Third-Party Legal Research Providers
Legal research is known to take much time and effort, and access to online legal research databases such as LexisNexis and Westlaw can be costly. Consequently, law firms and other practitioners may turn to third-party legal research providers to outsource their legal research needs.
On August 5, 2008, the American Bar Association, Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, issued Formal Opinion 08-451, entitled "Lawyer’s Obligations When Outsourcing Legal and Nonlegal Support Services." Among other things, this Opinion expressly acknowledges:
Outsourcing affords lawyers the ability to reduce their costs and often the cost to the client to the extent that the individuals or entities providing the outsourced services can do so at lower rates than the lawyer’s own staff. In addition, the availability of lawyers and nonlawyers to perform discrete tasks may, in some circumstances, allow for the provision of labor-intensive legal services by lawyers who do not otherwise maintain the needed human resources on an ongoing basis. A small firm might not regularly employ the lawyers and legal assistants required to handle a large, discovery-intensive litigation effectively. Outsourcing, however, can enable that firm to represent a client in such a matter effectively and efficiently, by engaging additional lawyers to conduct depositions or to review and analyze documents, together with a temporary staff of legal assistants to provide infrastructural support.
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The Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility thus concluded that "here is nothing unethical about a lawyer outsourcing legal and nonlegal services, provided the outsourcing lawyer renders legal services to the client with the 'legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation,' as required by Rule 1.1."
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