Large Legal Departments Expand ALSP Use While Smaller Teams Lag Behind

Larger legal departments embrace ALSPs for scalability and cost-efficiency, but smaller teams remain hesitant amid growing pressure to control outside counsel costs.

Key points:

  • Large legal departments are rapidly expanding ALSP usage
  • Smaller teams are constrained by resources and change inertia
  • Cost pressures are driving broader legal service portfolio shifts
  • Newer ALSP models may be better suited for small teams, but awareness is low

Corporate legal departments are increasingly turning to alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) to handle growing workloads and manage outside counsel costs, but that adoption remains sharply split by company size. According to the 2025 Law Department Management Benchmarking Report, released by the Association of Corporate Counsel and Major, Lindsey & Africa, large enterprises are leveraging ALSPs at nearly 14 times the rate of their smaller peers.

Legal departments at companies earning over $20 billion in revenue now use an average of 9.7 ALSPs, compared with just 0.7 for departments at companies under $1 billion. The divergence points to more than just budget disparity. While larger departments use ALSPs as strategic extensions of their legal teams—especially for high-volume or repetitive work—smaller teams remain mostly reactive, often too consumed by daily operations to vet or implement new models.

“The adoption gap between large and small legal departments when it comes to ALSPs doesn’t surprise me,” said Stephanie Corey, CEO of UpLevel Ops, a legal operations consultancy. “Smaller teams are typically so ‘heads down’ they don’t have bandwidth to explore new support models, even though integrated partnerships could be tremendously helpful.”

That divide is intensifying under post-pandemic economic constraints. Vince Venturella, associate director at Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions, noted the uneven progress. “It’s unevenly distributed. What we are seeing across the board is cost pressure,” he said. Legal departments are deploying more structured approaches—issuing RFPs for high-stakes matters and increasing ALSP usage across lower-risk domains.

The report reveals that legal departments across all sizes averaged 2.6 ALSPs in 2025, up from 1.6 in 2021. But large departments are responsible for most of that upward trend. These teams aren’t just expanding volume; they’re diversifying provider types, drawing on managed services, tech-enabled platforms, and contract attorneys.

“GCs and CLOs are prioritizing alternative resourcing,” Corey added. “The question isn’t whether to use ALSPs, it’s how to use them well.”

By contrast, the report highlights that smaller departments—averaging only two attorneys and three total legal staff—face significant scaling limitations but remain slow to adapt. Many remain unaware that new ALSP entrants are now designed to support leaner teams, offering cost-efficient access without requiring enterprise-scale engagement.

Historically, ALSPs focused on volume-heavy corporate clients to make the economics viable. That model has shifted, but awareness hasn’t kept pace. “Not everyone is aware those options exist yet,” Corey said.

For legal departments ready to test ALSP relationships, Venturella pointed to clear use cases: document review, e-discovery, and contract management remain the lowest-friction entry points. These areas are increasingly served by providers using AI and automation to deliver scalable results at lower cost.

Customer Stories

See how leading enterprise in-house teams have scaled smarter with Legal.io's high-caliber flex talent.

More from Legal.io


SEC Expands Confidential Filing Options to Support Capital Formation

The SEC has expanded confidential filing rules beyond IPOs, giving more companies flexibility in capital raising and M&A activity while preserving transparency.

Apr 15, 2025
Read More
Legal.io Newsletter - August 6, 2021
Legal.io Newsletter - August 6, 2021

Published weekly on Friday, the Legal.io Newsletter covers the latest in legal, talent & tech.

Aug 06, 2021
Read More
Troutman Pepper and Locke Lord Merge to Form 1,600-Lawyer Firm

Troutman Pepper and Locke Lord have agreed to merge, creating a powerhouse firm with over 1,600 lawyers and 35 offices spread across the U.S. and Europe. The merger is set to go live on January 1.

Sep 06, 2024
Read More
BigLaw Backlash Over Push to Return to Office
BigLaw Backlash Over Push to Return to Office

BigLaw firms are pushing for a return to traditional office settings, reversing earlier promises of flexible work arrangements.

Jul 25, 2024
Read More
Ready to hire?

Schedule a free consultation to discuss your hiring needs.

Free 15-min consultation
Legal.io Platform
5 star reviews
Hiring made smarter

Easy-to-use platform for hiring legal talent, managing spend, and optimizing your panel — plus an average savings of 50%.

Need Immediate Help?

Submit a hiring request and let our experts handle the entire process for you.