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Legal process outsourcing from the UK and continental Europe is gaining traction. Nearly 20 law firms have tied up with Indian LPO firms in 2009 and the figure is expected to double this year.Sanjay Kamlani, co-CEO of Pangea3, said British and German companies are evincing interest for services in English.“Over the past six months, five of the top 10 law firms have been talking to us. A managing partner of one of the Magic Circle firms visited us,” Kamlani said. The Magic Circle represents the top five UK law companies.
Integreon is another LPO which is doing well. Since April 2009, the Mumbai-based company has bagged deals from Beachcroft, TLT, Allen & Overy, Simmons & Simmons and Osborne Clarke. All of them are multi-million dollar, multi-year deals. The Osborne Clarke deal is worth USD75 million in initial value.
Lokendra Tomar, chief operating officer (Apac) of Integreon said, “We have witnessed a strong momentum in selling a range of legal and knowledge support services in the UK.
In fact, the UK market has become more active in outsourcing than the US. We are either already doing business with or in discussions with majority of top 30 UK law firms.”
One of the main drivers have been European companies which initiated internal due diligence and coaxed law firms into outsourcing legal and paralegal work to low cost high talent countries such as India.
US-based law firms are still restricted to outsourcing mainly support functions such as documentation review, finance, due diligence and secretarial work. Their peers in the UK are now focusing on partnering with Indian firms to offer LPO services to their clients, according to Kamlani.
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