| Last week I was having lunch with a friend who is | | | | Process Outsourcing (BPO), Knowledge Process |
| Assistant General Counsel for a Fortune 100 | | | | Outsourcing (KPO), Medical Outsourcing, Accounts |
| company. We were chatting about our lives and | | | | Process Outsourcing, Legal Process Outsourcing |
| families, when he began to ask me about legal | | | | (LPO) etc. In BPO, which is the most common |
| outsourcing. Although my involvement in the legal | | | | form of outsourcing or offsourcing. |
| outsourcing industry was not a secret, my friend | | | | India has been attracting lot of attention in the |
| had shown no previous inclination to discuss the | | | | legal industry. Types of outsourcing like Litigation |
| outsourcing of any legal work by his corporate | | | | Support, Contract Management, and Intellectual |
| employer. | | | | Property Outsourcing along with Paralegal support, |
| Virtually unheard 10 years ago, the term | | | | is practiced in India. You can bring your legal costs |
| "outsourcing" has emerged as a phenomenon in | | | | as down as 50% by outsourcing to India. |
| the business of the present day world. It has | | | | After BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) it is |
| become the backbone of Indian service sectors. | | | | now LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing and KPO |
| In the last fiscal India earned $6.7 billion by | | | | (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) that is wooing |
| providing services in software, technology and | | | | the Indian lawyer. It is natural for the Indian |
| manufacturing outsourcing. | | | | lawyer to opt for foreign projects as they get |
| Law firms, court houses and advocates can order | | | | paid much better. It puts them and the US law |
| instant legal transcription services by using | | | | firms in a win-win situation. |
| different cutting edge technologies. Dictations can | | | | A number of Law Firms and Corporations including |
| be recorded on a tape or a recording machine or | | | | Baker and McKenzie, Allen and Overy, Venable |
| a PC, and the audio files are sent over the | | | | LLP, Arnold and Porter LLP, Eversheds, Clifford |
| Internet for transcription. Or now it is even | | | | Chance, and UBS have set up their captive |
| directly sent by just dictation via telephone. | | | | centers in India for supporting their legal services. |
| If one is just starting out on BPO (business | | | | Further, the number of LPO vendors has |
| process outsourcing) for the first time, it is better | | | | increased with the emergence of new LPOs. |
| to choose out the independent third party | | | | In the current economic climate, corporate law |
| contractor which usually will have its own | | | | departments are not alone in having their budgets |
| infrastructure and manpower in the offshore | | | | progressively tightened. Whether through an |
| country from where the service is executed. | | | | innovative sourcing strategy or shared services, a |
| Initially the work was limited merely to some | | | | variety of methodologies have emerged which |
| low-end work such as transcription but a much | | | | enable the legal departments to control costs and |
| greater potential has now been found in this field | | | | improve efficiency. |
| with the increase the technology. Today the work | | | | The availability of software and competent |
| has expanded to several tasks that are | | | | personnel in countries like India has attracted the |
| specialized such as legal research, library services, | | | | outsourcing to greater extent. It can be easily |
| creating pre-litigation document. | | | | visualized that most of the big solicitor firms will |
| Outsourcing is of multiple types, like Business | | | | have their extended branch offices in India. |