Alternative Legal Services
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Alternative Legal Services Providers (ALSP's), often also referred to as law companies, provide a number of services that traditionally were performed by law firms or in-house counsel. In most cases this involves services that don't constitute legal advice and due to their nature cannot carry typical law firm rates. Early on most of the work that was performed by ALSP's was discovery work. As ALSP's matured, some started to take on certain work law firms wouldn't be involved in such as negotiating NDA's. ALSP's can do work at lower costs because of use of technology, better process and project management and labor arbitrage. Many delivery centers are based in low cost locations. Some law firms operate their own ALSP's as captives to the law firm. Companies in the space include Factor, Unitedlex, Cognia, Epiq, Axiom, Elevate. In January 2022, the Arizona Supreme Court granted Elevate an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) License, making it the first ALSP in the U.S. allowed to provide legal services.
Alternative Legal Services Providers (ALSP's), often also referred to as law companies, provide a number of services that traditionally were performed by law firms or in-house counsel. In most cases this involves services that don't constitute legal advice and due to their nature cannot carry typical law firm rates. Early on most of the work that was performed by ALSP's was discovery work. As ALSP's matured, some started to take on certain work law firms wouldn't be involved in such as negotiating NDA's. ALSP's can do work at lower costs because of use of technology, better process and project management and labor arbitrage. Many delivery centers are based in low cost locations. Some law firms operate their own ALSP's as captives to the law firm. Companies in the space include Factor, Unitedlex, Cognia, Epiq, Axiom, Elevate. In January 2022, the Arizona Supreme Court granted Elevate an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) License, making it the first ALSP in the U.S. allowed to provide legal services.
Janet Taylor-Hall
LTH Expert