Sunday, September 5, 2010

Legal Outsourcing: it is here

What was once unthinkable has today become reality. "Cash-conscious Wall Street banks, mining giants, insurance firms and industrial conglomerates are hiring lawyers in India for document review, due diligence, contract management and more. " This generation of college students must seriously consider potential skill demand before investing the years of time and money/debt into the education industry.

Outsourcing to India Draws Western Lawyers

"
Partners in the West are asking legal outsourcing companies in India to create dedicated teams of lawyers for their firms, for example. Those teams could expand and contract depending on how much business the Western firm has. 'That means a law firm with 500 members in Chicago can compete with a 2,000-member firm in New York,' Ms. Dalrymple said.
"

So what's left as "un-outsource-able"? Probably just skills requiring understanding of local culture, language, etc. and self employment. At least that's how I see people survive around here.

2 Reflections:

Anonymous said...

This is an interesting post; this generation's law school graduates may be faced with legal outsourcing, something that past generations have not seen. This is not necessarily something to frown upon, graduates will be able to jump right into their law careers because they will not be burdened with menial work, and they can spend more time working on cases.

Anonymous said...

Legal outsourcing might also have effects on the judicial system of the host country. For example, in addition to India, many American firms choose to outsource to the Philippines. This is because it has a hybrid common law- civil law jurisprudence system that combines American procedural rules with civil-type statutory codes. This makes for ease of transition for outsourcing companies. Other countries might implement changes to their judicial systems over time. See also:
http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2010/09/03/outsourcing-lawyers-leaving-is-here-to-stay/