LawScribe Recognized as “Rising Star” in Global Outsourcing 100 World’s Best Outsourcing Service Providers

I generally don't use this blog as a publicity tool for LawScribe but try to cover what's happening in the LPO industry and the legal profession as a whole. For once though I'm quite unashamedly wearing my LawScribe hat and am extremely proud to bring to the attention of my blog's readership our recognition as a Rising Star in the International Association of Outsourcing Professional's (IAOP) 2008 Global Outsourcing 100. The 2008 Global Outsourcing 100 was revealed last week at this year's IAOP world summit in Orlando. We participated in a well attended and extremely interactive panel session at the summit along with Connie Brenton, Assistant General Counsel, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Neil S. Hirshman, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. This was the very first time that legal process outsourcing has featured on the IAOP world summit agenda and further evidence that the LPO industry is now firmly entrenched in mainstream outsourcing theory and practice.

The Global Outsourcing 100 is devoted to featuring the best of today's leading outsourcing service providers and tomorrow's rising stars. Along with its publication by IAOP, the list appears each year in FORTUNE® magazine. Companies must demonstrate excellence in categories such as size and growth, customer experience, depth and breadth of competencies, and management capabilities. I believe LawScribe is one of only two LPOs making this year's Global Outsourcing 100 list.

"Getting selected to the Global Outsourcing 100 shows these companies came out on top following a rigorous application process and unbiased competition judged by an independent panel of recognized industry leaders in outsourcing,” says Jagdish Dalal, Managing Director, Thought Leadership, IAOP and chairman of the judges' panel. “Businesses should carefully consider these outsourcing leaders named on the Global Outsourcing 100 during their selection and due diligence process."

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Outsourcing or Not Outsourcing: That is the Question

For a week or so now, ever since I came across the following piece on Law.com, I’ve been mulling over whether or not I should blog about it, but I just couldn’t hold back any longer: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202732098332

I’ve talked and written previously on how I believe firmly that 2008 will be the “tipping point” year where we witness the public embracing by the legal profession of offshore legal outsourcing as a viable strategic alternative to offer to clients. Here’s what I, and other more accomplished LPO soothsayers didn’t predict. Perhaps the first step on the path towards public acknowledgement is where law firms embark on what is to all intents and purposes offshore legal outsourcing, but where they put a different hat on it and label it a non-outsourcing initiative.

This is what has happened with the opening up of Howrey’s new office in Pune, India. Howrey’s managing partner Robert Ruyak has stated that, “It’s not outsourcing,” and that clients apparently, “don’t want to use outsourcing.” Now if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…. Well, you can see where I’m going. Now many of us lawyers if we apply our analytical legal brains to the matter may conclude that Mr Ruyak is entirely correct and that the Howrey initiative doesn’t fit the standard definition of outsourcing, the act of obtaining/purchasing services from a third party. There doesn’t appear to be any third party involved, so there’s no outsourcing going on. Case closed then, I suppose. Well perhaps not. Are we really splitting hairs here and getting just a little too preoccupied in the minutiae of the definition as opposed to the reality of the act? If we are then let’s apply the same standards to the definition of offshoring, the practice of moving business processes or services to another country, especially overseas, to reduce costs. No mention of any third party here so this would apply perfectly to the Howrey situation.

My point here is not to criticize in any way shape or form, and I genuinely applaud the firm for having both the foresight and initiative to undertake the substantial time and effort in establishing a delivery center in India, but let’s call it what it is.

I have no doubt that the firm will not be engaged in the practice of Indian law, still governed by the Advocates Act of 1961 and a forbidden fruit for any foreign law firm. It also appears that the majority of the employees in Howrey’s Pune office will not be U.S. admitted attorneys, but Indian attorneys or other individuals considered here in the States as “non-lawyers.” If both of these assumptions are correct then the considerations highlighted in the four Bar Association opinions dealing with legal process outsourcing to date are also applicable in this scenario. Only through the appropriate level of supervision can it be guaranteed that the Indian attorneys are not engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. In order to discharge the overall duty of competence the supervising U.S. attorneys must be sufficiently qualified and expert in the relevant areas to be able properly to evaluate the work product coming from the firm’s Indian attorneys. If Howrey’s clients would in the ordinary course of events expect the work for which they have retained the firm to be carried out by U.S. qualified attorneys then the firm will have to obtain their clients’ prior consent before putting their Indian attorneys to work on the matter. Finally the firm will still of course have to bill their clients appropriately for the outsourced work.

Now I completely concur that elements of the supervision process, the conflict checking, etc, can be more straightforward in the Howrey model than, say, in a third party arrangement, but of course not every law firm has the resources, initiative, time or the inclination to set up their own facility offshore. I sincerely hope that more firms follow in Howrey’s footsteps as this only helps push us towards the day where utilization of the global pool of available legal talent becomes the norm rather than the exception.

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LegalTech 08 Offshore Legal Outsourcing Track Reviewed

What a week. Super Bowl Tuesday, Super Tuesday and then to top it all off, LegalTech Thursday! How much excitement can anyone take in one week?

If I was to take one thing from the Offshore Legal Outsourcing track sessions at this year’s LegalTech conference it would be the undeniable confirmation that 2008 WILL be the year that major law firms go public with their acknowledgement of offshore legal outsourcing as a viable strategic offering for their clients.

At last year’s LegalTech conference I was merely an extremely interested attendee at the outsourcing track sessions hosted by Integreon where I estimated that there were around 50 attendees in total. This year LawScribe hosted the panel sessions with well over 140 in attendance throughout the day. I don’t believe that this is necessarily any reflection on either LawScribe or Integreon but more indicative of the emergence of offshore legal outsourcing as a necessary weapon in the armory of service offerings the modern law firm must provide to their clients. Delegates at the sessions included senior executives and attorneys from many leading U.S and U.K. law firms and Fortune 500 corporations.

LawScribe’s President and CEO, Kunoor Chopra moderated the first panel of the day. The panel featured Elizabeth Foster, a partner with the San Diego law firm Luce Forward Hamilton Scripps and Joe Thorpe and Phyllis Deets from LawScribe’s new strategic partner, IQWEST. The panel addressed common questions relating to offshore outsourcing as well as examining the different legal services that are being outsourced, the benefits and drawbacks associated with outsourcing legal work, the ethical issues involved and a description of the steps necessary in locating a suitable outsourcing partner. Of particular interest to the throng of delegates was the detailed large-scale document review case study. Major law firms are now faced with the task of reviewing 10 to 20 times more information while at the same time being pressurized by their corporate clients to offer increasingly cost effective solutions. Joe Thorpe and Kunoor Chopra examined together the added-value benefit available by utilizing offshore attorneys trained in the very latest innovative, concept analysis and review hosting solutions.

In the second session of the day, hosted by yours truly, I was privileged to be joined by Chris Bull, COO of the internationally renowned U.K. law firm Osborne Clarke LLP and Yatish Srivastav, Vice President and Head of Global Business Process Outsourcing at RMS, a Citigroup company. Elizabeth Foster also sat in on the second panel sessions providing the major U.S. law firm perspective. The overriding theme of the second session was that the face of the legal profession on both sides of the Atlantic is changing. There were some differences of opinion on both the extent of the change and the time period involved. The general consensus however, was that the current modus operandi utilized by law firms of a hierarchical pyramid structure, where junior associates are billed out at increasingly inflated hourly rates for routine “legal work” cannot be sustained in the long-term. In order to survive in today’s global economy simply maintaining the status quo is not an option for the modern law firm.

I don’t intend to provide a comprehensive review of either of the day’s sessions but if any readers would like to view the materials from either panel please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Offshore Outsourcing MCLE Ethics Webinar Audio Available

In my blog back in October I announced that we had become the first LPO to achieve accreditation by the State Bar of California to provide an MCLE Ethics seminar on the subject of Offshore Legal Outsourcing, the Ethical Implications. Over the course of the last two months we’ve presented this seminar to law firms small and large across Southern California.

I’ve now been involved in offshore legal outsourcing for 5 years, both as a UK solicitor and since joining LawScribe. Even though I am a true believer in and advocate of the benefits of legal outsourcing, I am also adamant that some within my industry gloss over the specific ethical requirements incumbent on U.S. and U.K. attorneys contemplating sending legal work overseas. The seminar covers the following crucial issues:

1. Avoiding the Unauthorized Practice of Law
2. Duty to Supervise
3. Duty of Competence
4. Preserving Client Confidences and Secrets
5. Conflicts of Interest
6. How to Bill for Outsourced Legal Support
7. Export Control Regulation Requirements

For the first time on 1/29/08 I presented our MCLE ethics course as a webinar. For those of you who are interested in hearing the audio of the webinar, or viewing the slides, I’ve now uploaded these to my blog. If you scroll down the right hand side of the page you’ll find the links. If any readers are interested in having this seminar provided in person at your firms please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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