The Changing Roles of the Outsourcing Lawyer

An interesting article published on the Wall Street Journal website recently, looks into the fast developing legal process outsourcing (LPO) industry in India and the increasing number of lawyers opting a career with such LPOs.

It casts an interesting eye into how the current economic recession in the U.S. is paving the way for outsourcing more routine work like legal research, due diligence and document review to an experienced foreign lawyer (for instance in India) for the price billed at the rate of U.S. paralegals, although important tasks, such as appearing in court or handling witness depositions, can't be outsourced, atleast as yet.

However basing of different country's laws in the same legal system (as that of the Indian and US laws in the British legal System), does aid the process of outsourcing work as aforesaid, to a great extent.

Though the logic that Indian lawyers often aren't licensed in the U.S., so they must be closely supervised by U.S. lawyers to comply with ethical norms holds water, all views in this regard are not supportive.

Some views are more skeptical, especially with regard to meeting of outsourcer's standards or the client's standards by the foreign service provider.

The complete text of the article can be accessed at the following link:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122765161306957779-lMyQjAxMDI4MjI3NjYyNTYxWj.html