The World Gets Flatter -- Virtual Law Firms

Another dispatch from the front line of the rapidly shifting landscape of legal outsourcing and offshoring.

Virtual law firms are not a new or particularly cutting-edge idea. A wikipedia page on virtual law firms notes that they have been around since 2004. And, if you think about it, even having a wikipedia page probably precludes any sort of "underground" status.

The ABA's Law Practice Today generally characterizes virtual law firms as having the following traits:

1. A stable core group of attorneys
2. Established collaborative relationships with other specialized law firms that possess expertise that’s occasionally needed
3. Technologically linked infrastructure via appropriate computer and telecommunications systems
   
4. Ability to expand and reduce personnel as needed

In other words, we're talking about a team of attorneys -- saving on overhead by forgoing the traditional bricks and mortar office buildings -- networked together via the web.

Some virtual law firms employ attorneys scattered throughout the U.S.. Other virtual law firms, like Rimon Law Group (a firm with a very creative and intriguing billing model that factors client satisfaction), manages to reduce overhead even further by including attorneys who live in locations with lower costs of living -- areas in the United States as well as other countries.

And this makes perfect sense as a business model.

Because virtual law firms employing U.S. attorneys located outside the U.S. are leveraging the exact same dynamic as Legal Process Outsourcing: Work is completed by qualified colleagues who live in areas with lower costs of living, and those savings in overhead translate to lower costs to the client.

An interesting element at play here is the distinction in terminology.

Whereas a network of U.S. attorneys living in different countries is a "virtual law firm", a network combining U.S. attorneys with attorneys trained and accredited in other countries is thought of as "offshoring".

As the lines between old guard legal paradigms and new, global legal paradigms blur, it is likely that the terminology will, too. So, when an LPO engages offshore attorneys to perform some of the more redundant legal processes (litigation support, legal research/writing, contract/document review, etc.), couldn't we just call them "virtual associates"?