OUTSOURCING LEGAL WORK TO INDIA
The
OUTSOURCING of legal work is known in India as Legal Process Outsourcing ("LPO").
In terms of brainpower and English fluency, there is no reason why Indian lawyers can''t do much of the work that U.S. lawyers are currently doing. India''s legal system is based on English Common Law, Indian legal training is conducted solely in English, Appellate and Supreme Court proceedings take place exclusively in English, and legal opinions are written exclusively in English. Virtually all Indian lawyers are conversant with the UK legal system.
OUTSOURCING LEGAL WORK TO INDIA began in 1995, when the 34-lawyer, Dallas-based litigation firm of Bickel & Brewer opened an office in Hyderabad. Co-founder and co-managing partner Bill Brewer, who is 53 years old, explained that the idea was hatched when he was out to brunch with a relation by marriage. The relative, C. S. Prasada Rao, was originally from India. "We were looking for new ways to be more efficient in handling the millions of pieces of information that confront us in each case. I''m not sure how it came out of the conversation but somewhere a light went off. I asked, ''You can have a lawyer for how much an hour in India?'' He said, ''Two dollars an hour.'' We didn''t make it to dinner before we were setting up the subsidiary in India.
INDIA ADVANTAGE
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. There is a day time when there is a night in US, hence, Attorney, while leaving the office, instruct his counterpart in India to do
research on specific legal issues and he can have the complete research done on his table in the early morning.
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.
India seemed like the best bet. With more than 500 law schools and about 200,000 law students graduating each year, it had no shortage of attorneys. Lawyers in India had access to the same research tools and case summaries as any associate in the U.S. Sure, they didn''t speak American English. "But they were highly motivated, highly intelligent, and extremely process-oriented, They were also eager to tackle the kinds of tasks that most new associates at law firms look down upon--such as poring over and coding thousands of documents in advance of a trial. In other words, they were perfect for the kind of document-review work he had in mind.
On the other hand, US attorney fees, even of junior attorney, is growing and becoming unaffordable. Small law firm and solo practioner in US, who can not afford to have large number of staff, can concentrate on their practice while their work being handled in India at a fraction of cost and without having too much investment in infrastructure and staff. It also helped many to grow in US.
ATTORNEYS'' SALARIES range from $6,000 to $36,000. The employees, whose résumés lead off with LLMs from top U.S. law schools and are studded with internships at the World Trade Organization in Geneva and apprenticeships at the Indian Supreme Court, would earn six-figure salaries at elite U.S. law firms. But the education visas most of these young attorneys used to study in the United States allow for only one year of work after graduation, so most have to return to India to find jobs.
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.
The core business of law firms is a combinatblems and helping clients cope with difficult situations. An old adage says that lawyers are finders (business getters), minders (relationship managers), or grinders (ones who crank out legal work). Today, lawyers who are great at "client hand holding" typically rely on a partner or associate to do the legal work. Could the minder instead outsource this to a lawyer in another organization? The point is that even in what many would consider the core business of law firms lie potential outsourcing opportunities.
There is a compelling logic to this approach and there has been some push from clients as hourly rates for inexperienced lawyers have soared. The recent round of salary increases for starting associates will only cause more interest in this approach. My sense is that, not surprisingly, like all areas of outsourcing, we''ve seen mixed results at the beginning. As the industry matures and we can determine who does this well, the results are likely to improve substantially. I expect to see more of this happening, especially in "commodity" legal work, especially document review and standard litigation preparation work. I also expect state bar regulators, who seem to have become very aggressive in the last few years, will soon have legal outsourcing on their radars.