American Conference Institute Hosts 3rd LPO Summit

American Conference Institute (ACI) has announced their third LPO Summit, taking place February 23-24 in New York. The event is aimed at both in-house counsel and law firms who are still evaluating the viability of offshore outsourcing, plus those who already have outsourcing operations in place. Click here for the conference home page.

The speakers will be comprised of in-house counsel and attorneys with first hand experience of legal outsourcing. The ACI conference website home page promises that this will not be a service provider driven agenda, and that participation by service providers will be limited to the most established and respected organizations. Expert speakers include among others: Paul Greenwood, CIO, Clifford Chance LLP., Michael Mensik, Partner, Baker & McKenzie, John Rosenthal, Partner & Chair, E-discovery Group, Winston & Strawn LLP., David Cohen, Senior IPR Litigation Counsel, Nokia. For the full list of conference speakers, click here.

I will be hosting a panel entitled, “An Overview of the Pricing Models for Outsourcing - Examining Market Rates to Secure the Best Deal”. I’ve listed below my panel’s discussion topics.

• Analyzing the current pricing structures for LPO providers
• What are the rate structures in place?
• Do higher rates reflect higher quality?
• Benchmarking the cost of large scale projects
• What hidden costs should be considered when outsourcing?
• Assessing the fair market value
• How much is outsourcing worth?
• How to analyze your internal fully loaded costs

Legal Process Outsourcing Blog readers can obtain a substantial discount on the conference attendance fee. The blog discount price is $1595. Register via the ACI conference website and use priority code SP2.

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UK Law Society Gazette In-House Counsel Offshoring Survey

Apologies once again to my readership. For the second time in a couple of weeks I've missed reporting on important legal outsourcing features carried by the UK's leading legal publication, the Law Society Gazette. Back in November the Gazette ran a comprehensive LPO piece "Offshoring legal work: Do Lawyers risk outsourcing themselves?". They followed this up on December 11 when they posted the results of an in-house counsel survey on the subject of outsourcing and cost cutting.

Althought the survey sample size is undoubtedly small, the results do make for interesting reading. The survey asked questions such as, whether the economic downturn was pushing in-house counsel into outsourcing, and what other ways they were exploring in order to cut legal costs? Click here for the full Gazette article.

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Shared Services & Outsourcing Network Weekly Wrap

I was privileged to be interviewed this week by Shared Services and Outsourcing Network's online editor, Jamie Liddell, for his weekly wrap podcast. As we approach the end of a tumultuous year in the financial world I gave Jamie my thoughts on how LPO has progressed in 2008, the impact of the current economic crisis, as well as some predictions for 2009. Readers wishing to hear the full interview click here.

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LawScribe Announces MCLE Accreditation for Three LPO Courses

I'm delighted to announce that LawScribe has been awarded MCLE accreditation for a further two courses: Patent Outsourcing, the Ethical Implications, and Offshore Document Review.

The new Patent Outsourcing seminar covers the ethical, liability, and security risks associated specifically with the outsourcing of patent support work overseas. The course also examines the recent USPTO Notice discussing the Scope of Foreign Filing Licenses and compliance with the Export Administration Regulations.

The Offshore Document Review seminar provides attendees with a detailed cost benefit analysis comparison between offshore and onshore document review, together with a real life, large-scale, offshore document review case study. The seminar also examines the variety of pricing models available for document review, including per-document pricing.

LawScribe will be providing all three seminars, including its original MCLE Ethics accredited course, Offshore Legal Outsourcing, the Ethical Implications, throughout December 2008 and January 2009. The courses are available both in-person at law firms and legal departments and online via webinars. If any of my readership are interested in finding out more about any of the courses please don't hesitate to contact me. The course outlines are detailed below:


Course 1: Offshore Legal Outsourcing, the Ethical Implications (1 hour MCLE Ethics credit)

Avoiding the Unauthorized Practice of Law
U.S. Attorney's Supervisory Responsibilities
Duty to Act Competently
Client Confidentiality
Duty to Disclose
Conflict of Interest Implications and Risks
Billing Appropriately for Outsourced Legal Support
Overview of ABA and Bar Association Opinions

Course 2: Patent Support Services Outsourcing (1 hour MCLE credit)

Overview of the Patent Outsourcing Industry
Preliminary Ethical and Practical Considerations
Duty of Competence, Supervisory Responsibilities and no UPL
Patent Support Services Outsourcing Case Study
Export Control Regulations: USPTO Notice July 23 2008

Course 3: Offshore Document Review (1 hour MCLE credit)

Overview of LPO Document Review Market
Cost benefit analysis of Onshore vs.Offshore Document Review
Hourly rate vs. fixed price
Buyer due diligence - selecting a provider, and the RFP process
Structuring & Managing Offshore Document Review - Industry Best Practices
Ethical Obligations, Avoiding aiding in the Unauthorized Practice of Law
Project planning, e-discovery tools, quality and performance metrics
Case Study: Large-scale document review
Future trends in offshore and onshore document review

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Leading Firms on Both Sides of the Atlantic Acknowledge LPO

Over the last couple of weeks two of the leading legal publications in the U.S. and the U.K. have carried comprehensive articles covering the LPO space.

The U.K. Law Society Gazette and National Law Journal articles include contributions from senior counsel at major corporations and international law firms as well as senior executives from the legal outsourcing space.

Click here to access the Law Society Gazette article.
Click here to access the National Law Journal article.

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International Association of Outsourcing Professionals Chapter Updates

I was delighted with today’s turnout for the third IAOP legal outsourcing chapter webinar. We had approximately 90 registrants for the webinar and it is clear that the chapter is growing from strength to strength. I invite my readers who have not yet attended a webinar to do so. Thank you also to Patrick Hatfield and Tariq Hafeez for their thought provoking presentations. Subjects for discussion in upcoming webinars will include a detailed analysis of the USPTO Foreign Filing License Notice and the impact of the recent ABA Opinion. I also invite my readership to suggest future webinar discussion topics. If we’re going to keep the Chapter fresh, up to date and informative, I do need ongoing input to the faculty from others.

On a separate point I also attended last night’s IAOP San Francisco Chapter meeting hosted and chaired by Stephen Johnson of Kirkland and Ellis LLP. The panel discussed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) and its impact on outsourcing for both healthcare and non-healthcare companies. Eminent panel speakers in the outsourcing field included Devin Gensch and Christopher Long from Blue Shield of California and Rajib Arjun and Preetham Peter from PricewaterhouseCoopers. HIPAA governs the collection, use and disclosure of protected health information (“PHI”) by covered entities and also provides stipulations as to how covered entities must secure minimum contract terms with third parties who handle PHI on their behalf.

The LPO industry has to a certain extent mimicked the checks and balances associated with both HIPAA compliance and other relevant health information related laws including, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, and the California Medical Information Act. Often times I criticize LPOs for simply picking up the baton of the BPO and ITO worlds. However, given that time and time again, security and confidentiality remains the number one concern of potential LPO clients it is eminently sensible to follow the rigorous standards set by HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and other legislative guidance, when outsourcing client confidential legal information overseas.

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Messages of Support from Legal Outsourcing Providers and Clients

I was extremely glad to hear from my friends at leading LPOs, Integreon and Pangea3, both of whom have offices in the Mumbai area, that all their employees are safe and well. The National Law Journal carried a piece on the subject today commenting that LPO clients have been quick to express their concern and support. Click here for the article.

On behalf of LawScribe's entire team I would like to extend our thoughts and best wishes to all those affected by last week's terror attacks.

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