They may have been branded differently over
the years as back-office functions, operations, support services and office
management but however you label them, they are a crucial pillar of any
successful business.
The poor relation?
All too often, support services are treated
like the poor relation – there’s often a lack of investment during boom times
and cut-backs when times are hard.
Whilst this may initially reduce overheads,
it might be regarded as a short-sighted strategy when considering the indirect
costs of such actions.
The hidden costs
In law firms, lawyers can’t do their jobs
effectively or profitably without an efficient and high-quality level of support. There are many essential tasks that are a
non-negotiable part of the job such as complying with regulatory requirements
for new clients and file opening, or meeting deadlines imposed by the court.
Lawyers who don’t have a good level of
support will spend too much time on non-chargeable matters and often become stressed
and demoralised because they can’t focus on their legal work. In the current labour
market such lawyers may be tempted to look elsewhere. So, providing a good
level of support is likely to result in more motivated and efficient lawyers,
which in turn leads to a more successful business!
Lots of jobs that need to be done
Whilst old-fashioned ways of providing
secretarial support within law firms are vanishing fast, enabled by new
technologies such as voice recognition software, there will always be a need
for human PA services – be that booking travel arrangements or dealing with
business administration.
When it comes to document production, legal
proofreading and bundle preparation – all notoriously time-consuming and costly
tasks, surges in work, such as a fast-approaching court hearing in a big case
can cause a real headache.
Case study
When Amanda took up her new role as Chief Operating
Officer for a law firm in London’s Mayfair, she was delighted to be joining the
team. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that it was going be tough to keep
operations running smoothly, as she explained….
“The firm had recently gone through a
sustained period of growth, taking on more lawyers and increasing its client
base. As is often the case, the internal
infrastructure had not kept pace, the headcount on the support side had actually
fallen as people had left and not been replaced, so existing support was stretched
ever more thinly- none of which was great for staff morale or the firm’s
performance.
Having already invested significantly in
legal recruitment, the firm’s budget was also under pressure. Things came to a
head as the hearing date for a high-profile case loomed and the firm did not
have sufficient document production resources to produce the extensive bundles.
A former colleague suggested that I contact
Global BPO. After an initial conversation, things moved quickly and I was
delighted with how they were able to tailor a package of assistance to meet our
needs.
Even after the case settled, we continued
using Global BPO for document services which produced considerable savings for
the firm. I am very confident in the quality of the service and I know a wide
range of additional help can be obtained quickly as and when we need it in the
future.”
