Delegating work as an attorney can be difficult. Attorneys take pride in their work and want to make sure it’s done right every time.
– National Law Review
Legal work involves sensitive legal information which needs lawyers to monitor and process it. Rote tasks that don’t carry any risk can be delegated across the organization, outside of the legal department. In addition to saving them time, reallocating tasks can ease the legal department’s burden of being overworked.
The National Law Review mentions an extreme case where a corporate lawyer was admonished by the Supreme Court for failing to show up to 4 appointed deadlines. Owing to organizational mismanagement, the lawyer had to represent more than 100 of his client’s cases – on his own. The lawyer’s organization assigned them an assistant over a year later, but the effects of being overworked had already cost the attorney their health.
3 Ways to Delegate Work Organization-Wide
According to Law.com, there are 2 ways to delegate work across the organization, and 1 that offers a solution that isn’t in-house. These include utilizing legal tech, delegating some of the work to other departments, and getting non-lawyers to offer the legal department a hand.
1. Roping in Non-lawyer Colleagues
The ABA has a full section dedicated to the process of non-lawyers handling legal work. Rules 5.1 and 5.3 state that a delegating lawyer should take “reasonable efforts” to monitor the non-lawyer’s competence and processing of the work. The non-lawyer’s work needs to be “compatible with the professional obligations of the lawyer.”
2. Send It Away – Outsourcing
When legal departments need to move legal processes outside the department, they have several options. They can choose to employ the services of a law firm, hire outside counsel, or utilize the services of an alternative legal service provider (ALSP).
- Outside counsel
- Law firms
- ALSPs
3. Letting The Machines Take Over
If the people can’t do it, it’s time to automate it. The current generation of legal tech software offers a highly-evolved array that can remove rote tasks off the legal department’s plate. Not only is the software efficient, it offers precision and an eye for detail that’s unmatched by humans – at the moment.
LegalEase Solutions As An ALSP
For over 16 years, LegalEase Solutions has delivered legal processes to legal departments and corporate counsel around the world. Looking for a way to delegate legal work?
