Scope of Legal Outsourcing

Legal outsourcing refers to a law firm or corporate legal department obtaining legal support services from an external law firm or legal support services firm. It is also known as Legal Process outsourcing (LPO). Outsourcing refers to contracting out the internal work process or business process to third party organisation. This is the new and upcoming opportunity for lawyers of India. There are plethora of services which are being outsourced such as legal research, document reviewing, etc. When the legal service provider is situated outside the country it is called offshoring . Many legal processes can be outsourced except those which requires physical presence or face to face conversation. This legal process outsourcing has gained momentum in the recent times. There is still need for more lawyers and legal personnels to discover this field as in upcoming times it will gain new heights in our country.

India's LPO has the majority corporate legal departments as their clients . India is , currently the global capital of outsourcing . These services in India have seen steady growth in last five years and now India has become the largest destination for legal process outsourcing . The key considerations for the growth of process is cost effectiveness or reduced costs with effective work quality. The cost have never impacted on the quality of work . The quality of work in some cases have exceeded the expectations of legal service providers.

Another advantage being the time difference between India and the united states of America . There is night in the USA while there is day in India which allows the work to be completed overnight. The attorneys while leaving the office give instructions to their service provider and the next day the work is done. Most of the youth in India is college graduate and english speaking which adds advantage to the work. Having more than 1200 law schools in India and thousands of lawyers graduating each year in India, it doesn't lack in english speaking attorneys which again adds to the reason why India is perfect market for legal service outsourcing.

Another advantage for attorneys who are outsourcing their legal work is that they can focus on their client increment and fee generating work rather than working on same old repetitive document work which could be done easily at low cost by legal service providers.

With advantages comes the disadvantages , one of the most common obstacle is the knowledge of local laws . With the knack of knowledge comes the risk of violation of privacy laws which most countries endure . With difference in local laws comes the difference in responsibilities regarding data privacy .

Another issue is that if there is a dispute between attorney and service provider, possibly both are in different countries . Now, the question arises how the case will be filed and in which country. For that agreement is duly signed by both the parties from the beginning discussing all the terms and conditions.

CONCLUSION

LPO as an industry requires professional excellence and knowledge . It has great scope for innovation in the future . A firm to be an LPO does not require to be a big firm. Small firms can too provide these services which gives opportunity to the small firms to expand their business . With upcoming new laws and scope for LPO industry comes the opportunity for the young lawyers to establish themselves. It requires great dedication and professionalism which is well taught to lawyers. With increasing unemployment among lawyers ,it gives an opportunity to make ways easy for new lawyers .