IT Is Not A Profit Center
Law firms sell almost every service they pay for to their clients with a mark-up fee attached to it. Law firms SELL word processing, paralegal support, attorney work, copying services and almost everything else to their clients with a mark-up over what they actually paid for it.
IT, however, is not something that law firms and many other companies can directly bill their clients for. IT therefore is a burden on profits. IT may be necessary and it may make working more efficient, however, every company CEO/Manager has to see IT people as people who are not doing BILLABLE WORK. The entire IT budget comes directly out of the pockets of the partners of a law firm because the budget can't be directly billed to any Client.
There is no practical legitimate reason why a law firm should OWN an IT department. A law firm may have a legitimate need for confidentiality and reliability associated with IT help and support, but every law firm has to view IT people as people who are not generating revenue.
The above makes IT a perfect function to be outsourced to a Support LLC.
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