In its recent article, GCs Embrace Outsourced Work on the Law.com network many of the most recent developments with regard to outsourcing and offshoring legal work are talked about.
“Why pay big-firm associates $200 an hour to do document review when you can ship it out to India for $25 an hour?” asks attorney Scott Rickman at Del Monte Foods who finds that sky high rates and the ever escalating demands of e-discovery have forced the San Francisco firm to contemplate outsourcing the company’s legal work.
The article goes on to name big companies like Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc that have already started doing so.
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After considering the different legal issues in offshoring your business you will most probably be convinced that India is the ideal place to outsource to. Numerous organizations are already outsourcing their businesses and have not faced any problems, with legal matters in India except, perhaps, for a few minor hiccups,
Indian laws keeps changing to meet the needs of the day and in order to adapt to the requirements of the most recent international laws. India had accepted the “world trade organization agreement” when outsourcing was in its infancy. It, also, abides by the “agreement on trade related intellectual property right”. There are several amendments to the intellectual property laws of India.
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Outsourcing is on a continuous rise and there are an ever increasing number of organizations offshoring business processes to other countries. These companies are often faced with certain complex legal issues that need to be considered. If yours is one of those businesses outsourcing work to another part of the world, make sure that you are aware of and the data privacy protection and intellectual property protection of that country. Also ensure that your organization is cognizant about complying with applicable laws regarding the enforcement of legal or contractual rights and with dispute resolution procedures.
Offshore outsourcing involves several legal issues and it is important to be able to deal with them effectively. This will be beneficial to both, the concern wishing to outsource and to the outsourcing service provider. These are some issues concerning offshore outsourcing that need to be dealt with efficiently.
Diverse Legal Systems
One of the first things you will discover is that the rules of governance differ from country to country. When outsourcing you, as well as your outsourcing provider must be prepared to consider two possibly different legal systems. This diversity in the legal system is an important issue that companies have to deal with. The problem exists, because as such, there is no legal system that can be used universally. Different countries have different intellectual property laws, too. Because no standard legal rules and regulations exist, it is in your interest to consult with your outsourcing provider to ensure that you adhere to both the legal systems. This will help you deal with any legal issues of outsourcing.
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Thanks to the drastic increase in ESI (electronically stored information) in recent years there have been radical changes in law processes and first level document review has been estimated to account for between 60% and 90% of all litigation costs. As a result, law firms are always on the lookout for ways and means of reducing these costs. That’s where legal process outsourcing (LPO) comes handy in a big way.

As the term suggests, documents must first be reviewed to establish whether they are “non-responsive” or “responsive” with regard to a particular case. First level document review is carried out after receiving and before producing any documents following any legal application for their production. It prepares the grounds for a more senior review.

The documents must be reviewed to determine whether they are applicable to the case in question, are confidential and protected and whether they are crucial or significant to the case in question. Besides litigation cases, documents are also reviewed for corporate due diligence and regulatory compliance.
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The National Science Board (NSB), has released its report, “Science and Engineering Indicators 2008″ on Tuesday. In it, the board, which manages the National Science Foundation, reveals that of all the temporary visas permitted in 2006, 54% of them went to Indians. Now over 50% of the H-1B visas have been issued to them.
They are followed by the Chinese with 9%, the Canadians, the South Koreans and the Philippines with 3% each. Examining the status of engineering and science training along with the capability of the United States in competing globally, the report also takes into account and analyses H-1B visa trends.
Under the H-1B program, according to the study 51% of the estimated 110,000 H-1B visas were issued in 2006 and 51% of the visa holders were employed in computer-related professions. Compare this to 2002 when about 25% were employed in computer-related careers. This move could most probably be due to the increase of offshore outsourcing in the U.S.
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Wipro Technologies, Infosys and TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) are three of the most successful Indian outsourcing companies. They are considered to be the pioneers in the field and are held in high esteem globally.
Wipro had its humble beginnings in the vegetable oil processing industry when it was known as Western India Vegetable Products. Since the young Azim Premji, an engineering student at Stanford and heir to the business was thrown into it willy-nilly in 1980, it evolved into the software giant it is today. Currently its revenue is in excess of $3billion.
In spite of being the major stockholder Premji does not manage the business autocratically. Being a disciplined man with high standards, he runs the business with exceptional integrity. Rejecting feudalism, his employees are credited upon their output. Working tirelessly his eagle eye does not miss a single detail but he is open to both, criticism and suggestions as revealed in his official values statement.
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With its tremendous buying power the legal marketplace resists drops in our constantly evolving business economy. Because of this there is fierce competition in the legal industry. As a consequence, making direct connections is vital to a company closing a sale. It is because of this that America Lawyer Media (ALM) events have been organized for over twenty five years. And here is one of the biggies.

Now, being described as the “largest and most important legal technology event of the year”, LegalTech NYC 2008 is slated to be held from February 5-7, 2008. The venue will be New York’s Hilton Hotel and is expected to draw over 10, 000 representatives.
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There are numerous new fields in the sphere of technology and technological intelligence. Two of them are nano-technology and biotechnology.
As a result, there are growing calls for patent research in fields such as electronics, microprocessors, networking, internet, and software technologies. Patent research covers patent searching, Freedom-to-Operate searching, patent infringement and charting, and proofreading. There must be wide ranging, technical discussions and internal peer reviews at different stages of the work which will ensure quality and accuracy. The inventions described and the claims must be carefully studied. The most appropriate search strategy must be determined, and the results and review be presented.
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Law firms are now large and complicated businesses. In order to increase their revenues they now merge, spend money on marketing, pay serious attention to policies, and spread their branches to different places, even abroad.
They, however , are more concerned with increasing their income rather than controlling expenses.
They have started outsourcing back-office functions like mailroom, copy center and payroll, but most importantly in IT. Managing software and systems upgrades, and network operations, are outsourced to a great degree. Law practice itself is also outsourced.
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Legal Process Outsourcing or LPO is one of the latest and fastest growing trends in outsourcing. With the value of legal outsourcing estimated to grow to $4 billion in 2015 from today’s $80 million, there are, however, pockets of resistance and a myriad questions to be answered.
With this in mind and to find best practice solutions for as many concerns as possible, the first international conference on legal outsourcing, will be held on January 16-17, in little more than a week’s time. The India LPO Summit 2008 will be held at Manhattan’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. Sponsored by the foremost business conference organization, American Conference Institute and by SDD Global Solutions and the Mumbai based NewGalexy.
First on the agenda will be a joint presentation on the present condition of the legal outsourcing business and what the future opportunities for providers and clients will be. With the help of real-life case studies first hand experiences will be shared. Ideas on developing global strategies and the optimization of management will also be looked into among other things.
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