“Cinco Días” interviews our Head of International Directories María Sol Rubio on the inclusion of ALSPs in the Chambers and Partners rankings.

The Inclusion of ALSPs in the Chambers and Partners

It is further proof of the growing slice of the legal market pie being bitten by alternative legal service providers (ALSPs). The British directory Chambers & Partners has created a specific ranking to evaluate these organizations, a guide that is divided into four categories, according to the different services they offer: flexible legal staffing, contract lifecycle management, litigation services and ALSPs created by traditional law firms.

María Sol Rubio, head of international directories at Gericó Associates and former deputy editor of Chambers, recalls that the directory usually takes a hard look at the creation of new guides. If they have opted for it, she says, it is because “it is a growing sector and they see a good future for it”.

Along the same lines, Susana Claudio, director of the consulting firm Band 1, stresses that ALSPs are a new business model “that is here to stay and what these rankings do is reflect the reality of the legal market where new players have arrived”. As Chambers explains on its website, the new guide is the result of interviews with ALSPs themselves, their clients and third party market insiders.

In Spain, ALSPs do not yet enjoy the impact that they do in the legal markets of the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the birth of Ambar, Axiom’s allied brand in Spain, reignited the debate about the efficiency and profitability of these organizations versus traditional law firms. “The creation of the guide is very good news,” says Irma Cebrián, one of the two co-founding partners of ALSP Abroading. “Not only because it will help to give visibility to alternative providers, but also because it means the consolidation of a business model that until now has been considered disruptive in our country,” adds her colleague Silvia Perea.

Maria Sol shares that the guide can serve to give a boost to these providers. So much so that some large law firms have created their own ALSPs so as not to miss out on that part of the business that is not looking for premium legal advice. Susana Claudio, for her part, adds that the current context of economic crisis may push many law firms to rely more on ALSPs.

To read the full article, click here.

Gericó Associates is pioneer on Legal Marketing Consultancy services, LegalCom and Business Development in Europe and Latin America. If your firm needs councelling looking for new trends and challenges within the legal sector, do not hesitate to contact us by clicking here.