August 27, 2007 -- LPO has hit the mainstream press with the Bloomberg news article of August 21, 2007, reporting that a Hyderabad, India-based LPO (Quislex, which is represented on the Board of Editors of LPO Network) created state-specific lease forms for one-tenth the price quoted by the company's outside law firm. The article says big law firms like Jones Day and Kirkland and Ellis are outsourcing work to India, joining  corporations like General Electric. Most US law firms declined to discuss with the Bloomberg reporters whether they outsource legal work. Even though corporations produce more legal work for the LPOs than law firms, the article says law firms account for more revenue for the LPO providers than do corporate clients. The story was written for Bloomberg by Cynthia Cotts and Liane Kufchock.

 

July 17, 2007 -- LPO Network is delighted to announce that George B. Hefferan III, Vice President and General Counsel of Mindcrest Inc. has been added to the Board of Editors. Mindcrest, a legal outsourcing firm, provides legal support in finance, human resources, real estate, and other areas, and recently opened a new 400-seat facility in Pune, India, to increase its service capacity. See the Mindcrest expansion story as it appeared in the India Express at http://http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=232625 . Mr. Hefferan’s article  on the subject of due diligence in selecting an LPO for litigation support appears in the August 1, 2007 issue.

July 16, 2007 -- In a 96-page report (“Offshoring Legal Services to India - An Update,”
available from ValueNotes for $625 US) dated July 2007, ValueNotes says several of the companies represented on the LPO Network Editorial Board are among the “frontrunners" in the LPO space, including Pangea3 and Quislex. The report also identifies “emerging players'' which include other companies whose executives are on our editorial board, including LawScribe. Congratulations to these companies for apparently pulling ahead of the increasingly crowded LPO pack.

June 14, 2007 -- Karlyn D. Stanley, attorney and member of the Editorial Board of LPO Network spoke on Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) issues at the LegalTech 2007 Conference in Los Angeles, California. Her presentation was part of the panel, "Outsourcing in Action: A Practical Approach to Offshore Legal Outsourcing." Co-presenters included Robert Armstrong, Kunoor Chopra and Kevin Lacey. Ms. Chopra, CEO of LawScribe, Inc., is also an LPO Network Editorial Board member. The LPO panel discussion addressed how corporate legal departments and law firms can bridge the “confidence gap” between U.S. and Indian lawyers on outsourced projects. The ALM Events conference was held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. ALM plans another LPO event in San Francisco in October 2007.

June 3, 2007 -- LawScribe, Inc. will sponsor panel sessions at LegalTech West 2007 in Los Angeles, California on June 20-21, 2007. “Legal Outsourcing Offshore” will feature Douglas Brown and Scott Wilson, authors of "the Black Book of Outsourcing" as two of the speakers. Discussions will also focus on setting up and managing outsourcing relationships, case studies on successful legal outsourcing, and best practices for managing outsourcing contracts. The LPO track will include these sessions: “Hype v. Reality: Dispelling Offshore Outsourcing Myths,” “Outsourcing in Action: A Practical Approach to Legal Outsourcing,” and “Current Legal and Business Trends in Outsourcing Agreements.” The ALM Events conference may draw as many as 3,000 legal professionals to the Los Angeles Convention Center. LawScribe has offices in Los Angeles, California and Gurgaon, India.

May 9, 2007 -- Ms. Negroni, Managing Director of CRA, gave a presentation on outsourcing legal work to India to a group of mortgage industry in-house counsel and private firm attorneys, at the Mortgage Bankers Association's "Legal Issues and Regulatory Compliance Conference" in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 8, 2007. Highlights of her presentation include the following:

►Annual salary for an Indian LPO lawyer (full-time) approximates $10K (US$) per year.

►Some types of legal tasks are particularly susceptible to cost savings, e.g., patent filings average $2,000 per application vs. $8-12,000 in legal fees if prepared by a US patent law firm. (Source: “India's Legal Process Outsourcing Business To Grow 7% By 2010,” May 15, 2006 [Indlaw Communications Pvt. Limited]).
►79,000 lawyer jobs may move from the US to countries like India by 2015, and India could capture 70% of the KPO business worldwide. (Source: “Evolution of Knowledge Processing,” by KPO Experts India (http://www.kpoexperts.com/kpo-india/evolution-of-kpo.htm)

►BPOs and LPOs are increasingly involved in training personnel on regulatory and legal requirements in response to client demands.
►Administrative, technical and physical security measures are greater in Indian LPOs than in most US law firms and corporate legal departments.
►Reputable LPOs maintain extensive databases for use in checking conflicts and checking and verifying the prior work assignments of attorneys engaged.
►The majority of US firms surveyed used contract attorneys (legal temps) in 2006.

►US legal staffing industry grew from $800MM in 2000 to $1.5B in 2006.
►Ethics opinions of the ABA, New York City Bar Association and San Diego Bar Association approve LPO to India with adequate supervision by US attorneys. American Lawyer reports that ABA opinion also OKs law firms triple-billing the rate paid to the staffing agency for temporary lawyers.