The real estate sub prime crisis may be bad news for those at home but it’s good news for legal process outsourcing firms (LPOs) in India.
Over burdened with the innumerable numbers of mortgage cases and bankruptcy filings and the paper work they entail, US firms have stepped up outsourcing the work to Indian firms that have proved themselves up to the task. Now, not only are these firms busying themselves with the regular filing, processing and claims tasks they do as a matter of course, but are also undertaking jobs connected to legal analytics, discovery and litigation support, and first-line document drafting.
India has over 200 LPO firms besides its service providers such as Infosys and Wipro to choose from for this. Top of the class are Pangea3, OfficeTiger, Mindcrest , Evalueserve, Integreon, and SDD Global.
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One of the greatest worries for any firm, more so a legal one, is a data breach. Studies have shown that in the last two and a half years more than 200 million records have been breached.
Not only does the firm suffer a loss but it is also obliged to make the data breach known to the respective customer, which normally takes about a month to happen, and can be pretty damaging.
It is, therefore, of vital importance for a firm to plan how it is going to protect all sensitive data and what measures it will take in the case of an incident such as a data breach occurring.
First of all be very sure about the law, both Federal and local. Very often, laws are changed, added to, or modified. If dealing with an interstate or international case of a data breach, you will have to be fully aware of all the laws of all the places involved, even the seemingly unimportant ones. Different states have different definitions of what constitutes a breach of confidence or data loss. Others have different laws with regard to the hierarchy for notifying the various people/organizations affected by it.
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The concept of Knowledge Cities is becoming increasingly popular and several such centers are being planned all over the world.

Not to be outdone, India is going to have its own spanking new Silicon Valley quite soon. Parsvnath Developers Limited (PDL) along with Mr. Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder Hotmail, and HSIIDC ( Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation) will be developing a knowledge city across 11,000 acres in Panchkula near Chandigarh, 200 km north of Delhi, India’s capital. To be named Parsvnath Nano City, the knowledge city’s world-class infrastructure will sustain a modern lifestyle and will be chiefly involved in the creation of Intellectual Capital.
The master plan for the city has been developed by BgAP - Berkeley Group for Architecture & Planning, which is an incorporated group of professionals, faculty, students, alumni and other affiliates of the University of California at Berkeley.
The city is being valued at Rs. 50,000 crore or US$ 12 billion, and is to be completed in ten years.
Chairman of Parsvnath Developers, Mr. Pradeep Jain, states, “This prestigious project will not only validate the investment and business environment of the region, but also firmly establish the region as an international investment destination.”
The city will have four districts- the IT district, the university district, the airport district and the biotech district.

Its educational and research institutions including universities, R&D centers and Bio-technology centers, will be of the highest caliber.

Catering to the recreational aspect there will be an 18 hole championship golf course, nature trails, forests, parks and sports centers.

It is anticipated that world-class companies involved in the creation of Intellectual Property will be drawn to it and that it will be a focal point for companies operating in areas such as Nano Sciences, Software Development, Bio-Technology, Next generation Drug Discovery, Energy Research and Semiconductor Research.

For those who are concerned about off shoring jobs resulting in fewer jobs for those at home, there’s heartening news.
Economists at the British University of Nottingham note that quite the contrary is happening. Off shoring of work to India by British companies has actually resulted in more jobs in Britain itself. This should allay the fears of the Unions that are up in arms about outsourcing.
In their research of the matter, GEP, ( the Globalisation and Economic Policy Centre ), discovered that the effectiveness of such off-shoring has, on the contrary, proved to advance business as a result of which, more, and not fewer, people are being employed by those companies.
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Ah, the Black Book of Outsourcing and its lists! How we hang on its every word! And well we should. Awarded “the number one outsourcing vendor ranking” by CIO magazine in April 2008, and considered “the most comprehensive publication on outsourcing” its stringent process for arriving at this ranking is now well known.
What honor, then to be at the top of the list! And that is what LawScribe, Inc can now lay claim to.
Having been awarded first rank in the Legal Process Outsourcing “Support, Transcription and Legal Document Management” category, and standing fourth in the overall ranking across the entire LPO industry, in its 2008 survey of LPO vendors and advisors, LawScribe, Inc has every reason to be elated. Such an honor is not uncommon for the company, however, that now has a distinguished reputation worldwide.
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ValueNotes Database, a foremost provider of business intelligence and research in India, works with clients globally and has a considerable knowledge and understanding of international markets.

According to research carried out by the company it calculates that offshored patent services to India in 2007 brought in revenues amounting to $46 million.
It also estimates that the revenue will grow a further 35% in the next five years and will be about $206 million.
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On July 16, the Legal Outsourcing Chapter will be conducting its second webinar.
It will have Legal Outsourcing: A Practical Perspective as its theme.
Mark Ross, Lawscribe director will introduce the panelists and initiate the program.
Arun Jethlamani and Neeraja Kandala, both from the leading independent research company ValueNotes, will be the webinar’s first expert panelists.
They will use their expertise and the results of their research to throw light on “Document Review”, and “Patent Support”. These two legal operations account for the lion’s share of offshored legal outsourcing contracts.
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Think of IT in India and most people immediately think of Bangalore, the ‘Silicon City’.
But other cities in South India, Chennai and Hyderabad, to name two of them, are also building reputations as IT destinations.
Now there is a new star on the horizon- Mysore, The City of Palaces, just 130 kilometers south of Bangalore.
Well known for its other tourist attractions such as its Chamundi Hills and Brindavan Gardens, it is now attracting visitors of a different ilk, the ‘information technology’ type. Major IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, Microsoft and Dell are already well set in the city of Mysore. It is estimated that at present there are over 30 major IT companies that have set up office in the city of Mysore.
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The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), has published its list of top 100 global service providers for 2008 in the May 5th FORTUNE 500 issue of FORTUNE magazine. Although the two top spots were bagged by US based companies (Accenture pipping IBM at the post), what is most remarkable is that five of the top 10 service providing companies were Indian.
Bangalore’s Infosys with its over $60 million turnover for the year came close on the heels of the top two.
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Figuring in the Black Book of Outsourcing has become something to aspire to and a sure fire way to success.

Competing for Top Ten honors in their Top Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) Vendors list for 2008 were over 80 LPOs worldwide, but CPA (Computer Patent Annuities) has turned up at the top of the list. The firm has been ranked number one in the “Contract & Legal Document Review” category today. And to drive in the point further it has also been awarded the number two overall position.

“Our survey results demonstrate that CPA has clearly impressed clients with its high level of innovation (http://www.cpaglobal.com/ceo_guide), trust, and reliability,” said Doug Brown, Managing Partner, Brown Wilson Group, and Co-Author, The Black Book of Outsourcing (Wiley Publishers). “Law firms and corporate legal departments look closely at these critical areas when choosing which legal process outsourcing providers with whom to partner.”
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