ABA Journal: “The alternative legal services provider market grew approximately 25 percent from $8.4 billion in 2015 to $10.7 billion in 2017 amid growing demand from both corporations and law firms. Released last week, the Alternative Legal Service Providers 2019: Fast Growth, Expanding Use and Increasing Opportunity report from Thomson Reuters found that 87 percent of law firm respondents said they were using ALSPs, up from 56 percent in 2015. At corporations, 74 percent said they used an ALSP, up from 60 percent over the same time period…

ALSPs come in a variety of forms. The report found that the five most common types are litigation and investigation support, legal research, document review, e-discovery, and regulatory risk and compliance. The pressure for increased adoption is coming from multiple places, according to the report. The first are clients, where 39 percent of large law firms said clients wanted firms to use ALSPs to drive down costs, up from 18 percent two years ago. Twenty-three percent of corporations report telling their lawyers to use these alternatives. Notably, small firms saw client demand jump from zero percent in 2015 to 24 percent in 2017…”