The Law Society Gazette has asked legal services offshoring company NewGalexy Partners to conduct a survey investigating how much legal outsourcing is going off-shore, and how this might be affecting law firms. Though much talked about anecdotally, there's very little hard evidence of what's really happening - we want you to help put that right.

The questionnaire should take no more than three minutes to complete. Your input is greatly appreciated.
Full results and analysis will be published in the Gazette later this year.

You MUST be in an in-house legal position to fill in this survey.
Job title:
Company:   
1. Are you looking to reduce the amount of work you give to external law firms? (select one only)
No
No - in fact I'm sending more work to them
No, but I am looking at new ways of working with external law firms to get maximum value for money
Yes, and I’m looking to take their work in-house
Yes, and I’m looking at other legal outsourcing possibilities
Yes, and I'm looking at a combination of in-house and outsourcing
2. Do you expect to be outsourcing offshore any of your organisation’s legal work in the next two years? (select one only)
No. None Yes, up to 50%
Yes, but under 10% Yes, more than 50%
Yes, up to 25%
Regardless of whether you are looking to offshore some of your organisation’s legal work or not, we’d like to understand your attitudes to this in more detail:
3. What criteria would influence you to offshore some of your organisation’s legal work, or increase the amount you already offshore?
It saves money Law firms I use are doing it
Ease of communication I have read about it
Good electronic security I found a good offshoring company
Change to my organisation's policy It's better than using temporary lawyers
My competitors are doing it Other
4. What are your biggest concerns about offshoring? (please select one box for each line)
Very Important Important Not Important
Quality of work product
Problems of confidentiality/privilege
I prefer using temporary lawyers
PI insurance
Languages and linguistics
Bad previous experience
I don't know enough about it
Security
Cost if IT/other elements of set-up Other 
I don't have concerns about offshoring?
5. If you were to offshore legal work, which country/ies would you prefer to offshore to? (you may select more than one)
India Australia
South Africa Mauritius
Malaysia Other 
New Zealand
Not sure / don't know
6. In principle, what types of legal work would you potentially offshore? (you may select more than one)
Litigation support Legal risk management
Contracts management Compliance support
Commercial contracts/licenses Due diligence
Conveyancing support Legal research
IP & IT Other 
7. How important are the following factors in a decision to begin offshoring - or offshoring more - legal work? (please select one box for each line)
Very Important Important Not Important
Better understanding of offshoring
My organisation's policy
Cost savings
Budget constraints
Pressure of work
Avoid use of temporary legal staff
Avoid hiring additional staff
8. In what ways do you think that legal offshoring will change over the next five years? (you may select more than one)
International law firms will set up their own units Regulation will stop legal outsourcing
Most law firms will begin to offshore Regulation will make offshore more secure
Most large corporations will offshore Other 
9. Has the current financial crisis increased the likelihood that you will be offshoring work? (select one only)
No
Yes, I was already considering it
Yes, it's made me think we should do more than we planned
Yes, it's made me consider doing it for the first time
10. Are you considering (or doing) any of the following? (you may select more than one)
Moving away from billable hours model Electronic job tracking
e-Billing Moving from retainer to payment by project
Incentive fees None of the above
11. a) Have you asked/do you plan to ask your panel/external law firms to engage more in offshoring?
Yes, have asked Yes, planning to ask No
b) and/or made it a formal requirement in a drive to secure best value for money?
Yes No
12. If you have been offshoring legal process work, roughly what kind of savings have you made? (select one only)
It's not just about savings, it's also about Between 30-40%
efficiency and best use of in-house resources Between 40-50%
Less than 10% Between 50-60%
Between 10-20% More than 60%
Between 20-30% Not applicable
Questionnaire validated by Fusion Communications October 2008