With 40 partners and a staff of approximately 350, Foot Anstey, a major regional law firm had many of the sophisticated library services needs of larger firms, but lacked the scale to justify the size and scope of the in-house library and research team they envisioned was needed to effectively service their research requirements.

As support needs grew, Foot Anstey turned to Integreon for its Library and Information Services offering, which includes legal and business research, journal management, information supplier management and procurement, and related library and research services. By engaging Integreon, Foot Anstey was able to expand the breadth and depth of support available to its lawyers and staff without increasing costs or administrative burdens, ultimately enabling it to provide better quality and more cost-effective services to its clients.

Speaking to Bar and Bench, Richard Gardiner, Foot Anstey’s director of business development said: “Integreon provides all the support and expertise we need at an affordable price and without the administrative and management challenges.”

Outsourcing of certain functions by law firms is not a new phenomenon, with the practice having begun in 1970. A humble beginning was made with photocopying machines which has since graduated in a calibrated manner to culminate in library management. When Baker Mckenzie fired their entire library staff to outsource its library management functions, it created a splash with even PC Magazine covering this new age phenomena in law firms. From an Indian perspective it is interesting to note that this outsourcing is now benefitting legal process outsourcing (LPO) entities.

The question is whether library management is the next big outsourcing service to be offered by LPO companies? A survey conducted by American Lawyer in 2007 revealed that only 45 percent of the law firms had full time library employees with the overwhelming majority of law firms having outsourced these jobs to external vendors. Since these law firms are already used to outsourcing these jobs to external vendors, does it make any difference if these jobs are outsourced to LPO entities?

Libraries in large law firms can occupy up to 30 percent of the office floor area and require vast human resources to manage the digital and print editions of law reports, journals and business research documents. Integreon’s Library and Information Services is already popular with the UK law firms. Several law firms including Osborne Clarke and Beachcroft have already finalized multi year contracts with Integreon.

Chris Bull, Integreon’s Chief Operating Officer said “Our comprehensive Library and Information Services offering enables law firms to focus on their highest-value tasks, confident that their lawyers have the best possible support”. 

It will be interesting to witness if the phenomenon of outsourcing libraries will become the flavour of the season among Indian law firms. Has the time come for India’s largest law firms such as Amarchand, AZB and Luthra to take the lead in the Indian legal field and outsource their law libraries? Are there any Indian law firms who have already walked down this path? Only time and rising LPO profits will tell.