The Tribune (India) and ihotdesk are reporting on predictions that Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) will be the next big outsourcing wave to hit India. From The Tribune:

Legal process outsourcing (LPO), as it is being called, has very high growth potential, and according to latest estimates, it can fetch 79,000 jobs in India by 2015.

According to Nasscom, estimates of current addressable market potential for legal services outsourcable from the USA alone are pegged at $ 3-4 billion. It is estimated that only 2-3 per cent of the potential market has been tapped so far.

The article goes on to say that Indian lawyers have several advantages over their US and European counterparts, including:

  • rates (Indian lawyers are 90% less expensive than many US lawyers),
  • turnaround time (less than 24 hours for many jobs), and
  • a large base of qualified lawyers (Indian universities apparently turn out “three lakh law graduates every year” or, in other words, three hundred thousand law graduates per year).

ihotdesk also points out that the Indian legal system is a close cousin to both the UK and US legal systems, suggesting that this shared ancestry will make it easier for Indian lawyers to understand the UK and American legal process:

“Indian lawyers have an advantage as far as getting work from the UK or US, which is the largest market, is concerned. Both the Indian and the American system are based on the British legal system.”

Although most of the legal outsourcing to India so far has been support-related, this is beginning to change. Again, from The Tribune article:

“Though a bulk of the legal work considered offshore-able comprises paralegal and secretarial support, a few companies are planning to ‘push the envelope’ to offer a broader range of more value-adding services like contract review, patent writing, litigation support, general research and review,” says Nasscom.

“The processes being outsourced have evolved from transcription, secretarial support, voice messaging and word processing to more domain-specific paralegal work. However, patents is the next big area Indian lawyers are eying,” adds [Shiwal Satyarthi, a lawyer with an outsourcing firm].

A strong case for legal outsourcing [tribuneindia.com]
Another sector of outsourcing set to boom in India [ihotdesk.com]
Nasscom Report [nasscom.in]