By KELSEY SWANEKAMP
Buffalo Law Journal

Insource or outsource?

The answer, as it applies to litigation-support tasks, depends on the size of the firm and the complexity of the work.

Paralegals at most firms tackle projects such as drafting pleadings, responding to discovery demands, analyzing documents and assisting attorneys who are preparing for trial.

Litigation-support vendors, on the other hand, often handle more technical aspects of litigation preparation, such as copying, scanning and e-discovery.

"Vendors are on the technical side," said Beth Bialis, litigation paralegal coordinator at Hodgson Russ LLP, "while paralegals do more substantive, legal work."

Scott Rothschild, a senior account manager at Ikon Office Solutions and a member of the steering committee of the Buffalo chapter of the Association of Litigation Support Professionals, said firms often turn to vendors for high-volume projects, work that needs quick turnaround, or projects too technical for on-staff paralegals.

While Hodgson Russ has an in-house Ikon representative to assist with tasks, Bialis speculated that a smaller firm might need to outsource more.

"We have more options than a smaller firm," Bialis said.

Working in-house

Sources at smaller firms said they are less involved with litigation-support vendors than their larger counterparts.

Patricia Koenig, a paralegal at Campbell & Shelton LLP, said that her firm handles most projects in-house.

"We're a smaller firm, and we do as much as we can here," she said.

Koenig, the Litigation Specialty Section chairwoman of the Western New York Paralegal Association, said that the economy hasn't been a factor in her firm's decision to handle projects internally. Instead, she pointed to its size and its focus on personal-injury law.

"If we had something we were unfamiliar with or a bigger case, we would outsource," said Koenig, whose firm has shopped out jobs like copying and binding documents.

Karen Buzzelli, a legal assistant at Roach Brown McCarthy & Gruber PC, said her firm had a similar balance because of its size - 14 attorneys.

"We do a lot of things ourselves," she said.

The economy's effect

With the economy in flux, some firms are changing their relationships with litigation-support vendors.

Rothschild said he thinks the economy has led to increased use of vendors.

"The vendor still has a valuable role. No one's keeping extra staff," he said. While he wouldn't name specific law firms, Rothschild said it's well-known that many law firms have been "cutting back" in the past six months. At the same time, he said, "I've seen vendor business start to increase."

Bialis said that she's noticed that the economy had led vendors to be more "competitive" than they previously were in seeking and trying to retain business.

When it comes to service providers courting firms for business, Rothschild said, "It's a constant struggle to maintain contact and visibility." For traditional services such as black-and-white copying, he said, vendors have been dropping their price points.

Denise Murphy, also a member of the Association of Litigation Support Professionals Buffalo chapter steering committee, said that using vendors is a cost-effective option during an economic crunch.

"With a vendor, I can move on to another part of a case. It helps move things along," she said.

Murphy, a paralegal at Goldberg Segalla LLP, added that a "team approach" with vendors is efficient and beneficial to clients.

"They offer solutions, and we work together to work out the kinks," she said.

Rothschild agreed.

"I don't think vendors are trying to infringe upon what firms can do in-house," he said. "We ask: What are things that are too technical and too large in scope for firms to do in-house?"

Murphy said that vendor support was especially useful with adapting data into a usable form. For her firm, vendors provide PDFs of relevant documents on disk to their clients so that paralegals can enter data into their document-management system.

E-opportunity

With the changing technological landscape, vendors are recognizing another opportunity to become involved in the litigation process.

According to Rothschild, electronic discovery is a "whole new revenue stream" for litgation-support companies. During the discovery phase of litigation, he said, firms are no longer just trading paper documents.

"These days, it's electronic," he said. This includes information from e-mail accounts, smartphones, and back-up disks.

"Now it's part of what a typical litigation-support vendor does," he said. "It's pretty commonplace."