The State of Sourcing

Last week, Microsoft signed a contract with Integreon for legal support services. Integreon will provide contract review and offshore document review services to the software giant from its India and Fargo centers.

Under intense pressure from the current economic environment, corporations are evaluating various options to remain profitable. Corporations are adopting several strategies to cope with the changing marketplace. A quick look at how Microsoft is tackling these issues.

Continue reading ‘Microsoft-Integreon deal adds fillip to the LPO momentum’ »

How do you handle data privacy issues in India? In the absence of data privacy/protection laws, isn’t this a huge risk associated with offshoring? – These were some of the concerns raised by the attendees at a recent conference organized by the India Chapter of New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) in Mumbai.

Clearly, there were apprehensions on the part of most of the attendees with respect to data privacy. The level of confidence was understandably quite low. The reason it is understandable is because data privacy is a valid concern, given the lack of stringent data security and privacy protection laws in India. The Indian legal system does not offer privacy protection similar to other countries.

Continue reading ‘Data privacy: are we addressing this concern?’ »

India Chapter of New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is organizing a conference on “Building Bridges between the United States and India” from 25-27 Mar 2010 at Mumbai.

The conference will focus on contemporary corporate and legal themes. Speakers include Stephen P. Younger (Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, NYC), James P Duffy III (Past Chair, NYSBA, NYC), Michael W. Galligan (Immediate Past Chair, NYSBA, NYC), Steven C. Krane (Chair, NYSBA, NYC), Som Mandal (FoxMandal Little, New Delhi), Cyril Shroff (Amarchand Mangaldas Suresh A. Shroff & Co, Mumbai), Nishith Desai (Nishith Desai Associates, Mumbai) and Arun Jethmalani (CEO, ValueNotes) among others.

For more details about the event, please click here.

Hiring contract review attorneys, temp staffing companies, litigation support companies – these are the various options available for procuring LPO services within US.

Over the last one year, the legal market in the US witnessed dramatic changes. A large number of attorneys, associates and support staff from the law firms and corporations lost their jobs. While this has impacted the legal market, it has also increased competition for the offshore LPO industry. Some of the lawyers, associates and paralegals (who lost their jobs) are seeking work as contract attorneys (with reduced billing rates!). A contract review attorney is billed at a much lower rate as compared to a law associate. The average billing rates for contract attorneys range from $35 to $80 per hour and onshore service providers rates range from $50 to $180 per hour.

While billing rates vary depending on the services offered, volume and their complexity level, marginal pressure on billing rates (for certain services) in the offshore industry was visible. Of course, the billing rates of onshore lawyers will not be comparable to rates of the offshore service providers; however the increasing competition for offshore LPO service providers cannot be dismissed.

Continue reading ‘Competition from onshore?’ »

Last year, Rio Tinto, a leading international mining group, created news by announcing its plans to offshore legal services to India. Following the footsteps of Rio Tinto, last week Microsoft announced its plan to send routine legal work to CPA Global.

While a team of 70 people from CPA Global has been offering services such as intellectual property and patent maintenance to Microsoft since 2005, this is a separate contract for the LPO related work. Microsoft engaged CPA Global for a pilot in October last year. CPA Global will be providing multi-jurisdictional legal support work and legal research to the tech giant out of its Gurgaon office.

Continue reading ‘Microsoft follows Rio Tinto’s footprints’ »