LPO and India News Roundup

At the excellent Strategic Technology Blog,Ron Friedman references EDD consultant Conrad Jacoby’s proposition that ABA Opinion 08-451 opens up the proverbial hornets nest for BigLaw. Jacoby quite rightly reminds us that the due diligence steps incumbent on US attorneys supervising offshore legal outsourcing, defined within the Opinion, are of course simply a minimum requirement for any legal work which would otherwise be deemed the practice of law, delegated to an underling, whether domestically or offshore. Ron takes this line of thought one step further, and goes on to question whether BigLaw in-house document reviews would actually pass the ABA Opinion’s stipulated due diligence and supervisory standards.

Elsewhere, Lalit Bhasin, the President of the Society of Indian Law firms (aka King Canute), is once again heard taking a swipe at the inevitable liberalization of the Indian legal sector. The Economic Times of India, reports Bhasin as stating:

"The demand for opening legal services sector in India does not come from Indian businesses or professionals or even foreign multinational companies…. the demand comes from foreign lawyers and particularly those from the U.K.. It is obvious that the U.K. is witnessing a negative growth so far as legal profession is concerned. Accordingly, India and China offer good prospects -- but the problem is that, in India, the legal profession is not a business and it is not up for sale."

Stating that the legal profession is not a business, displays a lack of appreciation of the reality of the global profession within which we now all co-exist. The leading UK and US law firms have woken up to this harsh reality over the last 6 months. It is simply impossible to separate the law from the economic forces that impact every other professional services industry. The lack of reciprocity, which Bhasin references, for Indian attorneys wishing to practice within the UK or US, is also a false comparison. This is purely a protectionist stance, nothing more, nothing less. I have always argued for a leveling of the playing field for domestic Indian firms, prior to allowing foreign firms to practice within the country. I blogged about this in January, when I discussed the recently passed LLP Act. I wrote at the time:

“Originally introduced in January 2006, the bill itself will not liberalize the legal services market. However, assuming the necessary secondary regulations are passed, it will enable Indian law firms to form LLPs with no limit on partner numbers and allow foreign firms to form their own India LLPs.”

Now that the playing field, to a large extent has been leveled, it is only a matter of time before the floodgates open and some of the major foreign firms formally set up shop within India’s borders.