To flourish in the global market, modern corporations must rely on their internal and external legal advisors to navigate international and local regulations, anticipate and manage risks, and deliver expert counsel at a strategic level. No longer are legal processes restricted to managing internal projects, drafting and reviewing contracts, and performing administrative duties.
Growing and empowering your legal team amid tightening budgets remains challenging. Industry leaders have long forged partnerships with ALSPs to increase productivity and cost efficiency, allowing them to navigate the budgetary challenges of the current climate. ALSPs allocate experienced and knowledgeable legal resources to supplement your team to undertake document review tasks such as redactions, witness preparation, chronologies, and other services supporting disputes and investigations.
What Are the Advantages of a Partnership with an Alternative Legal Service Provider (ALSP)?
1. Enable efficient and transparent budgeting
Unlike conventional law firms, which are tied to hourly billing models, ALSPs offer flexible, custom fee models – including hourly, per document, blended, and subscription plans – which best fit the requirements of each client.
With a focus on assigning the correct resources at the correct level and the correct rate, ALSPs enable budget transparency and cost predictability throughout the end-to-end process.
2. Leverage technology and best practices
All ALSPs employ expert-level resources who are well-versed in legal tech and AI solutions. They incorporate best practices, such as Six Sigma and Project Management principles, into their work processes. This transformative approach can help improve your end-to-end legal operations. Integreon differentiates itself by being fully tech-agile, enabling Integreon’s consultants to provide unbiased advice around technology solutions and best practices.
3. More time to focus on complex business processes and high-level advice
An ALSP acts as an extension of legal teams by adding dedicated resources with expertise in document review, project management, and delivery best practices. This enables legal teams to focus on case strategy, compile legal advice pertaining to more complex legal issues and other strategic directives.
What Is the Document Review Process?
The regulatory landscape constantly changes to meet consumer expectations, protect their interests, and meet sustainability objectives. It is common for corporations to face litigation, and regulatory investigations are becoming increasingly common, often on a global scale.
The documents and data required to understand the facts in a dispute and meet disclosure obligations are increasing in volume and complexity. Data is collected to identify relevant documents or satisfy a regulator’s request, often from numerous sources and custodians. Technology and manual human review are used to remove irrelevant or duplicative information, identify relevant, privileged, or confidential documents, and apply redactions before producing the information to 3rd parties.
This “first pass” review of documents to categorize relevant and irrelevant information is regularly outsourced to teams of specialist document reviewers who act on the instructions and guidance of the legal team. Using this approach, the legal team does not lose control of the process but gains valuable time to focus on the complexities and strategy of the dispute or investigation.
Document review process best practices include:
- Appropriate use of technology and analytics to create project-specific workflows – one size does not fit all
- A clear and concise protocol and training sessions with the review team
- Reasonable and transparent deadlines
- Timely feedback and guidance
- Clear communication with all parties throughout
- Robust and defensible quality control processes
See Integreon’s 6 tips for Document Review Projects using Alt Legal Services here.
Document review is resource-intensive and can be the most expensive part of the EDRM. Using the right experts at the right time throughout the entire process, including the review phase, is imperative.
While it is possible to use internal resources for this purpose, utilizing ALSP resources for the review can reduce the burden on those resources enabling them to focus on high-value, high-risk tasks. Also, by outsourcing to an ALSP like Integreon, you gain the value of years of project management and industry experience.
The Benefits of Engaging ALSPs in the Document Review Process
The three significant benefits you get by enlisting the help of an ALSP for document reviews are:
1. Enhance flexibility and scalability
The expertise of an ALSP lies in the ability to source and onboard appropriately experienced teams at short notice and to scale up (and, equally significantly, scale down) in response to the requirements of each project. When volumes increase or deadlines contract, resources can easily be integrated into existing teams to maintain progress and meet targets.
2. Drive cost savings and budget optimization
Whether projects are undertaken onshore, offshore (or a combination of both), clients benefit from cost savings through flexible fee arrangements and the efficiency-driven ethos behind every process.
3. Assure quality control and expertise
A good ALSP will have a well-defined QA process built around training, legal team input, expertise in technology and analytics, and solid communication protocols.
In keeping with best practices, quality control mechanisms can be adapted to meet the needs of individual projects or legal teams.
Transform Your Legal Function with Integreon
Are you considering a partnership with an ALSP like Integreon to maximize the efficiency of your legal function and deliver desirable outcomes from critical and labor-intensive activities like document reviews and deposition preparations?
Integreon is an award-winning global provider of ALSP services for corporations and law firms, helping businesses expand capabilities and enhance performance. Integreon’s expert teams’ partner with clients on document review engagements and offer privilege review, redactions, witness preparation, document summaries, chronologies, and other services supporting disputes and investigations. Our global delivery centers provide round-the-clock service, ensuring your business’s success.
Learn more about Integreon’s Document Review Services here: https://www.integreon.com/what-we-do/legal-and-compliance-solutions/document-review-services/
