Another Step Forward for Legal Process Outsourcing

Forbes reported recently on a key executive migration that speaks to the evolutionary advancement of Legal Process Outsourcing on a couple levels.

David Hickey recently left Winston & Strawn, where he was a partner and Vice-Chair of the firm's E-Discovery Practice Group, to join legal outsourcing company American Discovery.

David Steiger of The Globalized Lawyer says of Hickey:

“I have been following and writing about the legal outsourcing industry since its inception. David is well recognized as a leading expert in the legal outsourcing industry. No one has visited or counseled more legal outsourcing providers than David. His move speaks volumes about the industry as a whole...”

As an expert in E-Discovery, Hickey's move signals another step in the solidification of legal outsourcing for tasks -- like E-Discovery -- that can be accomplished via alternative work models with increased efficiencies and cost reductions without sacrificing quality or data security.

But beyond that, what is even more interesting is that this move signals not just a validation of LPO as a business practice, but it hints at a future role that LPO may cultivate, and that is the role of the subject matter expert. The adviser. The collaborator.

If large-scale document-intensive tasks like E-Discovery and legal research become increasingly the domain of LPO, then the LPO becomes more than just a means of execution; they become a tool for peer-based collaboration, as well.

Big Law ex-patriots cross pollinating with LPO would seem to be the next step in LPO becoming woven into the fabric of legal business practices.