RPM
If you landed on this page it's because you're considering outsourcing some or all of your back office operations for your law firm.
You're in the right place.
Whether you're looking for legal assistants to handle client intake, receptionists, translation services, case management, billing, or some other specific operational role, this guide will give you reasons why you should leverage a nearshore team.
Here's the top 5 reasons to outsource your law firm operations to nearshore legal assistants.
1. You want (or need) to stay focused on the legal side, not operations
This is the #1 reason why law firms choose to outsource. They’re experts in their field of law and provide excellent legal service for their clients, but they don't want to be bogged down with all of the administrative tasks and day to day operations with each client's case.
For most law firms, one or more of the partners has to wear the Chief Operating Officer hat and take the lead for figuring out best practices and processes and hope they get things running effectively and efficiently.
The reality is that you and every other lawyer is too busy to architect operational workflows and manage people and processes. This is where working with the right outsourcing partner makes all the difference.
By working with a nearshore outsourcing partner like RPM, you can take advantage of several things:
- We can document best practices and develop efficient workflows for you
- We already have a network of professional legal assistants
- We are dead focused on operational excellence
- You don’t have to remove focus from your core competencies to screen, interview, hire, and train new hires (more time, overhead, and costs)
2. You can’t justify the cost of an in-house legal assistant
You ran the numbers and evaluated the cost-benefit of hiring in house, and it just doesn’t make sense to hire someone locally.
In most cases, outsourcing legal assistants can reduce costs by up to 70% or more depending on your specific operational needs.
For example, in 2025 in California, the minimum annual salary for exempt employees (white-collar, salaried employees such as legal assistants) is $68,640 or $5,720 per month. This amount does not include any additional overhead such as insurance or benefits.
New York state has very similar figures, which is to be expected from states like these.
Here’s a snapshot of current national average salaries for salespeople:
- National Average Legal Assistant: $56,790 not including benefits
- National Average Senior Legal Assistant: $62,898 not including benefits
The higher end of the spectrum for these roles can hit $80k and $100k per year.
Of course, you could go toward the lower end, but that means you’ll have subpar people in your law firm, which could end up costing you more money due to poor performance, management overhead, or costly mistakes.
Also, consider that the cost to hire a single person in the United States ranges from $4,700 to upwards of 4x the position’s salary! That’s a massive cost to hire just one person, let alone a team of 10, 20, or 50 legal assistants, and you still have to deal with all of the additional overhead costs.
The good news is that you can work with skilled professionals in Latin America where cost of living is lower, which means you get quality legal assistants for a fraction of the cost.
3. You Don’t Have People Management Experience
Hiring people is tough; managing them is even tougher, and it’s not for everyone. You can be the smartest attorney in your area, but managing people requires a specific breed of person with the patience and knowhow of dealing with different personalities on a daily basis.
Here’s some facets of people management that most business leaders ignore, underestimate, or just don’t fully understand such as:
- Different people learn differently and probably not the same way you learn, which can be frustrating when you have to repeat things
- People call in sick and show up late (or not at all), sometimes for valid reasons and sometimes not; knowing how to handle situations like this are crucial to a healthy work environment
- You may not have the bandwidth to get to know your staff on a personal level, which could affect how long good people stick around
- People have birthdays, experience loss, good times and bad times; dealing with the ebbs and flow of life with staff can be draining
All of this “people-stuff” is important and retaining good people is not as easy as it seems.
When you outsource legal assistants to the right partner, you’re essentially off-loading all the “soft skills” and intangibles involved in managing staff. This removes A LOT of headaches and distractions from your day.
This is probably the most under-valued reason for outsourcing, period.
4. You Don’t Want HR Headaches
This is a key benefit to outsourcing legal staff, but it’s also a key benefit to outsourcing in general: You get to hand-off HR responsibilities and overhead to your outsourcing partner. This is crucial for a few reasons:
- You don’t have to worry about compliance and labor laws for your outsourced staff
- You don’t have to manage payroll and deal with all the minute details such as overtime, sick days, holidays, vacations, doctor’s notes, HR policies, etc.
- You’re not stuck with low performers who need to be placed on a lengthy PIP (performance improvement plan) or HR review process like you would hiring directly in-house, which means you could be stuck with an individual for months
Conclusion
When it comes to outsourcing legal assistants, working with the right partner for your law firm could mean the difference of having a world of headaches and distractions or being able to grow and stay focused. For many law firms, the right outsourcing partner could mean the difference in getting your firm to the next level.
However, not all outsourcing partners are equal. It’s imperative to work with a partner who truly understands and cares about your law firm to make this work. Too many times law firms have worked with whichever partner was cheapest and received lackluster results, often setting themselves back in their business by months if not a year. But that’s a topic for a different time…