Recently, there has been much debate as to whether legal process outsourcing (LPO) is a good or bad thing. But much of the debate neglects to consider that LPO is not just “one thing.” To be carried out successfully, LPO programs have to be “fit for purpose,” and as the objectives to be met are quite different, LPO programs (including thoughts on what to outsource, to whom, under what terms, and subject to what governance) must also be different. Law firms, for example, might think about different kinds of outsourcing to meet very different objectives: from back office outsourcing aimed at reducing overhead costs (e.g., IT or Finance activities), or middle office outsourcing aimed at improving performance or competitiveness (e.g., knowledge management or business research), to front office outsourcing aimed at improving the cost effectiveness of delivery models (e.g., document review or due diligence). For additional thoughts on outsourcing for law firms, check out this post.

For those of you who are a part of in-house sourcing organizations, thinking about how to help your law departments explore outsourcing, the choices of value propositions (and their implications for selection, negotiation, and governance) are quite different:

Reducing internal headcount by shifting lower-value tasks to an LPO provider (offers limited savings; watch for upfront and governance costs)
Reducing external spend by shifting activities from outside counsel to an LPO provider (provides greater savings; due diligence and three-way governance are critical)
Shifting internal resources to more valuable work (enhances law department productivity rather than produces immediate savings; change management is crucial)
Providing new, previously unaffordable services to the business (brings new services rather than savings; good cultural fit and appropriate incentives are essential)
In addition to letting clear objectives shape your selection process, experience suggests there are a few other things to keep in mind, given the current immaturity of both buyers and providers of LPO services.

Craft an RFP that is “fit for purpose.” LPO services are at the more commoditized end of the legal services spectrum, but they are not actually commodities only differentiated by rates. If you ask them to “bid on your spreadsheet,” what you get back may have little to do with the law department’s objectives. An hour of time from one is not necessarily the equivalent of an hour of time from another, even for services described the same way. A good LPO provider should offer more than just lower cost labor. Their use of technology and effective process management, and the quality of the people they hire and train, will drive differences in quality, productivity, error rates, and more. To help you realize the potential value of outsourcing these activities, make sure your request allows providers to differentiate themselves in ways that matter to your outsourcing objectives.

Hold their feet to the fire on value. Your process should allow providers to “show off” what differentiates them and still enable you to make some direct comparisons of their pricing and value proposition. Hourly rates may be interesting indicators, but they don’t really tell you about value for money; in my experience, the number of hours they estimate the work to require varies more widely than their rates. In one recent engagement, for example, the law department set up a data room with materials from a prior, already-closed transaction and asked providers to use that data room as the common basis for their estimates of what a comparable summarization exercise would cost. Providers were asked not only to come up with an answer, but also to “show their work” so that the evaluation team could understand how they went about developing their estimates and what assumptions went into it.

Let them know early on that experience matters. There is a steep learning curve in delivering legal support services efficiently and with quality. Providers who cannot convincingly demonstrate that they have had sufficient experience delivering sufficiently similar services should not get your business, and they should know so before they waste their time (and yours). Ask about their experience in concrete terms (e.g., years delivering the service, volumes actually delivered, numbers of FTEs and teams, locations out of which they replicated their processes). Ask for case studies and relevant references. Ask providers to describe how they ascertain the quality of their work and what their data show.

Law departments have traditionally kept their sourcing colleagues at arm’s length. To help break down some of those barriers, you will need to show them that you understand their challenges, speak their language, and can add value. Helping facilitate an informed discussion about outsourcing objectives and how those objectives should drive the selection process is a great place to start.

Source:http://www.spendmatters.com/index.cfm/2011/10/4/Outsourcing-the-Right-Things-for-the-Right-Reasons-Value-From-Legal-Process-Outsourcing-LPO

The country’s leading IT services, consulting and business solutions firm, Tata Consultancy Services is planning to explore the Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) market. The company has infact already begun the LPO services on a smaller scale with very few clients.

TCS is hoping to compete with its business rivals Infosys and Wipro who already have a share in the multi-billion LPO market. TCS has also started hiring both in India and UK, for this practice.

“It (the legal process outsourcing segment) seems like an interesting space…we are currently looking at it,” the TCS Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mr N Chandrasekaran, told Hindu.

TCS has been active in providing technology solutions to law firms globally. Earlier this year, the Law Society of England and Wales selected TCS’s flagship legal management solution as part of a systems development project.

India is the outsourcing market of choice for the U.S. and U.K. The Indian LPO space is controlled by exclusive LPO service providers such as Pangea3, CPA Global, Unitedlex, Integreon and Evalueserve. These LPOs are considered large (with a lawyer headcount of over 500). There are other niche firms like Cobra and SDD, with headcounts of about 100.

Pangea 3 which was recently acquired by Thomson Reuters, is on a hiring spree and plans to double its head count by hiring around 700 people this year to cater to the demand of increased services. The majority of the hirings will be at its Mumbai and Noida centres.

Some of these LPOs have been growing at over 100 per cent in the last few years primarily because they charge a fraction of the $150-350 an hour billed by an attorney in major markets such as the US and the UK.

According to a Nasscom market intelligence report, the LPO segment is expected to touch $15 billion by 2015.

Apart from LPO service providers, the major companies that started LPO services few years back include Bangalore-based Infosys and Wipro. Wipro and Infosys have been actively pursuing opportunities in the LPO space for the last few years now.

Infosys LPO engagements account for 60 per cent of the total knowledge services business, with over 500 professionals and Rs. 70 crore ($15 million) in annual revenue. Bulk of the work is done from Pune (about 400 professionals), followed by Bangalore (80-100 professionals) and Gurgaon (about 20 professionals). The company also expects to start LPO service delivery from Manila, Philippines, by the end of 2011, according to media reports.

In June last year, Wipro’s BPO arm partnered with Microsoft Corporation to provide global legal process outsourcing for Microsoft’s Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio.

TCS’s back-office business, which includes its LPO initiatives, generated revenues of Rs. 10,157 crore ($2.1 billion) for the quarter ended March 31, according to Hindu .

It appears that the LPO sector will continue to grow, going by the current shift in the demands of the market. There are still very few offshore legal service providers that provide specialised high end legal services. Once this trend of specialised high-end legal outsourcing gains more pace, greater amount and variety of legal work will be outsourced.

Source:http://www.barandbench.com/brief/2/1484/tcs-keen-to-join-the-growing-lpo-market

Legal process outsourcing (LPO) company UnitedLex, which is backed by Indian and Silicon Valley venture capital (VC) firms, has acquired Los Angeles-based LPO LawScribe giving it offices in Los Angeles, New York and Gurgaon, reported VCCircle.

LawScribe has been one of the smaller LPO players, focusing primarily on document review, intellectual property, corporate transactions and legal research.

UnitedLex was founded in 2006 in the US and has grown to a total headcount of 650 professionals across seven offices, with the majority being based in India, followed by the US and India.

In March 2010 UnitedLex won UK telecoms giant BT as a client, which would outsource part of its global in-house legal work to a team beginning with 15 lawyers in India. Back then the firm had a total legal headcount of only 550.

UnitedLex CEO Dan Reed told Legally India at the time that the LPO was targeting revenues of $35m to $40m by the next financial year in 2011.

UnitedLex is backed by India-based VC firm Helion Venture Partners and Silicon Valley-based Canaan Partners, reported VCCircle, having raised $5m in its second roun dof funding in 2008 following its series A round in 2007.

Source:http://www.legallyindia.com/201011161510/Legal-Process-Outsourcing-LPO/lpo-unitedlex-buys-smaller-rival-lawscribe-after-growing-20-in-8-months

According to a comprehensive poll of over 6,547 outsourcing clients worldwide, smaller vendors, including legal outsourcing / LPO / legal KPO companies, are satisfying more clients, and to a much greater degree, in comparison with large players. The Black Book of Outsourcing, acquired last year by Datamonitor Group, a leading business research firm, revamped and further professionalized the survey methodology this year.

Datamonitor research director Eamonn Kennedy, who led the 2010 survey, said as follows: “Although feedback on the big names, such as IBM and HP, has been generally positive, the companies that have excelled and delighted, through the services they provide, have been smaller players.” In particular, the Philippines-based legal process outsourcing company, American Discovery, and the high-end Indian legal outsourcing company, SDD Global Solutions, are ranked as the top two outsourcing companies in the world. The client survey covered all outsourcing fields, including IT, KPO, legal process outsourcing or LPO, and BPO. Clients ranked SDD Global, which is the only Indian LPO managed by a U.S. law firm, as the best outsourcing company in both India and the UK, ahead of countless larger players.

Kennedy adds: “Smaller outsourcing providers like SDD Global have been pushing their specialist knowledge and deep client understanding as their unique selling point for some time now, claiming that specialists provide a better service. While all outsourcers talk up their ability to specialize, this survey suggests that SDD Global and other relatively small players are best positioned to deliver on that promise.”

In this year’s Black Book survey, customer satisfaction was assessed using nine performance criteria: requirements awareness, shared goals, financial benefits, risk mitigation, partnership approach, problem resolution, corporate reputation, skills and resources, and future orientation.

Vidya Devaiah, Managing Director at SDD Global, welcomed the news: “We’re grateful that so many of our clients were surveyed, ranging from large and small corporations to law firms, and that they had an opportunity to share their enthusiasm for our work. We’re proving that India need not be a mere back office for the West — instead, we’re performing front office work, consistently ‘wowing’ clients with sophisticated legal research, analysis, drafting and editing.”

Source:http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/other/2010101565376.htm

Legal Process Outsourcing or what is popularly good known as “LPO” is a single of a greatest phenomena which has influenced a authorised courtesy today. A investigate conducted by a US formed Forester Research states which a stream annual value of authorised outsourcing which is value million can climb up to billion as good as fetch 79,000 jobs in India by 2015. If you compensate tighten courtesy to a expansion of this building sector, you would comprehend which a LPO is progressively apropos a fortitude of Indian use sectors. The census data suggested upon top of prove which there have been viewable benefits compared with outsourcing. This essay will however excavate in to a benefits of authorised routine outsourcing to a good determined law organisation or a organisation situated in India.

Law propagandize graduates have been right away per a LPO courtesy as a subsequent many appropriate thing to operative in a law firm. The many viewable good compared with authorised routine outsourcing is which a single would embrace peculiarity work during intensely affordable costs. Working with graduates who have an glorious reason over a theme is an combined advantage. Educational institutions in India such as a IGNOU School of Law in organisation with a Rainmaker, which is a heading precision as good as recruitment solutions provider, has tailored a acceptance march – a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Process Outsourcing – to privately teach as good as sight students to fit a mandate of this sepulchral sector.

How does a single select a right law organisation or organisation which will sufficient perform a client’s needs? One should recollect which law graduates from India transport for serve preparation to countries similar to a United States, UK etc.. Most of these students benefit believe as good as bargain of a laws as good as lapse to India. These graduates have been afterwards hired by companies as good as law firms as associates or authorised advisors. Take for e.g. Unicita Consulting Private Limited, which is a organisation which provides Intellectual Property Services, privately obvious as good as heading services during affordable costs, which has hired graduates who have perceived their post connoisseur degrees from Australia as good as a US. They have been means to assimilate their clients’ Intellectual Property mandate as good as successfully record obvious as good as heading applications as good as take to court a same.

Legal Process Outsourcing reduces costs incurred whilst achieving best formula inside of a reduced duration of time. This seems to be a win-win incident for both – a US firms, who get their work finished during reduce costs as good as a Indian firms who have a event work upon International law as good as yield peculiarity work which lives up to a standards of a US.

Source:http://www.washingtonattorney.info/benefits-of-legal-process-outsourcing/

The business process outsourcing sector has a couple of cousins, so to speak! These have not become essential parts of a call center yet. But there are many call centers across the world that offers these services in addition to BPO. These are Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and legal process outsourcing (LPO). It requires some different resources for a BPO service unit to provide these services. For example, a KPO would need writers and web designers. A LPO on the other hand would need employees who understand the legal procedure and the statutes. The costs associated with getting the work done in the developed countries are quite high. That is why these business and legal firms are outsourcing their work to countries like India and the Philippines.

KPO involves a call center in work related to development of literature for the client and the services. The call centers taking KPO projects should expect to create and develop websites for the clients.

The task of the unit is to get these writers to develop the content and information pages of the websites. Several units are also entrusted with the research and development on a particular domain. Knowledge sharing is a big business entity in the modern world. Call center services providers are keenly eyeing the KPO market because that is where the future lies. The BPO market will always pay dividends for these firms. It’s the additional share of the pie that they are looking for!

There is warning note to be sounded here. Call center firms taking on KPO projects must realize that these projects require high value work as compared to telemarketing. The projects are generally not something that simple data entry executives can do. The call centers have to hire qualified professionals who are able to take on something like this. You will need writers with a certain standard. Similarly you will need designers who can work on websites that have an international appeal. Failure to do that would mean that the projects would stand to be cancelled. It’s not something that the BPO units would be ready to do if they feel that they do not have the necessary resources. To set up a KPO you will need to source greater talent and manpower that you would need in BPO service. Before signing on the dotted line, this is one aspect that should be kept in mind.

The same goes for LPO. This is more of a niche project. There are legal firms in USA and Canada that need help with documentation. It’s expensive to get the documentation done by the legal professionals there. So the work is outsourced to the call center units that take on such projects. It’s the work of the call centers to hire young legal professionals and lawyers, even law students, who can prepare this documentation. The cost of getting the job done in India is far lesser, even at an hourly rate. These are some additional work that the BPO units can do to tide over any dip in the amount of telemarketing services that they do.

Source:http://business.ezinemark.com/cousins-of-bpo-kpo-and-lpo-167ad089965.html

The legal processes of rich countries promise the next outsourcing windfall for countries like India and the Philippines. As corporations and legal firms in the US, Europe and Australia cut overhead costs, legal jobs, such as electronic document management, are expected to shift offshore. India,
due to its sheer size, is set to grab a big part of the legal process outsourcing (LPO) pie that is expected to rise at 40 per cent annually.

“Over the next five years there could be close to 20,000 LPO jobs in the country,” Alok Aggarwal, co-founder and chairman of research and analytics firm Evalueserve told HT. Aggarwal said almost all of the offshore outsourcing work at present is being sent from corporate counsels of UK and US. So far, law firms have been hesitant to offshore work but as they look towards cutting overhead costs more and more jobs would come to India, he said.

“Globally, the total addressable LPO market is around $20 billion and India is well set to grab a large portion of it,” said Anand Sharma, CFO of CPA Global, a legal services firm. Sharma said the company, which employs around 500 people in legal processes, plans to quadruple its headcount by the end of December 2011 in view of the opportunity.

Another legal outsourcing firm, Pangea3, wants to double its headcount from the present 550 over the next one year.

“This is the beginning for LPO sector wherein in the first phase entry-level and mid-level LPO jobs will come to India. After five years, the country could attract higher-end consultancy and legal advisory jobs as well,” said Kamal Karanth, MD of staffing firm Kelly Services.

In fact, during the ’90s, even the BPO sector attracted lower rung clerical jobs that later evolved into higher-end analyst positions. The LPO sector now seems to be going through a similar cycle and with the success of its BPO sector to boast of, India could hasten the evolutionary process for LPOs

Source:-http://www.hindustantimes.com/LPO-boom-coming/Article1-596468.aspx

Homegrown legal process outsourcing (LPO) providers have a new story to share. While the United States continues to dominate the $60 billion Indian IT-BPO exports, a substantial growth of the LPO market is being driven by other geographies too. The $440 million global legal outsourcing industry has experienced new business developments in regions such as Europe and Australia in the recent times. And to grab the opportunity, vendors like CPA Global, Pangea3 or Integreon are gearing up to serve these fast growing markets— which now contribute a significant amount to their revenues.

Of late, Pangea3, a Mumbai-based LPO tied up with an Australian law firm Advent Lawyers to set up its base in the region. Two months back, the company had also opened an office in London as part of a concerted expansion drive in Europe. It was reported that company’s expansion in Europe will allow it to increase revenues by 15% over the coming year. At present, Europe drives a significant 30% revenue for the company while Australia and Apac contribute 10%.

Sanjay Kamlani, co-CEO Pangea3, says, “Europe is a growth story in itself. The outsourcing view in the region is changing. Work like electronic discovery, commercial contracts, procurement agreements and other day to day work by general counsels is driving the growth.”

Questioned on the current European crisis, he further explains that though the budgets are contracting in the UK, it does not mean that the law firms are doing less work. There is a portion of non discretionary work which law firms always outsource. The company caters to many UK based companies like GE, Amex, Sony, and Kamlani feels that this business could extend to their European work as well.

Even Jui Narendran, head of ValueNotes Sourcing Practice feels that the UK law firms are looking to cut costs of maintaining their international networks, to be able to compete with the US law firms. “Cutting costs and better utilisation of in-house lawyers by outsourcing low value tasks is a compelling reason for law firms to consider outsourcing/offshoring in their strategy,” she adds.

Simultaneously, directing towards the importance of other regions apart from the US, Leah Cooper, director—strategy and development for legal services outsourcing, CPA Global feels, “We see a lot of interest in the European market and Australia as well. Right now, growth is coming equally from the US and Europe.” The company gets 40% revenues from Europe and Australia clubbed.

Noting the potential of the non-US regions, Anand Sharma, CFO and head, management services at CPA Global comments, “In the last one year, RFP and enquiries from the European and Australian customers have increased to 40% as against 20% earlier.”

Sharma also feels that the US market is dominated by outsourcing the litigation work. On the other hand, Europe and Australia heavily outsource non litigation work like contract management and M&A due diligence.

Looking at history and analysing all the big contracts that impacted the LPO industry, UK has a major role. Last year, Rio Tinto, a leading international mining group based in the UK awarded a contract to CPA Global. Rio Tinto offshored contract review and drafting, legal research and document review to CPA Global.

Similarly, Integreon won a seven-year contract worth £50 million from UK based law firm Osborne Clarke. Integreon will provide knowledge and information management; technology and business intelligence services; transcription, secretarial, and word processing services to the law firm.

Thus, we foresee a higher growth rate in the European and APAC regions to outsource legal work, considering they joined the gang late. Not to forget, the United States has already been through the curve and other regions are now catching up even faster to overtake the same market opportunities.

Source:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/lpos-peep-beyond-the-us-market-for-growth/660605/0

Legal process outsourcing has been one of the recent developments in the law field. Legal outsourcing has been an attractive subject for most of the legal service providers keeping in mind the real cost benefits brought about by it. Some of the service forming a major part of legal outsourcing to India include trade mark services, patent support services, litigation support, legal research, due diligence support and document review.

It should be noted that the list is not an exhaustive one and depends upon the expertise of the LPO units. Some of the major issues going against legal process outsourcing to India include the breach of confidentiality of the clients. The experts different upon their views on legal outsourcing services, some believe it to be very beneficial for the long term benefit of the firm while some are of the opinion that it would heavily come down upon the employment generation of the home country.

Competition and cost effectiveness are the two major factors why Indian law firms have gained a lot of popularity in countries like United States and United Kingdom.

Legal firms can benefit from the legal outsourcing process in two models. According to the first model the firm will be acting as a middleman with the simple task of introducing clients to LPO India. Thus, doing this it will not only create a co ordeal relationship but would also have potential profitable ventures in future from the clients. It should be noted that in the first model the firm’s role would strictly be restricted to a middleman and it would not be receiving any direct payments from either of the parties. In the second model the firm would be actively involved in managing the relationship and workflow between respective clients and LPO India while receiving fee in return of such services.

Source:http://www.financemoz.com/legal-process-outsourcing-the-benefits.html

A major percentage of the companies using legal process outsourcing services prefer to outsource legal research and writing services to LPO companies. Broadly, legal research and writing involves the following functions-

The legal process outsourcing industry has been in the news for some years. Recently it has come to play a frequent international role as a consequence of the 2008 global financial crisis which burdened many international firms with loads of cases involving litigation and bankruptcies. Now these law firms and their clients were themselves hit by the recession and hence not in the position to pay the standard charges demanded by their local legal services providers. In any case, most companies would any day prefer to cut down cost if they got an opportunity.

LPO companies based in developing countries give them this opportunity. Law firms are now able to get a variety of time consuming and expensive legal work done for a fraction of their local cost through offshore legal services providers based in distant countries.

Locating the primary sources of law for the given cases, regulations, statutes, etc. Looking through secondary authority sources for background information on a legal subject. Such sources include law reviews, legal treatises, legal dictionaries and legal encyclopedias like Corpus Juris Secundum and American Jurisprudence. Conducting research on non-legal sources to find supporting information.

The above tasks can be time consuming and hence quite expensive if done by a qualified legal services provider in a country like the United States who charges tens or even hundreds of dollars by the hour. But the same work can be done very efficiently in countries like India for rates as low as one-fifth of what it costs in the US.

Law firms that outsource legal research work benefit from the highly qualified talent pool that LPO hubs like India can offer. The country has a vast educated work force that is capable of producing high quality legal research writing. Moreover, in recent years India has seen considerable infrastructural development which has created facilities like 24/7 legal process outsourcing services, timely deliveries and full proof security measures. Reputed LPO companies maintain a substantial work force which enables them to complete high volume legal research writing projects in record time.

Apart from saving on cost while getting high quality work delivered on time, law firms that outsource legal research services require a high level of confidentiality to protect sensitive information contained in their legal documents. This facet is taken care of by reputed LPOs that make use of high quality security software to ensure that all sensitive information remains protected under every circumstance.

The age of information technology has bought along with it many marvelous developments; the ability to outsource legal research services is just one of them. This whole process where the legal research writing of a law firm based, for example in in Los Angeles, is seamlessly carried out by a legal services provider working somewhere in a country like India or Philippines is nothing short of amazing if you give it a thought.

Source:http://legalprocessoutsourcingservices.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/legal-writing-and-legal-research/

Market hype and law firm conservatism have hindered the growth of the legal process outsourcing (LPO) market, according to a report by data analyst Ovum seen exclusively by the Gazette.

While the LPO industry is ‘set for significant growth over the next few years’, it is ‘still a nascent market’ some ‘seven or eight years’ behind the business process outsourcing industry, the report concluded.

The report noted that law firms have been slow to embrace IT outsourcing over the last decade, and suggested that this could explain their cautious approach to LPO. Law firms have publicly announced just 49 ‘small-scale’ IT outsourcing deals of more than $1m (£0.66m) in the last 10 years, with an average value of less than $15m (£9.89m), the report found.

Ovum also suggested that the need for consensus with all partners on major decisions was a barrier to LPO deals.

Ed Thomas, analyst in IT services at Ovum, said: ‘There’s a streak of conservatism that runs through the legal industry. A lot of these firms have been around for a long time and have done business in the same way for years. But this all has an impact on the cost of legal services.’

The report said that the recent deal between City firm CMS Cameron McKenna and outsourcer Integreon ‘suggests that law firms, having previously believed that they had different needs than companies in other industries, are beginning to appreciate that there are certain services…that all large companies require and that can be provided cheaply and efficiently by third parties.’

Under the deal, valued by Integreon at £583m over 10 years, CMS will outsource a substantial part of its non-legal office functions.

‘As the [chief executive] of one pure-play LPO vendor told us, it is not the case that law firms did not understand the benefits of the LPO model prior to the recession,’ the report said. ‘Rather, they understood its benefits right away, but there was no incentive for them to do anything about it. Now, with in-house counsel reducing the number of outside law firms they work with, the incentive is there for companies to begin to embrace LPO.’

The report suggested that hype around LPO caused numerous opportunistic start-up companies to flood the market before the sector could establish itself.

Source:http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/law-firm-039conservatism-slowing-lpo-market-growth

The BPO (business process outsourcing) of Wipro technologies has partnered with Microsoft corp. to offer LPO(legal process outsourcing) solutions for its intellectual property portfolio. Earlier in July 2008, Wipro started providing services such as trademark filling and U.S patent and docketing to Microsoft’s IP portfolio.

WiproPreviously Microsoft had a mix of outside law firms offshore vendors and house resources to perform IP services. With its extensive BPO experience, Wipro not only ensured efficiency but also consistency in the way Microsoft carries out its business.

In past two years, Wipro has created an impressive IP portfolio and has the capability for working in Microsoft’s vast IP portfolio. Microsoft and Wipro have developed improved domain expertise, case management and processes to further complete IP processes.

Wipro is trying to integrate the legal expertise with technology and process to reduce the cost for its clients. “In order to manage world’s largest and valuable portfolio the teams work with the in house teams,” said Shively the general manager at Microsoft.

“We have developed the LPO framework, tools, controls and metrics to drive productivity and reduce costs for Microsoft,” Joseph said.

Wipro will integrate its BPO’s legal expertise with process and technology to reduce overall legal costs of Microsoft’s clients.

“With our extensive BPO experience, international reach and global delivery capability, we will be able to ensure efficiency and consistency in the way Microsoft does business,” Jospeh added.

“Wipro will also continue to integrate legal expertise with process and technology to reduce overall legal cost for Microsoft clients,” the statement said.

“Our dedicated team at Wipro has become a fundamental component of our global patent operations function,” Microsoft’s general manager Martin Shively said.

According to the general manager of Patent Operations at Microsoft, Martin Shively, the committed Microsoft team at Wipro Technologies has turned out to be an essential part of the US computer technology conglomerate’s international patent operations.

Joseph said that the accomplishment of the collaboration is evidence of the innovation and commitment shown by the IP team of Microsoft and the LPO solutions experts at Wipro. He further said that in general his firm would carry on incorporating legal proficiency with process and technology with a view to diminish legal spends for its clients. In the meantime, both the tech giants continue to use the partnership to foster efficiency, innovation and cost control in the domain of LPO globally.

Source:http://techgenie.com/latest/wipro-to-offer-lpo-solutions-to-microsoft/

As per the Businesswire ( A Birkshire Hathaway Company ), WIPRO Technologies, the global IT services business of Wipro Limited , yesterday announced that its Business Process Outsourcing division has partnered with Microsoft Corporation to provide global Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) for Microsoft’s Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio.

In July 2008, Wipro began providing U.S. Patent and Trademark filing and docketing services to Microsoft’s Intellectual Property & Licensing group. Microsoft previously had used a mix of in house resources, outside law firms and offshore vendors to perform these IP services. Moving to Wipro, with its extensive BPO experience, international reach and global delivery capabilities, ensured not only efficiency but also consistency in the way Microsoft does business.

Microsoft facilitated the transition of processes to Wipro by leading domain training for Wipro’s team. Wipro correspondingly developed the LPO framework, tools, trainings, controls and metrics required to drive high productivity and reduced costs for Microsoft. Wipro’s operational rigor, application of tools and various quality improvement methodologies has led to significant gains in both quality and efficiency of the transferred processes. These results have led Microsoft to add international docketing and filing processes to the original US-only processes at Wipro.

Over the past two years, Wipro has developed an impressive IP domain expertise and ability to work on a scale required for Microsoft’s vast IP portfolio. Wipro and Microsoft continue to jointly develop improved domain expertise, processes and case management and work allocation tools to further streamline IP processes.

“The dedicated Microsoft team at Wipro has become a fundamental component of our global Patent operations function,” said Martin Shively, GM of Patent Operations at Microsoft. “The Wipro team works closely with our in-house team to manage one of the world’s largest and most valuable patent portfolios.”

“The success of this partnership is testament to the innovation and dedication demonstrated by Microsoft’s IP team and Wipro’s LPO solutions professionals,” said Saju A. Joseph, General Manager KPO & LPO solutions, Wipro Technologies. “Wipro will continue to integrate legal expertise with process and technology to reduce overall legal cost for its clients,” he added.

Today Wipro and Microsoft continue to work together to expand their global delivery partnership.
This is a good news for young law professionals who want to make their career in Legal Process Outsourcing.They can specialise in IPR and Technology law and target the WIPRO LPO for a handsome starting salary.

Source:http://tabrezahmad.typepad.com/blog/2010/06/wipro-and-microsoft-join-hands-to-deliver-global-legal-process-outsourcing-efficiencies.html

Wipro Technologies today said it will provide global legal process outsourcing services to software giant Microsoft’s intellectual property portfolio.

Under the agreement, the BPO division of Wipro Technologies will provide global LPO services to Microsoft’s IP portfolio, Wipro said in a statement.

The satement, however, is silent on financial details. Wipro has developed the LPO framework, tools, trainings, controls and metrics required to drive high productivity and reduced costs for Microsoft, it added.

Wipro and Microsoft will continue to jointly develop improved domain expertise and processes to further streamline IP processes, it added.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Wipro-to-offer-LPO-services-to-Microsoft/articleshow/6047939.cms

Telecoms major BT has entered into an agreement to outsource part of its global in-house legal work to legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider UnitedLex, beginning with a team of 15 lawyers based mostly in India.

BT announced yesterday that by “moving the existing in house team offering legal support services to UnitedLex, the BT Legal team will be free to focus on more complex and value-added activity”.

BT Global Services general counsel David Eveleigh said in a statement: “We are keen to develop cost effective ways of sourcing legal and commercial services whilst retaining quality… Our existing Gurgaon based in-house team delivering legal support services has performed extremely well, but the time is right for us to transition the work and our people to an established legal process outsourcer, who can offer industry best practices and provide global scalability.”

“We believe that the services offered by UnitedLex will complement our global panel of law firms.”

UnitedLex CEO Dan Reed told Legally India: “One of the reasons that we’ve been selected by BT is that we competed very strongly against Infosys and CPA [Global] and we were chosen over those companies because of the technology we provide.

He explained that UnitedLex was highly technology and process driven, having taken inspiration from the way Accenture had structured its consulting operations. “We are not just a bodies shop – we are driving higher and higher up that curve.”

The UnitedLex legal team exclusively working with BT would start with a headcount of 15 but that it would likely grow a “fair amount”, said Reed.

UnitedLex was founded only four years ago in the US but has grown to around 550 lawyers globally, according to Reed, with a majority of 425 based in India and the rest sitting in the US, followed by Israel.

He predicted that the company would hit a turnover of $35m to $40m in the next financial year and that the LPO industryas a whole would evolve rapidly with changes already taking place.

“Some of the earlier movers that first hit the market place are struggling,” he said, “and if you don’t have a truly optimal model you’ll find it difficult to meet the challenges.”

“There are maybe four or five [LPO] firms that are even relevant, and of those maybe only a couple that are going to make it. There will be a lot of them that go out of business in the next year, or consolidate or are acquired for manpower.”

Referring to last year’s court ruling against foreign firms practising law in India, he argued that the Indian regulations governing LPOs should be clarified in the coming years.

Reed said that India would be unlikely to prevent LPOs from operating in the country, expecting that if LPOs were banned from India by regulation they would simply move their operations to competing jurisdictions such as Malaysia or South Africa.

Reed noted that UnitedLex was not a law firm, even though its target area of work was higher-end work than what was traditionally associated with LPOs.

“The first generation of LPOs was all about redlining documents and very low-end types of legal work,” he said. “Law firms are doing much higher end legal work, very judgement based legal work. But they don’t use technology like we use it: we stay very much in the mid-complexity sort of zone.”

Unlike law firms UnitedLex lawyers did not opine on law and did not practise law, he added. “We don’t compete with Indian law firms and we sure as hell don’t practice Indian law.”

Source:http://www.legallyindia.com/20100330624/Legal-Process-Outsourcing-LPO/four-year-old-lpo-unitedlex-targets-35-40m-revenue-bags-bt-legal-outsourcing-contract

Facing the heat of recessionary pressure, India’s legal process outsourcing (LPO) industry is likely to see a decline in revenue and is expected to reach $440 million dollars (around Rs 2,000 crore) by 2010 end, a report said.

According to a report by business intelligence & research firm ValueNotes, global economic downturn has slowed down LPO industry and is changing the service provider’s landscape.

“Revenues from the offshore legal services industry were USD 320 million for 2008 and are expected to reach USD 440 million by 2010 end,” it said.

The offshore legal services industry grew at a rapid pace until 2007. However, the slow down in buyer market impacted the offshore industry resulting in falling growth rate.

The industry that was growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 40 per cent over the last four years until 2007, dropped to 28 per cent in 2007-08, and further reduced to 16 per cent for 2008-09.

The fall is primarily due to recessionary cost pressures impacting the global legal services market and the subsequent affect on the number and value of offshoring contracts, the report said.

However, industry experts are hopeful about the future of Indian LPO sector.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infSotech/ites/LPO-industry-to-suffer-from-economic-downturn-for-short-termReport/articleshow/5281754.cms

More than one-half of London’s top 30 legal firms are involved in or considering legal process outsourcing. Eight of them including Linklaters, SJ Berwin, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are weighing their options, while eight more, including Allen & Overy, Eversheds, Lovells, Pinsent Masons, Wragge & Co, and Simmons and Simmons are already engaged in the process. Areas being considered are document review, due diligence, contract development and legal research.

Eleven of the top 30 firms told Legal Week that they had no plans to outsource, but not all of them had discounted it as an option.

Source: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/legalpost/archive/2009/11/23/top-london-firms-embrace-outsourcing.aspx

It appears that Magic Circle firms have fallen in love with outsourcing. Most American associates will hope that like Mad Cow disease, the outsourcing craze stays on English side of the ocean. The Lawyer reports:

Allen & Overy (A&O) has become the first magic circle firm to outsource legal work as an increasing number of UK firms embrace legal process outsourcing (LPO) in a bid to reduce their overheads.
The firm has partnered with LPO provider Integreon to outsource basic litigation document review to teams in New York and Mumbai, in what could generate a 30-50 per cent cost saving.

Anybody think we’ll see some geographic hypocrisy in the comment thread? Outsourcing to New York = good, outsourcing to Mumbai = bad? Or will everybody simply agree that outsourcing = apocalyptic?

After the jump, The Lawyer has an excellent chart that shows us where British firms stand with regards to outsourcing.

Outsourcing could be a disaster for Biglaw associates. And it hasn’t even started in earnest yet:

This is the first time that a magic circle firm has outsourced legal work. Rivals Clifford Chance and Linklaters have both outsourced support functions, while Clifford Chance has a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary that carries out document review work and other legal support tasks previously undertaken by onshore paralegals and trainees.

The Lawyer posts an overview about outsourcing at major British firms:

Are the English giving us a preview of our American legal future? I don’t know, but I’m starting to put two of every kind of junior associate on a big ass boat, just in case.

Source: http://abovethelaw.com/2009/11/british_firms_catch_outsourcin.php

Some of the City’s leading law firms are considering outsourcing legal work as increasing numbers of firms look to cut costs by using external providers for both legal and business support.Linklaters, SJ Berwin, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and CMS Cameron McKenna are among eight firms within the top 30 currently looking at introducing some aspects of legal process outsourcing (LPO).

Camerons and SJ Berwin have yet to identify which areas they would like to outsource, while Linklaters is considering sending some document review, due diligence, contract development and legal research functions to an outside provider.
Research by Legal Week shows that a further eight firms within the top 30 already carry out some form of LPO, including the likes of Allen & Overy (A&O), Eversheds, Lovells, Pinsent Masons, Wragge & Co and Simmons & Simmons.

A&O, for example, uses a network of alumni for work such as first drafts of banking documents, as well as outsourcing some litigation document review to India through outsourcing company Integreon. The Integreon deal followed a pilot in March this year and comes as A&O has also outsourced some document review work to companies Pangea3 and QuisLex in response to client demand.

Eleven top 30 firms said they had no plans to carry out any legal process outsourcing. However, some of these had looked at it and discounted it as an option.

Linklaters chief operating officer Simon Thompson (pictured) said: “Our clients are under increasing financial pressure and clearly want to achieve the best value they can for their legal spend. This has led them to seek new and alternative ways to source their legal services. This includes LPO. As such, we are keen to develop effective ways in which we can work in tandem with LPOs in support of our clients’ requirements.”

The trend comes as firms also look at increasing the amount of business process outsourcing (BPO) they carry out.
More than half of the firms in the top 30 already outsource some back office functions, with the number of firms interested in outsourcing and the range of functions being outsourced both set to increase.

SJ Berwin chief executive Keith Wood said: “Although we have nothing in place, we are looking at legal and business process outsourcing as possible opportunities to improve further our efficiency levels. Law firms are going to feel a squeeze by clients seeking more for less and if partners don’t want to take a hit, they’ll have to reduce overhead costs.”

Source:http://www.legalweek.com/legal-week/news/1562452/eight-uk-firms-size-legal-outsourcing-moves

Allen & Overy (A&O) has agreed to outsource its legal work to Mumbai and New York with legal process outsourcing (LPO) company Integreon, becoming the first magic circle firm to embrace the LPO model, according to The Lawyer magazine.
The Lawyer reported that the firm has partnered with LPO provider Integreon to outsource basic litigation document review to teams in New York and Mumbai, in what could generate a 30-50 per cent cost saving.

A&O litigation support specialist Vince Neicho said: “We put together a suite of options [for clients] including offshore outsourcing, a reduced paralegal rate in our London office and the [improved] use of technology.”

A&O has chosen to work with Integreon on a case-by-case basis, rather than signing a deal for a dedicated team.

Neicho explained to The Lawyer: “The main reason is the fluctuation in the workload, we might go a few weeks with nothing at all, or a client might opt for another of our suite of options. Outsourcing offshore is new in this country, we’ve some clients that may feel uncomfortable with it. If we put our own captive team together and push outsourcing it’s not good for them or for us.”

This is the first time that a magic circle firm has outsourced legal work. Rivals Clifford Chance and Linklaters have both outsourced support functions, while Clifford Chance has a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary that carries out document review work and other legal support tasks previously undertaken by onshore paralegals and trainees.

A&O has a formal best friends relationship with Trilegal.

Neicho’s comments were made at The Lawyer’s inaugural conference on Legal Process Outsourcing and Offshoring and come as more law firms chose to outsource lower-value work in a response to requests from clients to bring down costs.

UK firm Simmons & Simmons also signed up with Integreon last month to outsource legal work to Mumbai.

Managing attorney at mining giant Rio Tinto Leah Cooper took the radical move earlier this year of outsourcing legal work to a team of 15 Indian-based lawyers sourced by LPO CPA Global. No in-house jobs have been lost as a result but, with less work going out to panel firms, it is estimated to have saved the company around $8m (£4.8m).

Earlier this year The Lawyer revealed that Pinsent Masons had become the first firm to outsource work normally done by UK-based lawyers to a dedicated offshore team through a deal with LPO company Exigent (22 June 2009). The firm now plans to expand this further (28 September 2009).

Last month Clarke Willmott laumched an LPO pilot in its Birmingham office with the aim of rolling it out across its UK network (12 October 2009).

The trend towards LPO and offshoring has gathered such momentum that even one of the City’s more traditional names – Slaughter and May – has been in talks over outsourcing legal work. This is believed to have been triggered by a request from a particular client (5 October 2009).

This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on TheLawyer.com

Source: http://www.legallyindia.com/index.php/20091118292/Legal-Process-Outsourcing-LPO/Allen-Overy-embraces-India-legal-process-outsourcing-LPO