Connie Brenton is a Senior Director and Chief of Staff to Sun's General Counsel. She also leads the Sun Legal Operations organization. Prior to joining the Sun legal team, Connie managed a large engineering and contracts management group at Storage Technology. Before joining the corporate world in 2001, Connie was in private practice with fourteen years of civil litigation experience. She is also an entrepreneur having founded, managed, and sold a number of successful businesses.

 Connie graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a joint degree in economics and political science. She subsequently obtained her Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver in 1987 and her Master of Business Administration from Regis University in 2006. Connie is a dynamic, passionate, results-oriented leader with a strong track record of performance in turnaround, start-up and high paced organizations.

ValueNotes: Offshoring of legal services has been talked about in the media a lot. What are your thoughts about this? What is your perception of offshore legal service providers?

Connie: I am a big supporter of legal process outsourcing, particularly offshoring of document review when and where it makes business sense. I’ve been to India a number of times, the most recent being in May of this year.

I had been to India in 2005 and have followed the progress of the Indian LPO market closely. During the last 6 to 12 months, the LPO industry has exploded and I expect the industry to grow rapidly.

I am particularly interested in knowing the experience of the legal service providers in this segment and their ability to cost effectively deliver high quality work. I’m not interested in going with new players. However, that being said, I believe there is maturity in the market which was not there two to three years back. Vendors in this industry are reliable in terms of quality and ability to deliver.

 ValueNotes: You had explored the offshoring option in 2005. How has your experience been in handling vendor relationships? What were the challenges?

Connie: I was hunting for LPOs in 2006. I did internet searches and asked industry peers and colleagues. Now I get a call, sometimes two, per week from LPOs. The market has exploded. There’s a good understanding of what the customer requires. The quality of work is good and the security is generally remarkable. The training of the LPO employees is sophisticated. LPOs are becoming sophisticated in getting their employees to stay. The industry is maturing now with large BPOs like Infosys entering this space.

 ValueNotes: Would you prefer to work with BPOs or LPOs?

Connie: Personally, with LPOs as it is a niche market. I understand that there may be expertise in BPOs but it doesn’t necessarily translate to providing legal service. This is a different market and a different clientele. The quality, attention required, security requirements, experience in the market, and training - all these are essential. Large BPO providers are experienced outside the LPO space but until recently have little experience in the LPO space. Though there are now a couple of exceptions.  BPOs do have an advantage in having experience working with multinationals.

 ValueNotes: Sun is seeking ways to reduce legal spend offshoring. How much of the work from Sun’s legal and compliance organization can be offshored?

Connie: Sun has 250 full time and part time attorneys and support staff across all its offices around the world. Instead of how much can be offshored, I would think the question should be how much is appropriate to be offshored. Most legal work is not appropriate to send offshore. Some work that you can put a methodical process around, such as document review, is generally more appropriate work to offshore than work that involves making judgment calls. Although the market is maturing, it’s not currently ready to take up work that involves making judgment calls.

 The work that Sun has been successful in offshoring is primarily document review. The process steps should be designed and laid out properly. Communication is very important. A full time person from our legal team is assigned to manage the project. Even when we think we have created a perfect process, there are instances of miscommunication when we send work offshore.

 ValueNotes: What are the important parameters? How do you select LPOs?

Connie: Content and site visits give tremendous insight and information. Each LPO has a different culture. They are very different from one another. Site visits are very important. It is important to know what the LPOs are doing to provide a working environment for talented lawyers and to find out the security measures they’re taking, the security/backup systems on their computers, etc. Some even have fingerprint/eye scan to get into a room. All these things are considered.  Also, I like to get to know the management team (not only the founders). At some places, you can feel the enthusiasm of the teams to do exceptional work. The LPO companies strive for continuous improvement. They often come up with better solutions than what you send them. I want to know what quality control looks like, how long they’ve been there, etc. Cost is never the sole decision maker for Sun because of the emphasis on quality. We like to meet the people working on our projects.

ValueNotes: Has the buyer/vendor relation changed over the past 4-5 years? Any specific initiatives that you’ve taken?

Connie: Site visits and constant communication. As we become more experienced, we know the questions to ask. Some LPOs were 20 in manpower and six months later, 300. Some have just one project for one company which is why they’ve increased the manpower quickly. I better understand the questions to ask. I’ve seen how the industry has grown. There’s increasingly more pressure in the US to cut costs. Now, there is historical data. The industry has reached a tipping point. (Offshoring) It’s becoming more of an accepted practice. They (LPOs) also now understand the US market better.

 ValueNotes: What are the key success factors?

Connie: It’s all about communication. Consistent communication. Many of the LPOs have been training and working with US firms for over four years and have a greater understanding on how to work better, faster and cheaper.

 ValueNotes: What are the key trends you see?

Connie: I see more opportunities. Contract review and document review are attractive to offshore. Even discovery is being offshored. There will also be more opportunities in the IP space.
 
ValueNotes: Do you think the election results in the US will impact the industry and offshoring?

Connie: Legal process outsourcing can be offensive to attorneys. At a certain level, I don’t see it being offshorable. As the market matures, we will processize the work. It will develop at its own pace. I don’t see elections impacting offshoring.