Orrick’s Lawyering Factory Featured On NPR 

The law firm Orrick is featured in the opening program of week-long National Public Radio special about the increasing use of contract labor in the U.S. economy. The series, called “The Rise of the Contract Workers,” begins with a look at an Orick facility that’s been set up in what used to be a factory in Wheeling, West Virginia. That facility houses what the law firm calls its analytics division, and what the NPR narrator calls “a kind of processing center, using artificial intelligence tools and cheaper lawyers.” The director of the firm’s analytics division explains how this system works, with the number of employees fluctuating sometimes daily in order to accommodate demand, and the firm working to “drive efficiency and discipline into every mouse click.”