenue officer of the e-discovery solutions provider Casepoint, indicated that corporations shifting more heavily to the use of ALSPs would likely be a "wash" for legal tech companies. He pointed out that while some ALSPs may bring their own proprietary tech solutions to the table when working with clients, those same tools are often constructed from an amalgamation of other systems purchased from tech companies.