Interesting, nay, some may say bleak news from Legal Week today on Beachcroft & TLT’s outsourcing deal. On the one hand, one has to face business realities, and this is the world we live in. On the other, the thing that got me narked is the quote from Beachcroft’s managing partner. He says ‘”The information resources we buy are a commodity.” Yes, they are. Books, journals, law reports, databases: all just stuff that appears on your desk or your desktop.
I wonder what these firms’ lawyers would say if their clients (I could research who the clients are, but I don’t have time) referred to the legal advice they receive as a commodity. Would they point to the specialist legal skills that helped prepare the advice and suggest that there was rather more to it than meets the eye? Or would they say, “it’s a fair cop, guvn’r, it’s all straight from PLC ‘?
Filed under: Uncategorized, outsourcing
Bleak, depressing, worrying yes, but perhaps not unexpected if we we’re to consider whats’ happended in the last couple of years. I expect to see more of this in the new year.
Interestingly though Beachcroft have just announced a 15% increase in turnover at their 1/2 year mark…nice
I wonder what increased sharing of resources will do to the big publishers’ business models? I too expect to see more of this kind of thing but it doesn’t stop me feeling narked about the implicit slur on the profession from the ‘commoditisation’ angle. Maybe I should get out more?