India has definitely come a long way in the eyes of the world and especially the United States. A few decades ago, India was considered one of the many underdeveloped countries in the world. As a huge country with great challenges, a considerable part of India is still economically backward, but India’s select intellectual and professional communities can compete with the best in the world. Hence, nowadays more and more US based law firms are outsourcing legal research and other legal / paralegal services on a regular basis to India and the Indian LPO business is one of the new areas that are sure to flourish as the years go by. . India has become an outsourcing destination for the world and is a leader in the service industry and it is slowing down, but surely moving up the value chain. A large pool of trained professionals ready to work for lower wages (by international standards) enables the outsourcing of the legal work process to India so that developed countries like the US and Canada can save substantially (often up to 60%) in increasing cost. litigation.
Outsourcing to India had started with medical transcription and was closely followed by call centers and IT outsourcing and other types of BPO (business process outsourcing). These have now paved the way for KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) and LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing). In the US, there have been movements to choose Israel as an alternative destination for outsourcing legal processes as well, so hopefully that will unleash healthy competition. What are the types of LPO services offered by legal process outsourcing companies? Commonly seen services include,
- Preparation of case summaries
- Memorandum of legal analysis
- Document recovery
- Client position document
- Legal research / analysis
- Intellectual property analysis
- Law Surveys
- Rules in different jurisdictions in the US.
- Legal documentation / transcript
- Legislative history research
Top-tier law firms focusing on LPO in India are capable of investigating almost any legal issue and can provide the services required by clients in the US or Canada. LPO is a great new way to reduce the cost of litigation in the US It helps the client and also the law firms.
There was a great outcry in the United States against outsourcing to India during the 2004 presidential elections. In fact, it was one of the main topics of discussion during the presidential campaign. However, now in 2008 this is not the case and this is a sure indicator that outsourcing abroad to countries like India is being accepted as a long-term reality.