Managed review or your own review team via staff leasing?

Short answer: Managed document review suits a clearly defined review that you hand to a provider together with responsibility for the result. Your own team of contract reviewers via staff leasing suits legal departments and law firms that want to control protocol, priorities and decisions. Under staff leasing you direct the work and pay daily rates, not a price per document.

This comparison is for general counsel, heads of legal and law firm partners in Switzerland and Germany who face a large document review and must choose between a managed review provider and their own review team, temporarily reinforced with contract reviewers. It covers the criteria, costs and contractual consequences.

The two options in brief

With managed review, the client buys a service; with staff leasing, it buys capacity. The difference lies in control, liability and price.

• Managed review: a service provider runs the review as a project. It supplies reviewers, project management, quality control and often the platform, organises the work itself and delivers an agreed result. Billing is typically per document, per hour or as a fixed fee.
• Your own review team via staff leasing: a staffing provider supplies document review lawyers, review leads or whole teams. They work inside your organisation, to your protocol and your professional instructions. The legal department or law firm directs the review and is responsible for the result.
• Freelancing as a complement: experienced individuals, such as a review lead, work independently within the agreed mandate.

Alpinum Solutions does not offer managed review. Alpinum provides document review lawyers, review leads and project teams through staff leasing or freelancing; direction and responsibility for the outcome stay with your company or law firm.

Comparison table: managed review or your own review team

The table compares both options on criteria you can verify during procurement.

Cost and availability

A fair cost comparison only works on cost per reviewed document. With managed review, that figure is in the quote. With your own team, you derive it from daily rate, throughput and seniority mix.

1. Record the daily rate per level: the table shows Alpinum's staff leasing ranges, excluding VAT, as of 18 October 2026.
2. Assume throughput: documents per reviewer per day depend on document type, language and coding fields. Set an assumption and measure it in the first days.
3. Set the seniority mix: juniors at first level, experienced and senior profiles for second level, quality control and the review lead.
4. Calculate cost per document: team cost per day divided by documents reviewed per day.
5. Add internal management time: the time your project lead spends on protocol, questions and approvals belongs in both calculations.

Austria uses the German ranges. The Swiss figures apply regardless of model. For a broader comparison of cost models for interim support, see cost models for interim legal and compliance in Germany and Switzerland.

Control, responsibility and contract model

Choosing the model is also a contractual question: whoever directs the review determines which contract fits. What counts is how the engagement works in practice, not what the contract is called.

• Switzerland: staff leasing (Personalverleih) exists where the lender transfers substantial authority to give instructions to the client (art. 26(1) Swiss Recruitment Ordinance, AVV). Indicators include integration into the client's organisation, use of the client's equipment and the client bearing the risk of poor performance (art. 26(2) AVV).
• Germany: temporary agency work (Arbeitnehmerüberlassung) exists where the professional is integrated into the client's organisation and subject to its instructions (section 1(1) sentence 2 German Temporary Agency Work Act, AÜG). The contract must expressly designate the arrangement as such and name the person in advance (section 1(1) sentences 5 and 6 AÜG).
• Managed review: the provider organises the work itself. If your people give the provider's reviewers daily professional instructions, the engagement moves towards staff leasing in practice. Agree in advance who instructs whom.

In both models, approving the protocol, privilege decisions and production remain the responsibility of the legal department or outside counsel. How to split tasks between a provider and your own organisation more generally is covered in legal outsourcing: which in-house tasks can be outsourced.

When managed review is the better choice

Managed review makes sense when you lack capacity to direct the work and can define the review clearly.

• Scope, questions and protocol are fixed and unlikely to change.
• Nobody in your legal department or law firm can answer questions and check quality every day.
• You want a price per document and to pass on the risk of the throughput estimate.
• Platform, processing and review should come from a single source.

Your own team via staff leasing fits better when the facts develop during the review, when confidentiality or data protection require review in-house, when you want to keep knowledge of the matter, or when the review is part of an ongoing investigation or proceedings. The types of provider in the interim market are explained in interim legal and compliance providers: types and fit.

Five questions to decide

1. Who should direct the review? Your legal department or law firm: own team. The provider: managed review.
2. How stable is the question? If search terms and coding fields keep changing, your own team adapts faster.
3. Where may the data sit? If data must stay in-house or in-country, a team on your platform has the edge.
4. Do you have a project lead? Without someone who decides daily, your own team also needs a senior review lead.
5. How do you want to budget? A price per document from a provider, or daily rates with your own cost-per-document calculation.

FAQ: managed document review vs contract reviewers

What is the difference between managed review and staff leasing?

With managed review, a provider runs the review as a project, organises the team and quality control itself and delivers an agreed result. With staff leasing, a staffing provider supplies document review lawyers who work inside your organisation under your professional instructions. Direction and responsibility for the result then sit with your legal department or law firm.

Does Alpinum offer managed review?

No. Alpinum Solutions provides document review lawyers, review leads and project teams through staff leasing or freelancing, part-time or full-time. Direction and responsibility for the outcome stay with your company or law firm. If you need managed review, choose a specialist provider and set out direction, liability and price per document clearly in the contract.

Is your own review team more expensive than managed review?

Only cost per reviewed document answers that. For your own team, convert daily rates by level, throughput and seniority mix into cost per document and add your project lead's time. For managed review, check which services the price per document includes, such as platform, quality control and project management, and which are billed separately.

Can a staff leasing review team work for a law firm?

Yes. Law firms use document review lawyers via staff leasing to cover peaks in due diligence, investigations or mass claims. The firm directs the review, binds the team to confidentiality and remains responsible to the client. In Germany, professional rules for lawyers add specific points, which are explained in the guide on document review for law firms.

How quickly can your own review team start?

Selected profiles are usually available within 48 hours; the start date is agreed between the company and Alpinum. The start also depends on conflict checks, confidentiality undertakings, platform access and briefing. In a KYC taskforce of 8 FTE, the team started about two weeks after the order.

Next step

Alpinum Solutions is the leading provider of interim legal & compliance and provides document review lawyers, review leads and review teams for companies and law firms in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Share the volume, languages, platform and deadline; you receive a team proposal with a seniority mix.

• Document review lawyers and review teams for law firms and companies
• Litigation support lawyers and investigation teams for legal departments
• Document review for law firms: team, workflow and quality
• Costs & procurement: all guides on budgeting and buying
• Discuss your needs

Last updated: 10 November 2026.