Law Firms in India vs Worlwide Global Legal Outsourcing
While Indian lawyers handle a lot of document review, they also do legal research and draft contracts, said Russell Smith of the Indian outsourcing company SDD Global Solutions. Indian lawyers even did legal work on Borat and drafted a motion for HBO's Da Ali G Show seeking the dismissal of a libel suit against the show’s producers, Smith said."My people in India can do everything from here, except sign the opinion letter and appear in an American court," Smith told the Post. Because of the low cost, the producers of Da Ali G Show opted to fight the lawsuit rather than settle, he said.Kunoor Chopra of outsourcing firm LawScribe said his lawyers in India receive training in contract writing, review and research. They also get some writing instruction to help them change their writing style. "They write in flowery, British-style English," Chopra told the Post. "It is almost like an unlearning process. They have to be retrained to write in crisp, short sentences."Srinivas Pingali, executive vice president at the legal outsourcing company Quatrro, said his firm is prospering despite the economic downturn in the United States. New work relating to bankruptcies is now providing new opportunities for Indian lawyers, he told the newspaper.
Indian lawyers may be happy to get U.S. legal business, but the bar there is not as amenable to U.S. law firms opening in the country. A 1961 rule bars foreign firms from practicing in India. Three foreign law firms, including the U.S. firms Chadbourne & Parke and White & Case, opened offices in the country and are challenging the rule, Legal Blog Watch notes. India's High Court heard final submissions in the case last .The market for outsourced legal work is expected to reach $163 billion by next year, and India is positioned to seize the largest share. The time difference between India and the United States allows for work to be done overnight, and many people in India's enormous workforce are college-educated and English-speaking. Intellevate recently placed a want ad for a patent researcher in the Times of India, the leading English-language daily. The company received 1,700 résumés. "There are 200 million English-speaking, college-educated Indians and there are not 200 million jobs," Steinberg said. Such a disparity in supply and demand allows his company to hire credentialed, capable labor, cheaply. "We're not selling shoes," Steinberg likes to say. "We're selling cobblers."
Puneet Mohey, president of a legal outsourcing company called Lexadigm on the other side of town, has a more straightforward pitch: "We provide large-law-firm-quality work at literally one-third the price." Lexadigm's rates range from $65 to $95 an hour for work that large U.S. firms might bill at $250 an hour or more. Nearly all the employees at Mohey's company are lawyers.With outsourcing, those who are not members of an American bar are supervised, and their work vouched for, by someone who is. "To the extent that what you have them do is legal research for U.S. firms, it's not much different than having law students do it," said George Washington University Law School professor Thomas Morgan, a scholar of professional responsibility.
Puneet Mohey, president of a legal outsourcing company called Lexadigm on the other side of town, has a more straightforward pitch: "We provide large-law-firm-quality work at literally one-third the price." Lexadigm's rates range from $65 to $95 an hour for work that large U.S. firms might bill at $250 an hour or more. Nearly all the employees at Mohey's company are lawyers.With outsourcing, those who are not members of an American bar are supervised, and their work vouched for, by someone who is. "To the extent that what you have them do is legal research for U.S. firms, it's not much different than having law students do it," said George Washington University Law School professor Thomas Morgan, a scholar of professional responsibility.
Ferry Dhiman & Co. an upcoming law firm in Chandigarh form North ( Pb. Region) has also been working for the state level companies to provide a niche for all legal backup. Its CEO Mr. Ferry Dhiman says that we need to employ more that 150 new young talented lawyers in this LPO industry for all sort of expertise.
“No doubt the time will come when every little work can be done with the review of law firms’
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