Bangalorebrouhaha’s Weblog

When I arrived in Bangalore two years ago I thought that the legal outsourcing craze was going to offer the perfect fit for me professionally.  Before arriving I had contacted a small LPO based in the US and in Bangalore.  I was offered a job and I eagerly looked forward to jumping in.  On my first day of work I was told their manager was retiring and I was offered a position running the whole show.  I was flattered, excited and very, very naive!  I really had no idea what running such a project would entail. 

Let me give you a little summary of what an LPO is.  Basically, legal outsourcing is supposed to be a way for American and UK firms to cut costs for their clients by utilizing the English speaking, common-law based Indian attorneys who are willing to work for pennies on the dollar.  Theoretically, it should be fine.  It has worked in so many other fields.  Outsourcing has basically built Bangalore and the spectacular successes of outsourcing firms are legendary.  Unfortunately, the concept does not actually translate that well into legal work.  Some firms are content with low level document processing and review.  That kind of work is probably perfect for the LPO model.  However other firms are trying to break into research and drafting of documents and that is where the entire LPO model looks very shaky.  The very basic reason is that a person graduating from and Indian law school (except for one or two) really does not have the qualifications, the background, the knowledge or the ability to produce work that looks like it was produced by an American attorney.  There is no emphasis on writing in Indian law schools. 

What LPOs tend to do is to hire a few people who graduated from US law schools or who have practical experience working abroad.  Those people are put in charge of a few more people who graduated from Indian law schools.  These “teams” are supposed to work on projects from the US and return a document that meets US standards.  In reality, the people in charge of the team end up either doing most of the work themselves or spending inordinate amounts of time correcting and editing the work of the teammates. 

There are companies that are now training Indian lawyers for the LPO industry.  This is a great idea.  The problem is most LPOs feel they can do the training in-house.  I just am not sure if you can impart an American legal education in a series of one-hour lectures over a few months!

There was great hope for the LPO industry.  Some of the big outsourcing companies were talking about jumping in.  I was told by one company that they hoped to hire 2000 attorneys over the next two years.  That was a year ago and from what I hear, they don’t have more than a skeleton staff still.  It is very hard to find qualified people and more difficult to keep qualified people.