As was blogged by the Posse List (if you aren’t on their listervs now, you should be) and Gabe, WilmerHale is making the move to outsource some of its backoffice operations (originally reported by Law360). But this is good news, as Wilmer is keeping its business within the United States, (or insourcing) by going to Ohio, not Hyderabad. Good move.
From the Law360 Article,
The new facilities, which are slotted to open in September, will house the majority of the firm’s finance, human resources, information technology, document review and practice management operations, which are currently spread out between its Boston, New York and Washington offices, the firm said Monday.Those metropolitan areas come with higher price tags for rent, taxes and employee salaries. Given the economic beating the industry has taken in recent years, and the availability of sophisticated technology, it may finally be time for law firms to move their business operations — and even some legal work — to low-cost locales throughout the U.S.
The trend now is developing among the more strategic law firms to shift operations to domestic cities with lower costs and an educated populace. This is what clever, long term growth oriented law firms will be doing, rather than blindly shipping it off across the planet to a foreign country.