Cost-effective and flexible legal services – are these words music to your ears?

Tricia Chrzanowski, Associate Managing Partner at Simplex Legal LLP, spoke at the recent Canadian Legal Innovation Forum in Toronto on May 5 on the growth and the evolving role of Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) in the Canadian legal market. The panel discussed how ALSPs are delivering legal expertise through better responsiveness, empowering people, and leveraging technology and collaboration. As business units and in-house legal teams are tasked to do more with less, ALSPs are stepping up to support with a diverse set of services, talent and skills – are at a lower cost. Below are a few takeaways from Tricia’s presentation that impact our clients:

Resources

• The market for on-demand legal services in Canada is on the rise. As in-house legal teams have become leaner, they are looking for more efficient ways to run the legal department, from driving lower-cost resourcing, to more flexible solutions beyond the traditional in-house and law firm models.
  
• Legal workflow has, in many instances, spiked to above pre-pandemic levels, but many legal departments are unable to make permanent hires and remain under the budget pressure that existed during the pandemic.
  
• Flexible legal talent represents a high growth area of the ALSP market, and the Simplex solution enables our clients to focus on where they are needed in the business while incorporating an operating model that is scalable, resilient and cost-effective.

Technology

• Technology on its own is not effective, it takes the right people and processes to be successful. Businesses and in-house legal teams are collaborating more than ever with ALSPs in the delivery of tech-enabled and cost-effective services.
  
• Our clients want strategic business partners, to consult with them on achieving their business goals. Evaluating technology investments and gathering performance metrics are two key legal operations functions that can provide some insight into operations of the department and identifying inefficiencies.

Flexibility

• One of the most common trends we hear from lawyers is the desire for flexibility in their careers, and the desire to maintain remote work models.
  
• As remote work continues, clients are open to assistance from lawyers located anywhere in the country, which has significantly enhanced our ability to provide lawyers with the right skill set and industry experience needed to assist the client.

For more information on how the Canadian legal landscape is evolving to provide legal services to clients, please reach out to our team at emailus@simplexlegal.ca