A positive way to look at LPO is that it will enable solicitors to focus on work that genuinely requires their expertise.

Kerry Underwood, as many readers will know, is not a man to pull his punches. The Hertfordshire solicitor, who was at the cutting edge of ‘no win, no fee’ work, is moving into legal process outsourcing (LPO) with the claim that he is protecting clients from banks and supermarkets by allowing firms to compete effectively.

‘Now that the world knows what banks are like at running banks, let alone anything else, emergency legislation should be introduced to repeal the Legal Services Act and the absurd idea of alternative business structures,’ he tells the Gazette provocatively. That might not happen, but Underwood’s foray into LPO could have equally profound implications for smaller practices if it takes off.

Until now, talk of LPO has mainly been the preserve of commercial firms, and concerned with relatively low-level tasks. Research company ValueNotes reports that LPO in India has grown by 60% annually for the past three years. But a personal injury case being handled from start to finish from South Africa (or wherever) – however mechanistic a task that can sometimes be – takes the idea of LPO significantly further.

A positive way of looking at LPO – and indeed the developments that are beginning to flow from the Legal Services Act – is that they will enable solicitors to focus on work that genuinely requires their hard-won expertise and not those routine tasks that many people now argue you no longer need to be a qualified lawyer to perform.