Legal Process Outsourcing

Language - bone of contention in delivering Quality

2009-10-07T10:03:00.001+05:30

LPOs are driven by various factors which includes, breadth and depth of coverage, domain expertise, location advantage, sales and marketing capabilities, data compliance with respect to regulatory standards (especially those defined by the US, Canada and EU) and management of business risks. All the aspects in unison help in making an LPO unit creditable in the world market. Among these aspects one that scores a point above all is the domain expertise which is inclusive of delivering consistently good quality work. India has in the outsourcing realm achieved major feats since the time of IT boom. India has 37% of the world’s shared of outsource services. This achievement is mainly because of the huge talent base trained in common law and the ability to scale up operations in a cost effective manner.

But in a recent blog post incorrect usage of English language was call into focus. Legal writing is archaic and very technical in nature. Since contract drafting and management requires an understanding of the nuances of the language in which it is written, a law degree doesn’t suffice the requirements of the job. The writer also specifies the reason as to why the incumbents are unable to match the standards accorded by the client. She says “Law in many of our local colleges is very often taught by professors who, while they are excellent with the subject itself, are from a vernacular background, with the result that their hold on the English language is tenuous at best. An LL.B. degree merely introduces its holder to legal vocabulary; to breed familiarity, one needs to be constantly reading and handling legal documents.”

It thus becomes imperative that LPO units make provisions of training in legal communications thus enabling the employees in making qualitative deliverables.

The Indian vs. Chinese legal outsourcing industry

2009-10-05T13:55:00.000+05:30

In a detailed analysis of legal outsourcing industry of the world’s two most prominent growing economies, Jalal Alamgir and Matthew Sullivan present the strengths of the Indian service sector over the Chinese set-up. The author attributes the strength to mainly four points. They are as follows:
1. Indians with an excellent command over English language and a legal system that is built upon the British system gives them an edge to their Chinese counterparts academically.
2. Investments made by the federal and state governments in the IT and BPO set-up. Currently most of the LPOs use the same infrastructure facilities.
3. The country that is able to address the two major concerns about information and data security will be able to garner maximum profits out of the business. With Chinese government remaining interested in controlling Internet activity, India will retain a big advantage.
4. Lastly, Indian government has taken major steps to showcase to the rest of the world of it being an investor’s paradise.

The cumulative effect of these points has made India have 37% of the world's share of outsourced services whereas China has managed to get only 10 %.

Outsourcing industry: another prediction of its future

2009-10-05T12:12:00.000+05:30

James Dunning, a legal consultant, in his article Legal Process Outsourcing – Dream or Disaster? examines two perspectives of the present economic condition. One side of the coin depicts legal outsourcing as being an option for the law firms to implement “progressive management strategy”, wherein the work outsourced gives the law firms more time to deal with critical issues rather than being involved in routine work. While the other side of the coin shows that big corporations are realizing the downside of subcontracting. For example Boeing company. The company had to eventually acquire its subcontractors owing to its persistent problems in the Dreamliner’s development.

With these two facets of the economic reality in mind the author charts out a course of events for the outsourcing industry. Read more to know how outsourcing, in author’s opinion, eventually becomes a “more manageable middle ground” in future.

Ohio Supreme court judgment: another feather in the LPO cap

2009-09-16T16:11:00.001+05:30

Ohio Supreme court showed strong support to the growth of legal outsourcing by issuing an Opinion that stated the use of LPO meets “Ohio’s professional and ethical standards”.

This opinion provides the much needed solidarity to the increasing legal outsourcing industry, which had lately seen a pathbreaking deal between Rio Tinto and CPA Global. The court’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline identified the series of tasks that can be outsourced: “Preparation of trial or appellate briefs, drafting of pleadings or motions, document review, legal research, and deposition or trial summaries”.

One thing that the court reinstated was client confidentiality. Compliance with the ethical standards forms the basis of the attorney and client relationship. Legal outsourcing companies should be sensitive enough to understand the client’s concern and work towards delivering services that satisfies all the parameters of quality.

Legal Outsourcing and Litigation Funding features in ABA publication

2009-09-16T16:10:00.000+05:30

Summer issue of the International lawyer features litigation financing and offshore legal outsourcing as “hot topics” in the legal business. Mark Ross in his blog talks about these two subjects and the framework of the article which discusses six Bar Associations that have released opinions on legal offshoring and four issues that form major areas of concern for the client.

Article talking about legal offshoring being published in one of the reputed ABA publications is an acknowledgement of the legal sector to the ongoing offshoring activity as well as the receptivity shown by the clients. The day is not far when legal offshoring would become an inevitable part of the legal sector.

San Diego Bar Opinion: Another testimonial in favour of legal outsourcing and offshoring

2009-09-16T16:07:00.001+05:30

After the New York State Bar Opinion in 1996, San Diego Bar Opinion comes as further confirmation to the ongoing legal outsourcing and offshoring in the legal domain. This opinion came as a result of an examination of a hypothetical case wherein a prosecutor in California has been appointed to defend an intellectual property dispute. This Counsel has limited experience in dealing with the regular work related to the dispute such as correspondence, research. The counsel decides to offshore its work to low tariff destinations like India. The question that was raised: “But the lawyer to assist in the practice of law is not permitted, in violation of California Rule of Professional Conduct 1-300, when he or she uses the services of a company subcontracted to carry out research and writing services on behalf of a client?” Consequently it became imperative to analyze whether provider of offshore legal services fall under the purview of “unauthorized practice of law”. The Opinion in response to this issue made a clear statement: “No, the service provided by the foreign supplier does not qualify for the “practice of law,” as defined by the rules of professional conduct”. This statement comes with an accompanying clause that designated lawyer should maintain both control and responsibility of the work outsourced. The client in this case can be informed about the provision if the client expects the case to be done entirely by the lawyer.

The clients are now in a stage where they have started understanding the forces of globalization working in the legal domain. They are getting comfortable with the idea of the work being offshored provided quality and confidentiality is maintained. The lawyer in this scenario needs to have his/ her own list of checks and balances when it comes to deciding the offshore service provider. The providers with domain expertise, pedigree and stability are in a better position to mitigate any conflicts of interest and deliver services that comply with quality standards.

San Diego Bar Opinion is another milestone in the path of legal offshoring business indicative of growth and profits. The question is not whether to go for legal offshoring but to think of ways to give 100% quality to the client.

Press Release: Legal Process Outsourcing in focus - The IGNOU collaborates with leading legal industry solutions provider Rainmaker in offering the Po

2009-07-28T17:42:00.000+05:30

New Delhi, India (25 July, 2009) – In the current world economic downturn, one sector that is continuously hitting the headlines with record-breaking deals is the Legal Process Outsourcing sector. The latest and most heralded success of the Indian LPO industry was the recent announcement by Rio Tinto, the global mining giant, that it had entered into a legal services outsourcing agreement with CPA Global, one of India’s leading LPO providers. The arrangement is likely to save up to 20% of Rio Tinto’s legal costs annually.

Increased costs of legal services, and legal outsourcing-friendly policy changes in key outsourcing destinations such as the US, has led the Indian LPO industry to a significant expansion point. With exponentially higher volumes of work at hand, the industry is looking at an estimated hiring of over 5000 law graduates in the current financial year alone.

Recognising this growth, the IGNOU School of Law collaborated with Rainmaker, the leading legal training and recruitment solutions provider to the Indian legal industry, to create a recognised certification – the Post-Graduate Diploma in Legal Process Outsourcing (PGDLPO) - that is specifically geared to address the talent needs of the sector.

“In keeping with our intention to make a world-class programme that is industry-oriented and of the best academic standards, we invited the participation of leading LPO industry players, legal academicians and practitioners in its creation. This, along with our other initiatives, such as a contemporary online-learning experience and access to internship opportunities, has ensured that it has met the expectations of the thousands of law graduates keen on preparing for a career in the LPO industry” said Prof. Srikrishna Deva Rao, Director of the IGNOU School of Law.

Guided by an Expert Advisory Committee constituted of representatives from leading L.P.O.s, the Clutch Group and UnitedLex, reputed Supreme Court practitioners, and stewarded by Prof. Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon (founder director of the National Law Universities in Bengaluru and Kolkata, and of the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal), the PGDLPO is the first and only Central University-accredited LPO training programme in the country.

“The programme, with nearly 500 applicants in its very first batch itself, has already proven to be highly sought after. It is heartening to note industry involvement in the programme through internship and scholarship offerings”, said Nikhil Chandra, CEO of Rainmaker. “In fact, the appreciation it has received internationally, and specifically in key outsourcing destinations like the US, such as calling it an ‘avant garde venture’ is testament to its vision of creating a global benchmark for LPO talent preparation” he added.

The programme, which is a 1-year post-graduate diploma, is delivered in a distance and online-learning format. “PGDLPO is not in the conventional distance education mould of correspondence study material and term-end testing. The real value addition is the online learning experience, which is interactive and highly participative. This is delivered through Rainmaker’s proprietary eMentor learning management system, a cutting-edge online learning solution. Despite hundreds of programme takers from our first batch being law graduates with full-time working commitments, the flexibility in study that e-learning offers them has resulted in the majority of them remaining continuously engaged with the learning process” says Kunal Mehra, who heads the programme delivery.

Given the initial success of the programme, the University has decided to run the programme twice a year, with a second intake scheduled for August this year. “We feel that an August batch would be very useful to final-year law students as it mirrors their college sessions, and effectively provides students with a valuable, industry-oriented post-graduate diploma simultaneously. We expect an increased participation from the law student community, and are working with law colleges from across the country to bring additional value, including fee reductions of up to Rs.1,500/- for law students, and special classes for law colleges that participate in our unique partner institution programme. This is a wonderful opportunity for law colleges to offer their students a world-class professional option after graduation.” said Prof. Rao.

The Post-Graduate Diploma in Legal Process Outsourcing is scheduled to commence its second batch from August 16, 2009. Enrolments are currently open. For more information on the programme, please visit www.ignouonline.ac.in/pgdlpo or www.rainmaker.co.in or call the Rainmaker office at +91 22 4035 0900 and the IGNOU School of Law at +91 11 2953 1115

US continues to provide business to India

2009-07-24T09:35:00.000+05:30

In a write-up posted on the blog Offshoring Times, one gets an idea that US would continue to offshore their work, especially legal work, to low cost destinations such as India. Indo-US trade has increased by 25% thus giving ample scope for further business.
In the legal domain with leading business conglomerates going bankrupt there is an upsurge of litigation cases. This has led to an increase in the demand of legal services. Thus Indian LPOs are in a position to gain from their services provided at competitive rates. Read more to what industry experts have to say about this trend.

Change in business and education

2009-07-24T09:34:00.000+05:30

With the advent of outsourcing and offshoring of legal work many changes have been noticed in the legal scene. Matador Legal has posted an article ‘Legal Outsourcing: Challenges and Changes in Law education’ in which two issues have been spelt out. The first being Data security – the foremost concern of all the clients who are offshoring their work. Companies like CPA Global have addressed this concern by imbibing the philosophy ‘Quality is way of life’ in their work culture and have been successful to comply by ISO standards.

The second issue is the need to change education given to US law graduates. The author suggests “There is a need to differentiate between functions which can be outsourced and which cannot be outsourced”. An understanding of the economics and changing dynamics of globalization would help both the students and the teachers to understand the legal industry.

Law firms in India

2009-07-24T09:32:00.000+05:30

In a comprehensive article written by Reena SenGupta the reader gets an insight to the present condition of the law firms in India.

Legal profession, which dates back to centuries, has always been seen as one of the elite professions. Many of the freedom fighters and stalwarts of independent India have been iconic figures of this vocation. But few decades back not much salary was paid to law graduates making them to go for another career. But now the scenario seems to change. India’s legal sector is growing exponentially. With the coming of LPOs the pace has accelerated further. Reena in this positive scene also points to some challenges that Indian legal sector faces. They are as follows:

1. UK firms have become aggressive recruiters taking bright talent from the campus itself
2. More than three quarters of Indian law firms have attrition and staff retention as here major problems
3. Many law firms are still family dominated and traditionally managed.
4. Lack of modern management and infrastructure

Read more to know the current scenario and how the Indian law firms are coping with pressures and turning the tide of business towards them.

Guest article: Legal Outsourcing Management Strategies 2009

2009-06-24T16:15:00.001+05:30

Rajiv Dogra

Various stakeholders of the LPO business convened at Legal Outsourcing Management Strategies (LOMS) 2009 conference to look at today and tomorrow of the industry.

Mark Ross, VP Global Marketing & Sales, Lawscribe spoke about ‘Thomas Friedman’s ‘World is flat’. He was of the opinion that with the impact of recession, client pressure on law firms, proposed deregulation of Legal services (in UK) even ‘legal profession flattens’ and ‘recession (is) acting as a catalyst.’

Vishal Aggarwal, Sr Manager at Wipro (LPO) recommended ‘Hold their hands’ approach to manage the perception problem faced from client side. He said ‘being factual & transparent’ is best medicine for LPO industry which is having ‘no single matured model’ so far. He added that quality, efficiency, TAT etc. are good to achieve results, however, more is needed to derive VALUE for the client.

Abhi Shah, CEO Clutch Group when asked about the trend of decreasing hourly rates of Indian LPO providers, stressed on the value of Quality to tackle this commoditization. Talking about talent, he was of view that apart from legal skills (a pre-requisite) employees should have US specific, service specific, client specific and project/case specific trainings.

For industry, the major concerns in term of quality is ‘acceptability of measuring metrics (by client)’ as law firms are not used to it and has been handled subjectively so far. Those who don’t agree would get client side feel from sentence “I know the Quality, when I see it”, which Michel quoted from his experiences with his client. On security front, Michel was of the view “Security has to be in the DNA of company”. He didn’t miss the opportunity to deepen the client fear, when he said “God may forgive you, client will not”.

In his presentation on ethics Mark Ross threw eye openers ‘Outsourcing in legal profession is delegation’ which is quite old & ‘What is new, where we outsource to’. He then dwelled in detail about ABA opinion on outsourcing of legal work. Mark said that law firms engaging in outsourcing should follow 3 simple rules in its communication to corporate client about LPO engagement and these three rules are DISCLOSE!, DISCLOSE! & DISCLOSE!

Taking Mark’s advice about disclosure in true spirit, David Hickey, Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP began disclosing the myths of legal outsourcing as the next speaker. One of the interesting realities presented by him was that ESI is expected to grow in big way, for which technology won’t be enough and there would be no substitute for having documents reviewed by human eye. I could not agree more with him when he said that even in the same team (under same roof) people communicate electronically.
Taking a dig at the misconception of LPO doing low-end work, he shared plethora of high-end activities done by LPOs such as:
Drafting & correcting privilege logs
Putting together contract database and identifying control weakness
Drafting case chronologies
Putting together witness binders
Conducting contract analysis
Compliance/regulatory work
Conducted research
Drafting head notes & case summaries

On the myth of high-security risk associated with LPOs, he was of the view that well-established LPOs have security systems in place that have standards higher than even the magic circle firms. His experience about LPO security has come from the fact that he has visited more than dozen LPOs in India & Philippines, which according to him are two leading legal outsourcing destinations.
Three important things for an LPO in his mind are QUALITY!, QUALITY ! & QUALITY!
However, he cautioned LPOs and said ‘Measure (quality) by the rule of reason’ and don’t use statistics to hide the facts. Looking at the issue of price wars he said “Industry should strongly resist the race to bottom”.

Michael Ford, EVP – American Discovery, took us through the drivers for corporate counsel and law firms to embrace LPO. He also dug at the real world LPO concerns and their possible solutions. The crux of his solution was for LPO providers to assume leadership and knowledge resource role and be an advisor to client, instead of being just another vendor/processor. If I have to use one phrase as I understood his point, ‘become an irreplaceable partner’ for client by playing on your strength areas.

Day 2 began with a talk from Michael Ford, the Chairperson. Michael shared his thoughts on industry – stressing on topics such as commoditization diluting the value, addressable market for LPOs, scope for new players, and lack of industry standards and collaborations. Analyzing further into the missing industry standards, he suggested LPO industry to have self governance model based on P2P defined standards. He advocated creation of an industry body, which he mandated is good in the evolutionary phase of industry heading towards maturity.

Dr. Akhil Prasad, VP & Head of legal at Fidelity Business services (India) provided an in-house counsels view to the audience. Looking at the cost-cutting challenges faced by in-house counsels, he was optimistic that LPO can be helpful in containing the costs. Optimism apart, he also shared some of the concerns that are important before in-house counsels can make a decision to outsource to any LPO. According to him technology is one of the key enablers for LPO.

Tariq Akbar, CEO - LegalEase Solutions, was of the view that consolidation, captive units and scaling for high-end work are the trends. Tariq also talked about the three models that are currently employed by the in-house counsels in engaging LPOs. Sharing his ideas on VC interest in the industry, he agreed that startup money is hard to get, though there had been interest of VC’s like IAN, Sequoia Capital, Canaan Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Glenrock etc.

The next presentation was on the ‘Future of Legal Outsourcing’ by Ritvik Lucose, VP Rainmaker. He was of the view that talent is and will be the challenge for the industry where quite a chunk of graduates passing out every year are unemployable and should be addressed at the earliest.
I feel that with the advent of LPO, where you can mark your way regardless of whether you have a godfather or not (take away of one of the discussion), the serious employable talent may be around the corner. LPOs can also prompt people who wanted to pursue law, but were scared of facing the courts, as a reason to go ahead and still not compromise on their earning ability. This may be an overtly optimistic view, but even if this doesn’t happen this way, industry is gearing itself to work with legal education institutes to increase the employable talent. This was the consensus area. Some of them like Cobra Legal are already working with law schools to enhance the curriculum.

Next session ‘Opportunities of Legal Outsourcing in the Indian Domestic market from a banking perspective’ was presented by B. Gopalakrishnan, President & Head Legal Department, Axis Bank, wherein Mr. Gopalakrishnan presented the idea that Indian entities are also looking at opportunities to work with LPOs that can help them in reducing mundane work and look at the concerns of the banking industry. Though, he also stressed upon the importance of quality.

Over all two key themes emerged in the conference - quality and security, as they are the key challenges as well as hygiene factors for this industry. Training and grooming of right talent is must for the LPO growth. Though recession has provided the opportunity for selling LPO concept, it has also created challenges to scale-up by drying investment capital. As rightly said by Abhi Shah, ‘Current market gonna separate men from boys’
Over all conference spilled lot of enthusiasm for the LPO industry, for all the representatives coming from various locations across the globe. It would be very appropriate to mention the final words of conference from Michael Ford, ‘Phir Milenge - Alwida - Jai Hind’.

Rajiv Dogra, analyses markets for CPA Global's different business units including Legal Support Services.

Press Release : Rio Tinto signs legal services outsourcing agreement with CPA Global

2009-06-19T19:42:00.000+05:30

New Delhi, India - June 12, 2009 - Rio Tinto today announced that it has entered into a legal services outsourcing agreement with CPA Global that is projected to save Rio Tinto up to 20% annually in legal costs.

Under the agreement, CPA Global, one of the world’s leading providers of outsourced legal support services, are providing a team of lawyers in India to support Rio Tinto’s in-house legal function on a global basis.

Initially, the work undertaken by CPA Global includes contract review and drafting, legal research, and document review. However, it is anticipated that the scope of work will expand to cover other routine legal services work traditionally handled in-house by Rio Tinto or shared amongst the company’s panel of law firms.

Rio Tinto’s managing attorney, Leah Cooper, said: “We took a long hard look at our internal costs and the amount we were spending with outside counsel and saw an opportunity to make significant changes to the way we deliver legal services to the group. We have developed a ground-breaking legal model with CPA Global that will generate tremendous savings and serve the business without compromising quality.

“By shifting work to CPA Global our internal team will be freed up to get involved in some of the more complex and challenging legal matters, which in the past might have been sent to outside counsel at significant cost.

“As more of our standard legal work is filtered though to CPA Global, we will have more time to lift our heads up from the day-to-day reactive delivery of legal services and focus on being more proactive. We will have more time to spend with the business, develop stronger relationships and understand what we can do to prevent legal issues developing in the first place with a stronger focus on prevention rather than cure.”

Andrew Loach, CPA Global’s Vice President, Legal Support Services, said: “We are delighted to have been appointed as Rio Tinto’s legal services outsourcing partner. Rio Tinto have really done their homework on this and recognised that there is a better, more cost efficient way of structuring your legal services work, without sacrificing quality or security.”

Director – CPA Global and Country Head – India, Bhaskar Bagchi, added: “CPA Global’s India team will serve as an extension of Rio Tinto’s internal legal department. They are handpicked, well trained legal professionals who will work on a whole range of Rio Tinto legal matters from across the globe.”

Commenting on the choice of CPA Global, Rio Tinto’s Leah Cooper said: “CPA Global provided us with fresh thinking about how to unlock real savings on our legal costs without altering the level of service we offered our internal clients. What we particularly liked about CPA Global was that they are legal outsourcing specialists, not generalists, with a global size and scale.”

About CPA Global
With clients in over 100 countries, CPA Global is one of the world’s leading providers of legal process outsourcing (LPO) services. Now celebrating its 40th year of operations, CPA Global provides lifecycle management services for intellectual property such as patent, design and trademark searching, watching, renewals, and portfolio strategy. CPA Global is also a leader in the growing market for outsourced document review, contract management and litigation support services, helping law firms and corporations to realise value by managing risk, cost and capacity. Founded in Jersey, Channel Islands in 1969, CPA Global today employs more than 1,200 people in 16 offices in eight countries. For further information, please visit: www.cpaglobal.com or contact our media relations team:

Garima Misra
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Mobile: +91 9910106993
Email: garima.misra@ogilvy.com

Karishma Dawar
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Mobile: +91 9873178498
Email: karishma.dawar@ogilvy.com

About Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and NYSE listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

For further information, please contact:
Media Relations, London
Christina Mills
Office: +44 (0) 20 8080 1306
Mobile: +44 (0) 7825 275 605
Nick Cobban
Office: +44 (0) 20 8080 1305
Mobile: +44 (0) 7920 041 003

Media Relations, Americas
Tony Shaffer
Office: +1 202 393 0266
Mobile: +1 202 256 3667

Investor Relations, London
Nigel Jones
Office: +44 (0) 20 7781 2049
Mobile: +44 (0) 7917 227365
David Ovington
Office: +44 (0) 20 7781 2051
Mobile: +44 (0) 7920 010 978

Investor Relations, North America
Jason Combes
Office: +1 (0) 801 204 2919
Mobile: +1 (0) 801 558 2645

Email: questions@riotinto.com
Website: www.riotinto.com

Susskind writes about Rio Tinto and CPA Global deal

2009-06-19T19:40:00.000+05:30

Richard Susskind, the author of The End of Lawyers? and Visiting Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, commented on the recent path breaking deal between Rio Tinto and CPA Global.

He said “it is evidence of a profound change in the legal world. In-house lawyers are under great pressure to reduce their head count and to spend less on external law firms, but, at the same time, their workload is increasing.

Clients, in short, need their advisers to provide more-for-less. One way to meet this challenge is for external lawyers to charge less. Most firms are indeed cutting their hourly rates and offering fixed fee arrangements; while many clients are driving down fees through e-auctioning and other devices. For now, it is a buyer’s market.”

This deal has been perceived in the legal market as one of the ground-breaking move that might change the way legal offshoring industry is perceived in the European market.

Point to be noted …

2009-06-19T19:38:00.000+05:30

In the recently conducted Financial Times Legal outsourcing roundtable two main issues came out in the discussion. First, what is the line of separation between KPO and LPO and second the future of newly qualified lawyers in view of the recent changes in the legal industry such as LPO, the Legal Services Act, alternative billing etc.

Mark Ross has in his write-up spoken about in detail about these points. The nature of work done by LPO is not solely dependant on the fact that the purchaser is a law firm or corporate legal department. Ross in his article talks about various services that otherwise are being outsourced by the law firms but are of HRO and ITO nature.

And with respect to the education and future of the law graduates one has to keep in mind that the sole aim of education is to empower. Outdated syllabus and perspective belonging to the bygone era will only prove detrimental for the students when they would have to face the dynamic reality of the legal industry. The emphasis in the curriculum should be based on the forces of demand in the legal domain rather than archaic thinking of the syllabus setters. IGNOU’s step towards providing a diploma in LPO can be seen as an avant garde venture into the new legal education arena.

Simmons and Simmons to rock the LPO industry

2009-06-19T19:36:00.000+05:30

Simmons and Simmons, one of the major law firms, is considering the option of using qualified lawyers in low cost jurisdictions to get the benefit of 50% cost saving.

Managing Partner Mark Dawkins said “We’re not going to defend a business model that clients don’t want to have to pay for.” This time the company’s “three-year strategy” is to maximize efficiency. In light of this vision they are thinking of “… new ways of working at the top end of the market”. And the step to move work offshore will come as one of the decisive decisions not only for the firm but also for the industry. It would set a precedent for other law firms in using agency lawyers in offshore locations.

Report by ValueNotes - 3% of law firms in UK, US offshore back-office work to India

2009-06-19T19:25:00.000+05:30

In a recently published report by ValueNotes, 3% of law firms in UK, US offshore their back-office work to India. This number though less is in no way discouraging. Because of the fact that reasons attributed to it aren’t impossible to deal with. The first is the quality of work. With companies getting ISO certification and growing emphasis on quality one can gauge the sensitivity shown by offshore LPO service providers towards the clients’ concerns.

The second major issue is data security. LPOs deal with highly confidential matter. Thereby it becomes imperative that documents are handled in a sensitive manner. Companies have started following ISMS policies and are aware and alert to the potential dangers of leaking of information.

The third issue is lack of conviction about the benefits of offshoring. In order to tackle this many companies have opened offices on onshore locations so that communication can happen in an effortless way. Also the recent trends in global economy and successful cases of offshoring such as CPA Global dealings with the Microsoft and SDD Global Solutions role in the Los Angeles libel case against HBO’S “Da Ali G Show” are indicative of the changing time.

Press Release: The Global Outsourcing 100 – another feather in the cap of CPA Global

2009-05-21T14:28:00.001+05:30

International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) recognized CPA Global as one of the world's top outsourcing providers.
CPA Global was placed in 60th place overall, the highest position of any pure-play LPO provider in the IAOP's 2009 Global Outsourcing 100 rankings of outsourcing providers -- including the major business process and IT outsourcing companies. CPA Global was also among the top ten of privately owned outsourcing companies. This decision came after following a rigorous analysis from an independent panel of judges on areas including the company's size, growth, certifications and customer references.
CPA Global's Executive Vice President, Legal Support Services, Chris Veator, said: "We are delighted to have been recognized as a leader in legal process outsourcing in the IAOP's Global Outsourcing 100 list. Our high ranking reflects not only the scale and quality of our operations, but also our commitment to delivering excellent service to our clients, who include some of the world's biggest corporations and law firms. The comprehensive range of services we provide, our stringent quality assurance metrics, strict security controls and the high caliber of our people are also critical factors in CPA Global achieving a leadership position in the LPO market."
Jagdish Dalal, chairman of the Global Outsourcing 100 judges panel, commented: "Each year the competition to be named to the top 100 companies continues to reach higher levels, as the outsourcing industry continues to grow and mature in many markets. Getting named to The Global Outsourcing 100 is a great recognition, particularly given the strong competition. CPA Global should be proud of achieving excellence in their field."
CPA Global was also named as one of the top five companies by industry focus in the pharmaceutical sector and one of the top 20 companies by industry focus in the services and technology sectors in the 2009 Global Outsourcing 100 list.
About CPA Global
With clients in over 100 countries, CPA Global is one of the world's leading providers of legal process outsourcing (LPO) services. Now celebrating its 40th year of operations, CPA Global provides lifecycle management services for intellectual property such as patent, design and trademark searching, watching, renewals, and portfolio strategy. CPA Global is also a leader in the growing market for outsourced document review, contract management and litigation support services, helping law firms and corporations to realize value by managing risk, cost and capacity. Founded in Jersey, Channel Islands in 1969, CPA Global today employs some 1,200 people in 16 offices in eight countries.
CPA Global's Indian operations employ more than 500 people in two state-of-the-art LPO centers in the Noida and Gurgaon districts of Delhi. The company's focus on quality and security in its Indian LPO business is underlined by its certifications in ISO 9001 for operational quality and ISO27001 for IT security. For further information visit: http://www.cpaglobal.com/
About The Global Outsourcing 100(TM)
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (TM) (IAOP(TM)) is in its fourth year of compiling its annual ranking of the world's best outsourcing service providers and advisors -- The Global Outsourcing 100. As part of The Global Outsourcing 100, IAOP also introduced a new list for the first time in 2009, The World's Best Outsourcing Advisors.
The Global Outsourcing 100 and its sub lists are essential references for companies seeking new and expanded relationships with the best companies in the industry. The lists include companies from around the world that provide the full spectrum of outsourcing services -- not just information technology and business process outsourcing, but also facility services, real estate and capital asset management, manufacturing and logistics. They include not only today's leaders, but tomorrow's rising stars.
The World's Best Outsourcing Advisors, new for 2009, is geared specifically to companies that are outstanding global outsourcing advisors and consultants. In addition to being part of The Global Outsourcing 100, the new list of advisors ranks the top consultant, legal and related advisory firms globally, and is a valuable reference tool for companies needing expert advice and guidance with their outsourcing projects. IAOP also added in 2009 The Global Outsourcing 100 Plus industry-wide report featuring applicant company profiles and rankings with industry insights. The additional report is available for purchase.
About IAOP
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals(TM) (IAOP(TM)) is the global, standard-setting organization and advocate for the outsourcing profession. With more than 100,000 members and affiliates worldwide, IAOP helps companies increase their outsourcing success rate, improve their outsourcing ROI, and expand the opportunities for outsourcing across their businesses. To learn more, visit http://www.outsourcingprofessional.org/.

Two Interpretations of the Same Reality

2009-05-21T14:20:00.001+05:30

Mark Ross, brings forth two different points of view in his article with respect to the future of the legal profession. On the one hand, Richard Susskind, renowned authority on future trends impacting the legal profession and author of "The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services," sees a wave of change happening in the legal domain owing to currently jeopardized economic situation. On the other hand, Keith Wetmore, Morrison and Foerster Chairman, sees the maintenance of status-quo in the legal terrain after the economy revives. While the former sees a change in perspective regarding legal services, their delivery and technology connected with it, the latter is of the opinion that antiquity would continue as ever.

Richard Susskind foresees a rapid and fundamental change in terms of delivery of legal services. This change in his opinion is an outcome of current economic crisis. The legal market will become a “buyer’s market” with clients paying focused attention on mitigating costs, enhancing quality and finding alternative ways of sourcing work. Lawyers will have to find more innovative ways to sell their services and make them cost-effective. One of the ways suggested by Susskind is through collaboration. Social networking tools would be used to do much of the work that was otherwise done by the law firms. Another path breaking change that Susskind envisages is the commoditization of legal services. Many of the legal tasks will become standardized and systematized. Accordingly it would be outsourced or offshored depending on the benefits accrued by adopting either of the option.
At loggerheads is the opinion voiced by Keith Wetmore. “I think it’s wrong to say things have fundamentally changed. The world economy will grow again and when it does clients will need lawyers to advise in that growth”. He believes that basic law firm set-up will continue without many changes, though he does recognize that recent layoffs “highlight some of the short-term tweaks that are taking place”. He blames the dysfunctional aspect of the set-up to the absence of attrition. “The entire law firm model is built on a number of assumptions. One of which is that there will be 20 to 23 per cent attrition of associates year-in, year-out. Without that attrition, the entire system collapses”. Thus Wetmore is convinced that traditional law firm will continue to operate provided the economy grows and there are high rates of attrition.

Law firms to go in for a cylindrical makeover

2009-05-21T14:19:00.000+05:30

Major law firms in US, Canada and Australia have a pyramidal set-up. The top echelons are occupied by the partners who are supported by an army of supporting staff constituted by associates, counsel and non-equity partners placed at the bottom. Ron Friedmann in his article talks about an alternative structure in order to make the entire set-up efficient and cost effective.

A cylindrical structure according to Ron will help in reducing the base of the law firm. In other words, one needs to examine the battalion created to support the top stakeholders in a well detailed manner so that high costs involved in its maintenance as well as infrastructure can be controlled. One of the possible ways suggested by the author is outsourcing. The pyramid can do away with its huge base and instead create a system wherein routine and simple legal tasks can be outsourced or offshored and the management can work on cases and issues that require a specialized legal expertise. Offshore units with their benefits such as the ability to scale-up operations in a cost effective manner, 24 hour work day, and a willing workforce can prove to be instrumental in this image makeover. “No longer will there be armies to support a few generals”.

The cylindrical structure will not only further enhance the productivity and quality of large law firms but it will also make the clients reap the benefits of smart work culture at leading offshore based providers of quality legal support services. Such offshore companies employ talented lawyers and engineers who are only too keen on working for and being associated with marquee law firms from the developed world. What is seen as “grunt work” by associates in the law firms is seen as a fantastic opportunity to learn about the practice of common law overseas. As with all things, attitude matters and American, Canadian and Australian law firms only stand to gain by tapping the positive attitude.

Press Release: CPA Global delivers new standard in document review services with DiscoveryMetrics™ analytics technology

2009-05-14T04:01:00.001+05:30

CPA Global delivers new standard in document review services with DiscoveryMetrics™ analytics technology

CPA Global, one of the world’s leading providers of legal outsourcing services, has partnered with Casewerx Development, LLC (Casewerx) to provide corporate legal departments and law firms with a new industry standard for managed document review services.

The partnership enables CPA Global to further enhance their best-in-class document review services with a customised version of Casewerx’s DiscoveryMetrics – one of the industry’s first, platform-independent, web-based document review analytics technologies. CPA Global’s proprietary service delivery methodology and unmatched approach to quality control combined with their unique implementation of DiscoveryMetrics ensures unrivalled accuracy, transparency, cost efficiency and predictability.

CPA Global is the first legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider to introduce DiscoveryMetrics analytics technology.

Commenting on the new partnership, Brandon Daniels, Associate Vice President of Legal Solutions for CPA Global, said: “DiscoveryMetrics brings ground-breaking, web-based analytics technology that we can use to measure any project on any major document review platform. CPA Global has engineered and perfected a document review methodology that delivers high quality, defensible results - and we have worked closely with Casewerx to custom-tailor DiscoveryMetrics to optimise and measure that process. Our clients have been very enthusiastic about our process, our technology and our results.”

Manny Guerrero, a Partner with Casewerx Development, LLC, said: “We are excited to be working with the thought-leaders at CPA Global and to have DiscoveryMetrics as an integral part of their document review solution. CPA Global is the first LPO provider to bring DiscoveryMetrics to market and we are delighted to partner with them to tailor our product to reflect their unmatched quality process. CPA Global’s carefully engineered, metrics-driven document review process provides enhanced transparency while dramatically reducing document review costs. On one of their current projects, CPA Global is saving a corporate client over $15 million in document review fees.”

- ends -

About CPA Global
With clients in over 100 countries, CPA Global is one of the world’s leading providers of legal process outsourcing (LPO) services. Now celebrating its 40th year of operations and with offices across the United States, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, CPA Global is well placed to support attorney firms and corporate clients with a diverse set of legal and IP specific needs.

CPA Global provides lifecycle management services for intellectual property such as patent, design and trademark searching, watching, renewals, and portfolio strategy: and is also a

leader in the growing market for outsourced document review, contract management and litigation support services, helping law firms and corporations to realise value by managing
risk, cost and capacity. CPA Global’s leadership position is underlined by its ranking in the 2008 Black Book of Outsourcing as the number one LPO provider for contract and legal document review.

Founded in Jersey, Channel Islands in 1969, CPA Global today employs some 1,200 people in 16 offices in eight countries. For further information, please visit: www.cpaglobal.com

About Casewerx Development, LLC.
Casewerx Development, LLC is a software development and consulting firm specializing in litigation technology. Over the last fifteen years, the principals of Casewerx have developed industry-leading collaboration software used by thousands of litigators in nearly half of the AmLaw 100 firms. With DiscoveryMetrics, one of the industry’s first platform-independent, web-based analytics tool for document review, Casewerx continues to deliver highly innovative, provocative, and cost-saving litigation technologies to the legal market. DiscoveryMetrics enables corporate legal departments to dramatically reduce document review costs, without sacrificing quality, compliance or outside counsel oversight. With advanced productivity, quality and financial analytics, DiscoveryMetrics allows Law Firms, LPOs and Managed Review providers to collaborate and deliver transparent, high quality document review services at much lower, much more predictable costs. For more information, please visit www.discoverymetrics.com

Media Contacts

CPA Global
US: Julie Mandell +1 (571) 227-7025, jmandell@cpaglobal.com
UK: Steve Clark +44 (0)1784 224 351, sclark@cpaglobal.com
Rob Coveney +44 (0)1784 224 557, rcoveney@cpaglobal.com

Casewerx US: Manny Guerrero +1 (908) 868-4033, mguerrero@casewerx.com

Legallyours featured in the Top 100 Outsourcing Resources list of oDesk

2009-05-11T11:09:00.000+05:30

Legallyours featured in the 100 Best Outsourcing and Offshoring Blogs & Resources list created by the oDesk blog.

oDesk deals with online work teams providing the best business model for both buyers and providers.

The blog was one of the five chosen blogs that specificallytalks about issues regarding the LPO space. The web served as the universe from which five blogs were chosen under the general topic of LPO. These blogs are considered by the oDesk as the best resource for all information and opinion related to outsourcing and offshoring. With scores of blogs available in the web dealing with LPO industry, featuring in this list comes as recognition of the work done by the author. The best article according to the oDesk is “More than 100 Law Firms and Legal Departments used LPO”.

“In India legal profession is not a business and it is not up for sale”

2009-04-28T10:29:00.002+05:30

Lalit Bhasin, the President of the Society of Indian Law firms, in one of his interviews to the Economic Times of India remarked

"The demand for opening legal services sector in India does not come from Indian businesses or professionals or even foreign multinational companies…. the demand comes from foreign lawyers and particularly those from the U.K. It is obvious that the U.K. is witnessing a negative growth so far as legal profession is concerned. Accordingly, India and China offer good prospects -- but the problem is that, in India, the legal profession is not a business and it is not up for sale."

Mark Ross had in his blog commented on this statement by saying “It is simply impossible to separate the law from the economic forces that impact every other professional services industry. The lack of reciprocity, which Bhasin references, for Indian attorneys wishing to practice within the UK or US, is also a false comparison. This is purely a protectionist stance, nothing more, nothing less.”

In the current state of volatile economy coupled with accelerating pace of change in the legal sector, it is rather strange that some people still try to insulate the legal sector from the dynamics of globalization. The recent LLP Act is one such indicator where the Indian legal sector has started opening its doors for the foreign firms.

The call of the time is not to be like an ostrich and shut one’s eyes to happenings around us rather it is the opportunity to scale-up the quality of our domestic Indian firms and give a tough but healthy competition to foreign firms. After all, competition is good for the consumers.

LPO industry in India

2009-04-26T20:26:00.004+05:30

Background
‘In 1991, with India running out of hard currency, Manmohan Singh … decided that India had to open its economy. “Our Berlin Wall fell … and it was like unleashing a caged tiger … We went from quiet self confidence to outrageous ambition in a decade” [Tarun Das, Chief Mentor, CII]
Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat

In the era of liberalization, the Indian economy moved from being a moribund and a closed set-up to become a dynamic growing economy with an annual average of 6% growth between 1991 and 2005. This growth was led by many factors, the most important being the growth in the service sector of the country. According to AT Kearney’s annual global services index, India is the current global capital for outsourcing and offshoring with other Asian destinations dominating the top five positions.
1. India
2. China
3. Malaysia
4. Thailand
5. Brazil
6. Indonesia
7. Chile
8. Philippines
9. Bulgaria
10. Mexico

The service sector in India accounted for about 52% of GDP in 2004-05. In fact India’s service exports had more than doubled from US$ 25bn in 2003-04 to US$ 60bn in 2005-06 and now accounts for nearly 37% exports.(1) According to the IMF report in 2006, productivity growth in India has been strongest in services. Emphasis on strong growth, privatization, foreign investment, and tax reduction provided the much needed acceleration to the already emerging economy.

In this burgeoning sector, a major chunk of the service sector is constituted by Information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services. The software services in Indian economy increased by 33% which registered revenue of USD 31.4bn. The outsourcing industry has been the stalwart in achieving this growth. This rapid increase in growth is directly correlated with the technical and critical aspect of the work being outsourced. An upward trajectory has been witnessed– moving from back office operations to becoming more knowledge intensive in nature. In other words, the movement has roughly been from BPO to KPO to now LPO.

Legal process outsourcing

“Legal process outsourcing refers to the offshoring of different elements in the legal process by law-firms, corporations, and in-house legal departments (mainly in US and UK) to offshore centres (mainly in India).(2) It is a very recent phenomena which has in few years gained huge momentum. The first firm to do legal outsourcing in India was Bickel & Brewer in 1995 with its office, I&A International, in Hyderabad. It dealt with digitalization of the legal documents and creating searchable databases. Later on it hired lawyers to review documents produced in lawsuits. In 2001, GE was the first company to offshore its in-house legal work in India. Since then a lot of companies have entered the arena in one form or other.

There are four basic models of LPO firms under which the companies function in this domain. They are – captive centres (when a large corporation starts its own centre in foreign country responsible for its legal and business processing issues), captive centres formed by U.S./U.K. firms and their subsidiaries (law firms in the U.S./ U.K are working with firms to India to set up subsidiaries to provide legal and paralegal services for export purposes only. For example, Fox & Mandal and ALMT Legal, two Indian based law firms, are teaming up with Patent Metrix, an Irvine-California based law firm), joint ventures by U.S./U.K based firms and third party vendors providing services to law firms and in-house counsel.(2) Among these, research indicates that it is most difficult to maintain captive centres. Capgemini, the French IT services & Consulting company, on the basis of Forrester research found that the cost of starting and maintaining captives far exceeds the cost of hiring third party alternatives and that 60% of the captives are struggling in India.(3) Currently, third party vendors are the ones that have proved to be beneficial both for the clients and the company itself. Whichever model it may be it is an indisputable fact that this industry has huge potential. Between 1990 and 2005, the legal services industry grew at an approximate annual rate of 6.75% and is expected to grow at 6% per year for the next decade, 2006-15.(4) Also, different estimates made by different research entities present a picture that spells out business and opportunities. ValueNotes projects LPO to become a $640mn industry by 2010. While Evalueserve estimated revenue from LPO at $300mn by 2010. Forrester research projected that legal outsourcing to India will reach $4bn by 2015. Although these estimates are varied, they do give a sense of huge potential of business increase in LPO industry in India. The biggest economy currently served by this industry – the United States, has a huge legal services sector. According to US Census Bureau, the legal services industry in the US generated approximately $184 bn in revenue in 2008. Even a small fraction of legal work outsourced would translate into huge amount of business for offshore service providers. Ron Friedman on the basis of a survey, “The Change Agenda: Looking Ahead”, conducted by Rees Morrison and Aric Press came to a deduction that U.S. LPO spending in 2013 will be almost $2bn.

Growth in LPO domain

The LPO industry has in a span of few years seen major mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and alliances. The first acquisition happened when Mysore-based Software Paradigms International (SPI) India acquired the entire BPO/LPO clientele of Comat Technologies across the US and UK, which was served by Comat’s Mysore-based operations. Such deals are indicative of the pace of growth of the industry. Gavin Brier in his article “Recession” “Depression” Unemployment” “Meltdown” “Crisis” … wrote “The IT industry took 13 years to come to maturity, BPOs took half a decade and now LPOs are emerging in a big way.” Even magic circle firms like Clifford Chance are taking interest in doing business in the Indian subcontinent. Established LPOs including Pangea3, Jurimatrix and SDD Global have attracted a significant level of private equity and venture capital. Big player like CPA Global has entered into strategic alliances to further enhance their products thereby giving an edge to their services. In 2008, CPA Global entered into an alliance with major electronic discovery software provider Applied Discovery Inc., a division of Lexis Nexis. The relationship ensures that CPA’s clients around the world benefit from a total review and e-discovery solution. Such tie-ups have played an instrumental role in making LPO a fast growing business. Recently UnitedLex entered into an alliance with Huron Consulting Group as well as Ocean Tomo, thus further enhancing and enriching the quality of their services and expanding their market. In terms of mergers and acquisitions, in 2008, Integreon acquired Datum Legal. CPA Global in the same year acquired SVPG to strengthen formers’ presence in German market. In short, business deals in the LPO space has made the industry grow from few vendors to more than 100 within a remarkable short period of time.

Services provided

A plethora of services are provided by the legal offshore service providers. The key being – contract management, document review, legal research, deposition summaries, litigation documents, patent renewals, patent analytics, IP support services, data verification, IP recordals, patent research, trademark renewals, trademark watching, digital content watching, trademark search, and so on. These services can be categorized under two categories:
1. Manpower intensive functions – Such as legal transcription, document conversion, legal coding and indexing, document review etc.
2. High-value services – They include patent and general legal research services like freedom-to-operate search, patent assessment, patent portfolio management, statutory and case law research, due diligence services such as technical, legal and financial analysis of companies for mergers and acquisitions, and contract drafting and review of contracts.

Corporate legal departments are the major clientele of these afore-mentioned services. A key consideration among corporations world over is the reduction of costs though not at the expense of quality. Indian LPOs have, in such a scenario, provided cost-effective solutions while maintaining expected or higher quality levels and in some cases even exceeded the quality provided by in-house teams. A balance between cost-and-quality aside, there are other advantages that vendors located offshore are able to provide to their clients. These include the benefits emanating from having an effective 24-hour work day and more importantly, providing access to a workforce that is keen enough to service tasks thought of as ‘mundane’ by in-house staff. Adherence to operations methodologies similar to Six Sigma and compliance with global certifications such as ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System) ensure consistency in the quality of the work product delivered from an offshore location such as India. For mature and stable providers of offshore legal services, the recession has only added to the business with clients expanding the offshore teams who had been serving them either in a shared model or as a dedicated team. As an example, one of CPA Global’s European telecommunication company recently doubled the number of engineers performing patent research and analysis for them.

In this manner, the ‘recession’ has further enhanced its attractiveness and financial viability. The present economic conditions have also made corporations, primarily the ones having large patent portfolios, to look for ways to reduce cost (e.g. by abandoning unused segments) or generate new revenue (e.g. by out-licensing/sale of patents). Large companies such as CPA Global, which have multi-shore operations and services catering to patent monetization, have also gained from such focus on the use of patent portfolios.

Bhaskar Bagchi, country head CPA Global, in his interview with Financial Times remarked “There is now a very clear economic reason for both corporate and law firms to look for offshoring. India has proven that they can deliver the same quality, if not better, from what they got when they did the work onshore.” A clear indicator of this growing profit and business is the rate of hiring seen recently in the LPOs. Rohan Dalal, managing director of Mindcrest India, plans to hire “400 plus staff in a phase-wise manner”. CPA Global has set the target of 2,000 employees by 2010. Other companies like Pangea3, UnitedLex and others have also reported plans for increasing their teams. The emphasis is not only on recruiting but also on retaining the valuable human resource. Companies have initiated various programs to promote a culture of growth and what Bhaskar called “empowerment”.

Distinguishing aspects of LPO industry

The LPO industry thrives on innovation, constant learning and development. A lot of emphasis is laid on the fact that employees are regularly updated with information as well as required skills. This education is not only limited to technical knowledge but also involves acquiring skills to be able to operate in a global environment. Himanshu Arora, Global Head, Learning and Development at CPA Global, in an interview told about the objective of providing training to the employees. He said, “The education doesn’t pertain only to enhancing knowledge and skills but also educate employees about how to deal with different cultures which helps in building fruitful cross-cultural relationships. Best practical content is used, which is developed by the subject matter experts to make the learning process an enriching one”. Another big LPO unit, UnitedLex brings in two U.S. patent attorneys to train the lawyers and review their work.(3) Thus, the opportunity to learn in a consistent manner and with the company laying stress on this aspect gives the employee required exposure as well as a chance of growth. Being a knowledge-driven service it becomes imperative that the stress on learning continues throughout the service tenure.

Conclusion

LPO as an industry is quite different from other knowledge-based industries. The work done is high on intellectual level and is also expertise-centred. As it is in the growing stage, one can expect a lot of innovations happening. With the newly enacted LLP Act, it is expected that international law firms will also be making foray into the Indian legal market. Sec 59 of the LLP Act allows law firms to set up their business within Indian boundaries. Such firms will act both as consumers and producers of trained force suitable for addressing the legal support needs of global corporations. In that respect, the LPO industry and the international law firms will converge and are expected to fuel the growth of each other. It is also expected that some international law firms may also setup their own ‘captives’ that will address the offshore legal support needs of their clients.

Knowledge intensive outsourcing functions such as offshore legal offshoring aka LPO have the real potential of becoming indispensable tools in a corporate strategists’ toolkit. What is needed is a ‘leap of faith’ to move from transaction-oriented client-vendor relationships to a relation that is a true partnership. Anyone who has used an external provider for legal needs, offshore or otherwise, knows that depth and ability to fulfill complex needs comes with time. The same is true for work done by engineers and lawyers located offshore. Offshore companies that have healthy client relationships and talent retention practices that actually work would be ideally placed to grow into the role of such partners.

References:

1. India 2007. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Government of India.
2. Legal Process outsourcing: Can offshoring of legal services to India be both efficient and ethical? Maya Karwande. Legally yours blog.
3. “Will tough economy push companies to outsourcing” David Hechler. http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202426925586
4. Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO)-Hype Vs. Reality. E-ValueServe.

- Megha Pande

Indian Legal Outsourcing Scores Major Hollywood Victory

2009-04-23T19:42:00.001+05:30

A.R. Rahman conquered Hollywood, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Score, in Slumdog Millionaire. Now the Indian lawyers at SDD Global Solutions in Mysore have scored their own Hollywood triumph, doing the legal research, and drafting the motion papers, to defeat a Los Angeles libel case against HBO’s “Da Ali G Show,” starring Sacha Baron Cohen of “Borat” and “Bruno” fame. It’s one thing for an Indian legal outsourcing company to draft a brief for a U.S. litigation. That’s been done several times before, by SDD Global, Atlas Legal Research, Lexadigm and others, to the credit of the outstanding Indian lawyers who did the work. But in this case, the work was victorious, and it resulted in a precedent-setting decision protecting comedy writers, comedians, and their producers and broadcasters everywhere.

In this case, the Indian lawyers at SDD Global drafted, and are credited by name in, the successful summary judgment brief (which you can access by clicking here) for dismissal of Doe v. HBO, the lawsuit filed by a woman who once knew comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and claimed that Cohen, while playing the role of the television character, “Ali G,” libeled her by name during a spoof interview with historian Gore Vidal. Suing under the legal pseudonym, “Jane Doe,” the plaintiff claimed that Cohen, as “Ali G,” falsely claimed to have had sexual relations with her. In the brief drafted entirely in India, the defense argued as follows:

"No reasonable person could have believed the statements, given that they were made by what the plaintiff now admits is a 'fictional character,' in the context of a series of absurd and unbelievable jokes, in what she admits is a 'comedy,' where the actor never steps out of his fictional role. This is confirmed by the fact that the plaintiff has no evidence that anyone believed any of the statements, much less the statement at the core of this lawsuit, namely, that the plaintiff had sex with a fictional character. As a matter of California and U.S. constitutional law, such statements are not actionable."

Today, Judge Terry Friedman of the Los Angeles Superior Court, agreed. He ruled as follows:

“The Court viewed the excerpt from the Ali G program which is the basis for Plaintiff’s action. No reasonable person could consider the statements made by Ali G on the program to be factual. To the contrary, it is obvious that the Ali G character is absurd, and all his statements are gibberish and intended as comedy. The actor, Sacha Baron Cohen, never strays from the Ali G character, who is dressed in a ridiculous outfit and speaks in the exaggerated manner of a rap artist. Ali G’s statements are similarly absurd. For example, prior to the reference to Plaintiff, while ‘interviewing’ the author Gore Vidal, Ali G refers to the Constitution of the United States as having been written on two tablets, clearly intended to confuse the Constitution with the Ten Commandments. Altogether, the program is obviously a spoof of a serious interview program. No reasonable person could think otherwise.”
The Court also adopted two other legal arguments, drafted by SDD Global, which helped seal the fate of the plaintiff’s case.

As reported earlier in this blog, this case is historic, and not only because it is one of the first “libel-in-fiction” cases in the television context. The case is important also because it is the first high-profile, U.S. media litigation in which the legal research and first drafts of the motion papers for the defense were completed entirely off-shore, by Indian attorneys at a legal outsourcing company. The lead counsel for the defense, New York-based SmithDehn LLP, supervised the work and appeared in court on behalf of the moving party, Channel Four Television Corporation, the UK’s second largest television network, which incidentally developed and produced Slumdog Millionaire, The Crying Game, Trainspotting, The Last King of Scotland, and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Also present in the courtroom was Padma Shanthamurthy, SDD Global team leader, who traveled from her home in Mysore, India to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York to assist with oral arguments and depositions in the case.

Channel 4’s Prash Naik added: “US court actions are extremely costly to run, and even where a defendant wins, little if any of their costs are recoverable from the plaintiff. As so often happens in cases like this, the ‘chilling effect’ of the threat of substantial damages and significant legal costs, forces defendants to settle with plaintiffs who have no justifiable claim. However combining the skills and expertise of US attorneys with US law-trained Indian attorneys has proved to be an innovative and cost-effective way for Channel 4 to fight and win the suit.”

Sanjay Bhatia, SDD Global’s Head of Operations, emphasized that “this is a case where outsourcing created more work in the U.S., rather than less. Because our team made the defense affordable, U.S. lawyers were able to do the things in the U.S. that they do best there, such as strategizing, supervising, editing, and appearing in court. The implications of this case are huge. With legal outsourcing, baseless lawsuits can be defeated on the merits, instead of settled simply out of fear of legal fees.”

Larger Firms being necessitated to look at LPO

2009-03-28T00:38:00.002+05:30

The LegalEase blog has an 'unconventional' trend to report: that of larger law firms being adopters of LPO to differentiate themselves in the new workd - marred by financial unease. To quote:

The trend that we're seeing take root is that of large firms actively aligning with an LPO to then present their services to corporate counsel in a convergence that benefits each party. The large firm gains an advantage over their competitors with the significant savings the LPO provides; the LPO benefits by the association with well established domestic firms; and the in-house counsel enjoys the dual benefit of cost savings managed by a firm with whom they already have a business relationship.And it doesn't seem unreasonable to conclude that the driving force behind the trend is the recent financial crunch, which has forced corporate counsel to demand changes from the firms they traditionally hire.

I met a partner from a large law firm a few months ago whose straight question was: I don't have a doubt that LPO is good, but how do we (the firm) benefit from it? The answer, it appears, is easy to come by when competitive forces start to show up. Differentiate yourself.