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Indias third largest software exporter, Wipro, has started offering legal process outsourcing LPO services as part of the knowledge process outsourcing KPO services business headed by former banker and Wipro BPO senior VP Ramit Sethi. The focus of the LPO will be to offer services such as patents and contract management rather than paralegal services and litigation support, where the clientele are mostly law firms.
The objective is to provide end to end services catering to the same global customer. LPO becomes a logical extension given the cost pressures that clients are facing now. We find that there is a very healthy demand for the services.
When we go to market, our first call will be intellectual property related and contract management work that caters that is outsourced by corporates as opposed to niche legal work for law firms, Mr Sethi said. The LPO currently employs about 80 people and is not very large but from the perspective of the LPO industry where most firms are just starting off, it is quite large, he added.
be to keep the LPO more lowprofile, and as an extension of its existing services. The business does not have a separate head and is managed as part of the KPO services by Mr Sethi himself in consultation with Wipro’s general counsel Madhu Khatri for legal domain skills.
Infosys, on the hand, had recruited Karlyn Stanley, a former partner in a private equity and an attorney with around 25 years, to head its LPO practice in the US. In addition, it had appointed a director offshore to based out of India.
There are also differences in the customers the firms are targeting. While Infosys is also targeting law firms for its clientele, Wipro is more focussed on companies.
In the LPO world, there are two kinds of work, corporate outsourcing and law firms outsourcing. We are looking at the former but that doesnt mean we wont take up opportunistic jobs. We have the capability, said Mr Sethi. The LPO industry is growing at over 100 percent but from a very small base.
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