Legal Process Outsourcing Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Location (Offshore, On-Shore), By Service (e-discovery, Patent Support, Litigation Support), And Segment Forecasts, 2019 - 2025

Industry Insights

The global legal process outsourcing market size was valued at USD 5.2 billion in 2018 and is expected to register a CAGR of 31.8% over the forecast period. Enterprise preference for focusing on their core businesses and outsourcing non-core tasks is expected to drive the market. Initiatives undertaken by various enterprises to reduce overheads by downsizing the staff are some of the other factors that are expected to boost market growth.

Growing population and continued urbanization and migration is limiting the availability of real estate all around the world, particularly in metropolitan cities. Subsequently, real estate prices are rising while the average commercial space available for organizations is shrinking. Organizations are responding to the situation by limiting their employee strength and outsourcing some of their non-core tasks. These factors are directly driving the need for outsourcing.

Outsourcing legal processes to countries such as India can offer quantifiable benefits. For instance, lawyers fluent in English are abundant in India, and they can be hired at pay rates considerably lower than those in U.S. Outsourcing companies with adequate experience and high-level of competency can help in improving the relationship with clients and enhancing output.

The number of prominent LPO players has been rising in India as well as other emerging countries, such as South Africa, Philippines, Malaysia, the Caribbean Islands, and Singapore. However, geographies other than India are finding it particularly challenging to overcome the constraints of scalability. As a result, the regional legal process outsourcing (LPO) market in these geographies has been growing at a relatively slower rate. Differing regulatory policies on a regional level are also discouraging cautious organizations from considering outsourcing of legal services.

Location Insights

The Indian offshore segment is anticipated to reach USD 11.01 billion by 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 33.8% over the forecast period. While offshore LPO companies are rapidly adapting themselves to the corporate culture, they have also started competing with law firms in select service offerings, including some of the modern-day high-value services such as legal research and patent filing.

In Asia Pacific, LPO was initiated as low-end work, which particularly included transcription. However, it has lately transformed into tasks that require very high levels of competency. As such, processes like drafting applications for patents, drafting agreements, legal research, and client consultation are now being increasingly outsourced to Asia Pacific.

Offshore outsourcing has always been the more preferred mode. However, demand for on-shore outsourcing is expected to increase over the forecast period. Companies that prefer collaborating with organizations within the same country are particularly turning to on-shore outsourcing. Outsourcing to companies within the same country also provides advantages associated with the shared regulatory framework.

Services Insights

The e-discovery segment is anticipated to reach USD 7.7 billion by 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 29.9% over the forecast period. Electronic documents contain large volumes of data and metadata. Outsourcing the identification and production of such information can prove to be economical and profitable for law firms. E-discovery is turning out to be a necessary means for organizations trying to comply with regulatory, legal, and investigational requirements.

Providers are increasingly focusing on offering high-value services such as compliance management. Growing demand for compliance management is promoting solution providers to re-engineer their work processes by introducing standard processes that are not available in-house in order to add value to their services. As such, the LPO market is witnessing a broader shift to high-value services and strategic moves to develop onshore capabilities in U.S. and U.K.

Patent support has gained prominence as an outsourced service, especially in India. It includes patentability assessment, illustration, infringement analysis, and patent mining, which broadly represents the Intellectual Property Asset Management (IPAM). Subcontracting qualitative activities, such as proofreading and IP litigation, increasingly benefits large organizations by freeing up their employees to focus on high-value tasks.

Regional Insights

The Asia Pacific market contributed to over 70.0% of the global revenue in 2018. Philippines, China, and India have emerged as preferred destinations for law outsourcing on account of the availability of cost-efficient and proficient lawyers in these countries. South Africa has positioned itself as a strong LPO destination for European clients, which is attributed to its ideal time zone, a high-degree of cultural similarity, and a maturing vendor landscape.

A significant portion of the revenue generated in offshore sites of India, South Africa, and Philippines originates from legal firms in U.S. and U.K. Although initially the LPO sector in India was constrained only to transactional services, high-end tasks such document analysis and legal research are gradually being outsourced to the country.

Legal Process Outsourcing Market Share Insights

Key players in the market include UnitedLex Corporation; Integreon, Inc.; Elevate Services Inc.; Pangea3 LLC; QuisLex Inc.; Mindcrest Inc.; Clutch Group; and Axiom Law. These companies are increasingly focusing on offering high-value services such as compliance management. They are also trying to expand their offerings beyond regulatory and litigation investigation support services to contract management and other corporate services.

Market incumbents are emphasizing on expanding their service portfolio and offering unique services at affordable costs. They are also launching new tools and adopting strategies such as target marketing in order to gain a competitive edge and strengthen their position in the industry.

Report Scope

Segments Covered in the Report

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2015 to 2025. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global legal process outsourcing market report on the basis of location, service, and region:

• Location Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

  • Offshore

  • On-shore

• Services Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

  • Contract Drafting

  • Review and Management

  • Compliance Assistance

  • E-discovery

  • Litigation Support

  • Patent Support

  • Others

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2015 - 2025)

  • North America

    • U.S.

    • Canada

    • Mexico

  • Europe

    • Germany

    • U.K.

  • Asia Pacific

    • China

    • India

    • Philippines

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

  • MEA