The New York City Bar recently issued an ethics opinion clarifying how bar members may use the services of offshore legal service providers. In a nutshell, New York City Bar lawyers may offshore legal services provided they meet five requirements:

A New York lawyer may ethically outsource legal support services overseas to a non-lawyer, if the New York lawyer (a) rigorously supervises the non-lawyer, so as to avoid aiding the non-lawyer in the unauthorized practice of law and to ensure that the non-lawyer’s work contributes to the lawyer’s competent representation of the client; (b) preserves the client’s confidences and secrets when outsourcing; (c) avoids conflicts of interest when outsourcing; (d) bills for outsourcing appropriately; and (e) when necessary, obtains advance client consent to outsourcing.

Adam Ketcher of Cyrus D. Mehta & Associates has a nice article summarizing the opinion and describing what it means for New York lawyers.

New York City Bar Formal Opinion 2006-3 [via New York City Bar Association Website]
New York City Bar Ethics Opinion Permits Legal Services Outsourcing [via ILW.com]