June 16, 2007
India is fast becoming the outsourcing haven for western countries. Industries like BPO, KPO and now LPO are fast gaining momentum in the country. After UK, it is now the turn of USA to outsource their legal processes to India. Major Law firms of US are now outsourcing legal research and documentation work to Indian lawyers. Indian firms cater to bigwigs like CK, 20th Century Fox, HBO, John Wiley and Sons and undertake high-end research, trial preparation, paperwork, depositions summaries, document management, case/trial analysis and a host of other services.
Majority of these outsourcing processes are related to intellectual property litigation and paralegal services but the real estate sector also offers an untapped potential. Documentations, pre-litigation preparation, drafting transactional documents like agreements/ contracts and document management are some of the services that Indian Law firms and lawyers can offer outsourcing clients across the world in the real estate transactions.
India is an apt choice for outsourcing as the Indian legal system bears striking resemblance to the legal systems of US and UK and the medium of instruction is English. Close to 2 00 000 students graduate in law of which only about 850 get entry into top law firms in India. A majority of transactional formalities are similar in all the three countries, making it much easier for US and UK law firms to trust India to meet their requirements.
The amount of outsourcing assignments received is still the tip of an iceberg as legal pundits opine; there is still a wealth of potential in legal outsourcing in India.