"In the old model, firms would call a staffing agency and request 20 or so contract attorneys to come to the firms' offices and handle document review for a client. The law firms would then mark up the bill for housing the contract attorneys and having them use their computer systems, and then bill the client.
Interestingly, this model is looking more and more like traditional offshoring always has. The attorneys doing the work are sitting in offices off the law firms' premises, and technology has eliminated any distinction between domestically located offices and international offices.Under the new system... clients are calling the staffing agencies directly and creating deals on what they will pay for contract attorneys. Those rates typically include discounts or rebates...
The clients then tell the law firms that if they have to use contract lawyers on the clients' matters, they have to use the certain staffing agency at the rates the clients negotiated.
... in response, law firms are starting to ask that these contract attorneys not be placed in the firms' spaces or use their computer systems. The rationale is that the firms are no longer getting any profit from using the contract lawyers and don't have as much control over who is selected, creating security concerns when opening up the firms' computer system to attorneys it didn't hire."
