Legal Process Outsourcing
A Strategic Guide to Legal Research for the Modern Law Practice
Building capabilities is essential for any organisation to thrive, and the legal sector is no exception. To achieve consistent performance, legal practices must integrate their people, processes and technology efficiently. One crucial aspect of this integration is legal research, which serves as the foundation for making informed legal decisions and providing valuable insights for cases.
In a broad sense, any research is a methodical quest for the collection, categorisation, and analysis of the right information. This holds true particularly for legal research, as answering legal questions correctly helps to form a sound base for legal decision-making.
What Is Legal Research?
As a legal professional, it is a lawyer’s duty to understand the distinctions within the law and have the capability to interpret legal precedents. Legal research is the method to first determine the steps required to answer the legal query and then follow the process to collect relevant data to answer those questions. This entire process makes legal research an integral part of the legal profession and an essential skill to have when working on any type of case.
It may sound simple, but legal research is quite demanding and requires not only an in-depth knowledge of the law but also a good grasp of information analysis. Organisations are building this capability so that it can be leveraged as a managed service offering to make the legal research process more efficient, both in terms of time and cost. This way, many law firms and in-house legal teams are earning profits by opting for automated legal research solutions powered by predictive analytics to provide cutting-edge solutions and using their domain expertise to help lawyers.
Why is Legal Research Important for Your Practice?
Effective legal research is not an optional part of legal work; it is the cornerstone of a successful practice. It allows your firm to:
- Construct Solid Arguments: By identifying key facts, legal precedents, and relevant statutes, research provides a comprehensive understanding of any legal issue.
- Improve Client Outcomes: It ensures you are providing the most accurate, well-supported advice, anticipating counter-arguments, and building the strongest possible case for your client.
- Enhance Decision-Making: Research provides clarity, simplifying complex issues by eliminating irrelevant data and allowing your team to focus on the core facts that matter.
- Increase Profitability and Efficiency: A streamlined research process saves valuable billable hours and allows lawyers to focus on higher-value strategic tasks.
The Legal Research Process: A 5-Step Guide
Legal research is a comprehensive process; and here are a few things to consider while undertaking legal research:
- Understanding the issue: It is critical to be cognizant of the issue under consideration to better evaluate the core details and supporting information uncovered during legal research.
- Recognising the primary and secondary sources: Primary and secondary sources of research must be correctly identified to generate a cohesive representation of the collected information.
- Evaluating information: The knowledge of the issue at hand and the information collected from both sources must be aligned to evaluate accuracy.
- Selecting core information: Data collected is evaluated and the findings are used to build well-researched legal arguments and an informed strategy that incorporates core details with supporting background information.
- Analyze Deviations and Counter-Arguments: It is important to study deviations from the norm to understand potential counterpoints and prepare strong arguments to support the required issue.
It is time-consuming to follow these steps manually and there may also be ancillary costs to accessing reliable data sources, which is one of the key reasons prompting modern law firms to consider outsourcing legal research. With the intervention of modern technological solutions such as automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud-based services, legal research is now easier, faster, and cost-efficient, resulting in its emergence as a promising service line in the legal managed services space.
By harnessing the power of technology and following best practices, legal professionals can conduct effective research, leading to better decision making and improved client representation. In this rapidly evolving legal landscape, organisations that prioritise legal research can thus gain advantage and stay ahead in delivering better services.
This article was first published on Business Insider
The Evolution: Traditional vs. Modern Legal Research (AI & Automation)
It is time-consuming and expensive to follow these steps manually. The ancillary costs of accessing reliable data sources have long been a major overhead for law firms. This is why modern legal practices are moving beyond traditional methods.
- Traditional Research: Relies on manual searches through databases, physical libraries, and keyword-based queries. It is linear, time-intensive, and highly dependent on the individual researcher's expertise.
- Modern Research: Leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, and predictive analytics. These tools can analyze thousands of documents instantly, identify contextual patterns that keywords miss, predict the likely outcome of legal arguments, and automate the process of data collection and citation. This shift is creating a significant competitive advantage for firms that adopt it.
Challenges in Modern Legal Research for Law Firms
- Information Overload: The sheer volume of legal data available is overwhelming.
- High Costs: Subscriptions to top-tier legal research platforms represent a significant expense.
- Time Pressure: Clients demand faster answers, but thorough research takes time that could be spent on other billable work.
- Keeping Pace with Technology: Investing in and training staff on new AI-powered tools is a constant challenge.
These pressures are the key reasons why many modern law firms and in-house legal teams are now opting to partner with Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) providers for managed legal research services.
How Infosys BPM Transforms Legal Research into a Competitive Advantage
In this rapidly evolving legal landscape, firms that modernize their research processes will gain a significant advantage.
By harnessing the power of technology and leveraging expert managed services, your legal professionals can conduct more effective research, leading to better decision-making and improved client representation. Infosys BPM offers automated legal research solutions powered by predictive analytics, domain expertise, and a global delivery model. We make your legal research process more efficient, in terms of both time and cost, allowing your expert lawyers to focus on what they do best: winning cases.
Ready to optimize your legal processes with the power of outsourced research? Contact us for a consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Will AI replace the need for lawyers and paralegals in legal research?
No. AI augments legal professionals, it does not replace them. AI handles the time-consuming data collection and pattern recognition, freeing up lawyers and paralegals to focus on strategic analysis, interpretation, and applying the research to build a winning case.
How can outsourcing legal research reduce costs for a law firm?
Outsourcing converts a high fixed cost (salaries, database subscriptions) into a variable operating expense. Specialized LPO providers leverage economies of scale and advanced technology to deliver comprehensive research faster and at a lower cost than most firms can achieve in-house.
