ABA Identifies Offshore Legal Outsourcing and Litigation Funding as "Hot Topics"

Less than one month ago I wrote a blog piece entitled: Litigation Funding and Legal Outsourcing – A Marriage of Convenience and a Glimpse into the Future. I discussed the rise to prominence of the Litigation Funding industry, during a time when the number of litigations as well as the potential cost of such litigation is rising. The gist of my piece was that by working in tandem, LPO and litigation funding possess synergistic solutions to this dilemma.

This weekend I perused with great interest the Summer issue of the ABA publication the International Lawyer (TIL). The Summer issue always contains a review of significant developments in international law over the past year (the Year-in-Review) and is prepared by the responsible Section committees. Well, in addition to the global implications of the UK’s Legal Services Act (which I have discussed numerous times, specifically in my article The Legal Services Bill and its Impact on the Legal Process Outsourcing Industry), two further subjects were identified as transnational legal practice “Hot Topics”. What might those topics be, I hear you ask?

I quote directly from TIL:

"In addition to the UK Legal Services Act the topics of litigation financing and offshore legal outsourcing were frequent topics of discussion."

The article goes on to discuss the 6 Bar Associations that have released Opinions on the subject of LPO, as well as of course the ABA Opinion from August 2008. The author comments correctly that each opinion concludes that a “lawyer could satisfy her ethical obligations and outsource work offshore." The author does go on to identify four key areas of concern, namely:

1. Duty of Care in Selection in Supervision (which relates to the issue of unauthorized practice)
2. Duty to Maintain Confidentiality
3. Duty to Avoid Conflicts of Interest
4. Duty to Inform the Client


I will be hosting another MCLE Ethics accredited webinar on July 15th. The webinar, “Offshore Legal Outsourcing, the Ethical Implications”, will cover all of the issues raised by the ABA in above referenced International Lawyer Summer edition. If you are interested in signing up for the webinar please email me directly.