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Indian legal process outsourcing LPO sector is currently experiencing a positive effect of U.S. financial crisis as bankruptcy filing incidents as that of the major investment firm Lehman Brothers make many corporate houses and investment banks to shift their credit crisisrelated work to lawyers in India as it is a more viable and costeffective option.With more international firms turn to India for LPO, the sector is expected to witness a surge in business. Major LPOs such as Pangea3, Quislex and Mindcrest have seen a significant increase in the number of outsourced projects in the last few months.
Kevin Reilley, Senior Vice President of Legal Services with leading legal outsourcing provider says,There were several comments from law firm speakers, along with inhouse attorneys, who all indicated that it was not a question of if, but when, they embraced this, and how they embraced this. There was no question mark over whether LPO was going to be a big part of their practices. So theres still a lot of learning going on about, How do we really manage our offshore partner, and, for corporations, How do we manage to get consistent results across many outside law firms, What should be the role of inhouse counsel, and what should be the role of an LPO provider partner? Law firms have indicated that times are very tough. Their costs are high, theyre under immense pressure from their clients to come up with valuebased billing and, therefore, they have recognised that they need to have a strategy around LPO.
According to Kevin, transformational partnerships work equally well for inhouse legal teams of large corporations, who will be free to focus on innovating through the use of technology. For example, he said, a corporation could be using 50 people to perform a compliance function. We may be able to perform that same function with 30 people in India, but using technology thats more efficient and effective for managing the workflow. So we can actually build efficiencies into the model , and the way that thats done best is through a partnership, rather than on a temporarylabour basis.
Kevin stressed that clients will find a wellschooled and adaptable provider indispensable. Past performance is an indicator of future results, he said, and that comes down to the governance of your people – their hiring; their training; defining bestpractices, and those other methodologies that weve developed for engaging clients: assessing our servicedelivery model and measuring it in reporting. We have a big training effort underway in India right now where our clients subject matter is taught in very detailed curricula, both in classroom lectures and elearning – and we are training our attorneys in very specific areas of US and UK law, plus contract management law and legal research. So its been a very significant investment and effort, but its certainly something that our clients have said really matters.
Antony Alex, Pangea3 VP Legal Services, said, The demand for LPOs is on the rise as legal work related to bankruptcies in the global market has increased. Experts also opine that turmoil in the financial sector is driving more legal outsourcing to India.
Since appointing a lawyer is expensive overseas, especially in the U.S. and UK, it is natural for corporate to shift higher value work to India at this time of crisis, said a source.
Presently, there are over 200 LPOs in India and the number is expected to rise in next few years. The Industry has grown at over 60 percent yearonyear . The market stood at Rs 630 crore in 2007.
According to a study by research firm Value Notes, revenue form offshoring legal services in India will reach over Rs.2,770 crore with job opportunities of 24,000 by the end of 2010.
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