E-discovery managed services provide law firms with a competitive and financial advantage—from reducing capital expenditures, removing the need to upgrade software, purchase licenses or add human resources to operate and support software to providing a fixed monthly fee for better budgeting. All of these positives make for an excellent business plan.
However, can a firm ethically recover its costs in a managed services partnership? Do the ABA Model Rules allow a firm to bill its clients for more than what the firm is paying per gigabyte, but still pass on substantial savings by having the client pay less than the market average? The short answer is yes.
As background, managed services in e-discovery refers to the instantiation of dedicated environments for hosting review software and electronically stored information (ESI); otherwise known as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or software-as-a-service (SaaS). In either instance, it provides a valuable way for firms to reduce risk and costs for themselves and their clients.
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