Why Indian Attorneys Opt For LPOs
I am delighted to introduce Bhaskar Kanare, a guest author, for this final blog post of 2007. Bhaskar joined LawScribe last month and heads up our marketing department in India. He has a wealth of experience both in the LPO and broader KPO industries. I asked Bhaskar to spend some time not only with LawScribe’s attorneys but also with attorneys from other leading LPOs and domestic Indian law firms and to come back to me with his thoughts and comments on why so many young Indian law graduates are choosing a career in an LPO as opposed to a traditional domestic Indian legal practice and whether or not his research indicated that this was simply a passing phenomenon. I’ll be back with a new post in a couple of weeks, and will be joined by some leading figures within the LPO industry, looking back at the last year in legal outsourcing and looking forward to 2008 and beyond. Until then, Happy New Year.
“I am a lawyer with 10 years of practical experience. I am interested in joining an LPO and enclose my CV accordingly for your consideration”.
“I have 5 years of experience in the litigation field and have been employed with one of the most eminent law firms in Delhi. I am extremely well versed with document drafting and case preparation. I am looking to join your organization as soon as possible”.
The above emails are extracts from just a couple of genuine emails received by LawScribe’s HR department from practising Indian attorneys keen to leave domestic Indian firms and sign up with an LPO. When Mark gave me the opportunity to guest author a piece for his blog I decided to take advantage of my position on the ground in India and my contacts within the Indian legal profession, and to take a look at why fully qualified Indian lawyers, some with up to ten years of experience, are looking to join LPOs rather than to continue to practise in main-stream domestic law firms.
The question disturbed me somewhat. What was the root cause of this potentially revolutionary change in the thought process of this new generation of young Indian lawyers? Surely money was not the only answer?
It was a Sunday evening a couple of weeks ago. I was in a mood to relax after a stressful week at the office when the phone rang and I recognized the voice of my old school friend, a practising lawyer, Ravi.
After exchanging pleasantries Ravi revealed the real purpose of his call was that he had heard that I was now working for LawScribe and that he was extremely keen on leaving his law practice and joining an LPO; could I be of any help to him? As well as of course having the opportunity to help out an old friend this was also the chance for me to dig a little deeper and examine his motivation in leaving a traditional legal practice for the world of legal outsourcing. I invited him to come and see me at my offices the following day.
After a general discussion I asked him outright why he wanted to join an LPO rather than practising main-stream law and having the opportunity to appear in court? He smiled and said, “I am 33 years old now, practising criminal law alongside a ‘senior’ lawyer of the Delhi high court. The majority of my time is spent maintaining the case files and when I do get to appear in court, the reality is that I rarely have the opportunity to utilize my advocate skills and am there for generally quite routine applications.” He added, “I always dreamed of a nice office, a car, earning a respectable salary and a defined career path with recognition from my peers. But even after 7 years of hard work, I still don’t have my own clients, let alone the nice office, car and salary.”
I queried whether he was concerned that joining an LPO was viewed by some as merely a short-term career path and that remaining within traditional practice was more secure for the long term. Ravi acknowledged that a successful career practising main-stream domestic Indian law over the long term could potentially meet his career and financial goals, but he went on to ask, “After all those years studying, how many more years do I need to sacrifice to achieve these goals?” This conversation with Ravi was eye-opening and gave me further food for thought while I was researching this piece.
Within the Indian education system until the 1990s, MBAs, engineering and medicine graduates were considered to be of a higher academic caliber to those possessing an LLB law degree. Many of the students interested in pursuing LLBs were those whose career objective focused solely on joining the family law firm. Domestic Indian law firms were traditionally family run businesses where subsequent generations could follow in their parents' footsteps and continue to earn a living running the family business.
Although not true today, in the past there was a definite trend for those students who achieved the highest scores to opt for career paths in the fields of medicine and engineering. The legal profession was regarded as something of a second rate alternative career. Historically, after completing an LLB, it was always a huge challenge for law graduates to get associated with a law firm of significant repute. India was producing thousands of law graduates annually but the number of extremely well respected law firms where one could carve out a long term, fruitful and rewarding career was few and far between. The competition for a position within a top domestic Indian firm was fierce, with many graduates offering to work initially for free, simply to get their first foot on the ladder.
Even for many of those talented and fortunate graduates who managed to get associated with good firms, during their first five years the roles and responsibilities assigned to them were often of a purely administrative nature. While researching this piece I have spoken to many Indian lawyers who revealed that for the first few years their daily duties included maintaining the diaries of senior lawyers, taking minutes of meetings, delivering and collecting documents to and from government offices, maintaining case files and other secretarial functions. If one assumes that on average a LLB graduate fresh out of law school is around 25-26 years old, then it is unlikely that before they reach 30 they will have achieved significant exposure to more thought-provoking, higher value level legal work, and more importantly will have their own clients to represent. On top of this, the salaries they will earn will during these crucial years, when they may be contemplating settling down and starting a family, will hardly be sufficient. Some may decide to set out on their own and start up their own law firms. The next five years or more could then be spent developing a client base and investing in the long-term potential of the practice.
All the while the Indian economy is growing together with the cost of living, and a career in an LPO can provide a genuinely lucrative option as well as offering a motivating and rewarding legal environment.
Although still a relatively nascent sector, LPOs often handle complex, large scale legal matters for multi-national corporations and major US and UK law firm clients. This exposure to "international" business and law is perceived as an excellent opportunity to learn more about the US and UK’s legal systems and may perhaps act as a stepping stone to a career abroad. Presently LPOs tend to provide higher quality working conditions in comparison to many traditional, domestic law firms. Also to help counter the argument that the current level of legal work being performed by offshore attorneys is not as substantive as these attorneys would ideally choose, all the leading LPOs try to provide other benefits to ensure that their employees remain content. Most have state of the art facilities and also offer other perks including in-house training programs, air-conditioning, flexible work schedules, complimentary food and beverages, on-site gyms and a variety of recreational programmes. These factors all help place the LPO industry in a favorable light when compared to the majority of traditional legal jobs available in India.
Because the industry is still relatively new it is difficult to predict with any real certainty whether a career in an LPO can represent a genuine long-term career path for law graduates as they progress into middle age. Currently the industry is suffering from a relatively high level of attrition. This is not because attorneys working within LPOs are leaving to join domestic Indian law firms, but is mainly due to the fact that over the last 12 months there have been around 100 new entrants into the LPO marketplace. I suspect that as the industry develops and consolidates over the coming years not only will the level of attrition decrease but as more substantive legal work continues to be offshored to India that a long term career in an LPO will become an increasingly attractive option, and not just for monetary reasons.
“I am a lawyer with 10 years of practical experience. I am interested in joining an LPO and enclose my CV accordingly for your consideration”.
“I have 5 years of experience in the litigation field and have been employed with one of the most eminent law firms in Delhi. I am extremely well versed with document drafting and case preparation. I am looking to join your organization as soon as possible”.
The above emails are extracts from just a couple of genuine emails received by LawScribe’s HR department from practising Indian attorneys keen to leave domestic Indian firms and sign up with an LPO. When Mark gave me the opportunity to guest author a piece for his blog I decided to take advantage of my position on the ground in India and my contacts within the Indian legal profession, and to take a look at why fully qualified Indian lawyers, some with up to ten years of experience, are looking to join LPOs rather than to continue to practise in main-stream domestic law firms.
The question disturbed me somewhat. What was the root cause of this potentially revolutionary change in the thought process of this new generation of young Indian lawyers? Surely money was not the only answer?
It was a Sunday evening a couple of weeks ago. I was in a mood to relax after a stressful week at the office when the phone rang and I recognized the voice of my old school friend, a practising lawyer, Ravi.
After exchanging pleasantries Ravi revealed the real purpose of his call was that he had heard that I was now working for LawScribe and that he was extremely keen on leaving his law practice and joining an LPO; could I be of any help to him? As well as of course having the opportunity to help out an old friend this was also the chance for me to dig a little deeper and examine his motivation in leaving a traditional legal practice for the world of legal outsourcing. I invited him to come and see me at my offices the following day.
After a general discussion I asked him outright why he wanted to join an LPO rather than practising main-stream law and having the opportunity to appear in court? He smiled and said, “I am 33 years old now, practising criminal law alongside a ‘senior’ lawyer of the Delhi high court. The majority of my time is spent maintaining the case files and when I do get to appear in court, the reality is that I rarely have the opportunity to utilize my advocate skills and am there for generally quite routine applications.” He added, “I always dreamed of a nice office, a car, earning a respectable salary and a defined career path with recognition from my peers. But even after 7 years of hard work, I still don’t have my own clients, let alone the nice office, car and salary.”
I queried whether he was concerned that joining an LPO was viewed by some as merely a short-term career path and that remaining within traditional practice was more secure for the long term. Ravi acknowledged that a successful career practising main-stream domestic Indian law over the long term could potentially meet his career and financial goals, but he went on to ask, “After all those years studying, how many more years do I need to sacrifice to achieve these goals?” This conversation with Ravi was eye-opening and gave me further food for thought while I was researching this piece.
Within the Indian education system until the 1990s, MBAs, engineering and medicine graduates were considered to be of a higher academic caliber to those possessing an LLB law degree. Many of the students interested in pursuing LLBs were those whose career objective focused solely on joining the family law firm. Domestic Indian law firms were traditionally family run businesses where subsequent generations could follow in their parents' footsteps and continue to earn a living running the family business.
Although not true today, in the past there was a definite trend for those students who achieved the highest scores to opt for career paths in the fields of medicine and engineering. The legal profession was regarded as something of a second rate alternative career. Historically, after completing an LLB, it was always a huge challenge for law graduates to get associated with a law firm of significant repute. India was producing thousands of law graduates annually but the number of extremely well respected law firms where one could carve out a long term, fruitful and rewarding career was few and far between. The competition for a position within a top domestic Indian firm was fierce, with many graduates offering to work initially for free, simply to get their first foot on the ladder.
Even for many of those talented and fortunate graduates who managed to get associated with good firms, during their first five years the roles and responsibilities assigned to them were often of a purely administrative nature. While researching this piece I have spoken to many Indian lawyers who revealed that for the first few years their daily duties included maintaining the diaries of senior lawyers, taking minutes of meetings, delivering and collecting documents to and from government offices, maintaining case files and other secretarial functions. If one assumes that on average a LLB graduate fresh out of law school is around 25-26 years old, then it is unlikely that before they reach 30 they will have achieved significant exposure to more thought-provoking, higher value level legal work, and more importantly will have their own clients to represent. On top of this, the salaries they will earn will during these crucial years, when they may be contemplating settling down and starting a family, will hardly be sufficient. Some may decide to set out on their own and start up their own law firms. The next five years or more could then be spent developing a client base and investing in the long-term potential of the practice.
All the while the Indian economy is growing together with the cost of living, and a career in an LPO can provide a genuinely lucrative option as well as offering a motivating and rewarding legal environment.
Although still a relatively nascent sector, LPOs often handle complex, large scale legal matters for multi-national corporations and major US and UK law firm clients. This exposure to "international" business and law is perceived as an excellent opportunity to learn more about the US and UK’s legal systems and may perhaps act as a stepping stone to a career abroad. Presently LPOs tend to provide higher quality working conditions in comparison to many traditional, domestic law firms. Also to help counter the argument that the current level of legal work being performed by offshore attorneys is not as substantive as these attorneys would ideally choose, all the leading LPOs try to provide other benefits to ensure that their employees remain content. Most have state of the art facilities and also offer other perks including in-house training programs, air-conditioning, flexible work schedules, complimentary food and beverages, on-site gyms and a variety of recreational programmes. These factors all help place the LPO industry in a favorable light when compared to the majority of traditional legal jobs available in India.
Because the industry is still relatively new it is difficult to predict with any real certainty whether a career in an LPO can represent a genuine long-term career path for law graduates as they progress into middle age. Currently the industry is suffering from a relatively high level of attrition. This is not because attorneys working within LPOs are leaving to join domestic Indian law firms, but is mainly due to the fact that over the last 12 months there have been around 100 new entrants into the LPO marketplace. I suspect that as the industry develops and consolidates over the coming years not only will the level of attrition decrease but as more substantive legal work continues to be offshored to India that a long term career in an LPO will become an increasingly attractive option, and not just for monetary reasons.
posted by Mark Ross at
12:05 PM
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1 Comments:
I must admit that this post is one of the most honest piece of interaction available on the internet on the topic of LPOs in India. It answers a lot of questions at the back of the minds of Indian Lawyers looking for a switchover. Personally, yours truly is a fresh lawyer. So my opinions maybe limited in in its wiseness. However, i am skeptical that indian lawyers in LPO might be reduced to "highly paid clerks" as it is often referenced (particularly to lawyers engaged in legal document review.). Just as call centers have offered a tempting distraction to todays youth to give up learning and knowledge based education, i feel LLB as it is known today might go the same way. I hope i am not sounding elitist. What I mean to say is that LPO is a good option if you have had your share of fun and experience in traditional domestic practice. I am stil not sure if it is a long term career, if you are genuinely interested in pursuit of legal knowledge.
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