Updated to include David Holmes and to add other responses. Thomson Reuters’ Legal Executive Institute unit and Georgetown Law Center for the Study of the Legal Profession have launched their inaugural “Alternative Legal Service Study.“

On Jan. 31, the LEI team explained the goal: “The emergence of alternative legal service providers is having a notable—and growing—impact on the legal market,” they said. “The implications for law firms and corporations, and where the ALSP market is heading, was the subject of a comprehensive new study of ALSPs done by Thomson Reuters’ Legal Executive Institute, The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at Georgetown University Law Center and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.”

The report was released last week at Legaltech (part of the new Legalweek) in New York City. CodeX regulars David Curle, Director of Strategic Competitive Intelligence for Thomson Reuters Legal, and Alma Asay, founder and CEO of Allegory Law were at the launch—along with and Andrew Gladstein, an Associate at Schulte Roth & Zabel and David Holmes, Executive Director, Assistant General Counsel, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“The study surveyed more than 800 law firms and corporations and found that the growing use of ALSPs is largely about expertise, not low cost, as is often assumed. In addition, ALSPs are about technology and not just labor arbitrage, and for a lot of uses beyond e-discovery.”

• Here’s the link to the article.  (It addresses “when and why would a corporation turn to an ALSP?”)
• Here’s the link to sign up for the free study:  “The Alternative Legal Service Study.”

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• Zach Warren, Editor-in-Chief of Legaltech News, wrote a thoughtful analysis, “Alternative Legal Service Provider Adoption All About Cost Savings? Perhaps Not.”  Warren quotes Eric Laughlin, managing director of legal managed services for TR. “The data says that law firms are recognizing ALSPs for more expertise, so there’s a respect there for what ALSPs are doing. And then their experience in the market is that clients are pushing them more to disaggregate. They’re being asked to look at more models by their clients,” he explained.

• Victor Li, ABA Journal: “Study finds law firms and corporations increasingly turning to alternative legal service providers.”

• Casey C. Sullivan: “More Companies Are Turning to Alternative Legal Services Providers, Study Snows,” Findlaw Blog (a Thomson Reuters business.)

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a freelance journalist (including Thomson Reuters). Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu. Twitter: @MonicaBay.

cover image: Clipart.com