Lord of the Game: Legal Process Outsourcing
Someone rightly cited, “law is both a business and a profession”. Meaning thereby, to run the business in the legal industry, one need not necessarily be a lawyer. As I believe, this knowledge base is meant to be dispersed amongst numerous professionals across the country; it would be a matter of joy to communicate that the professionals other than lawyers can also play the game of legal process outsourcing from India.
You are a law firm providing legal services that has got its clients based in USA. Some day, late evening you are assigned an agreement to be immediately analyzed, interpreted and suggested upon. This needs to be responded to the client first thing the next morning. You look around and see if anyone is available to your backing at office. You realize, the team of Research Analysts has gone for the day. You are left with one over burdened secretary of yours who is a lady, has got her limitations of not to stay for late hours in office. You feel happy to learn about the presence of newly joined legal trainee, but of no use as he seems to be inexperienced in analyzing the documents.
Or do you outsource?If you are a professional entrepreneur and make your cost-benefit analysis, you would certainly create your dependable sources outside office to get your work done. You may rely upon that in case of deed and need both. This external support is actually a team of professionals including lawyers in India who are equally qualified. India is the new power, in the global arena, an emerging country where economy and demographics both are in favor of growth. Operating from India, they certainly are in the position of providing the outsourcing oriented services all the time. They would work through out the day while you are sleeping at home (night at USA) and next morning before you open your inbox, you find the project working emailed. This not only saves lots of time but doubles the earning schedule for you. The legal system allows them to supplement the strength the other organization/firm has. It’s not about replacing the intellectual work force working for the law firms abroad; rather the purpose is to amplify the capacity to produce more, suiting the quality standards. Confidentiality and privacy of information of course is a major concern.Precisely speaking, there would be five intelligent reasons, you must outsource.s Faster working. s Quality service offerings. s Working round-the-clock. s Substantial cost savings. s Higher returns. Acclivant’s Industry Research Corroborates:Why do the firms based in UK and US actually outsource legal processes?
Our market research reveals that lawyers think of the off-shore legal process largely as a cost-saving measure and then desire that the quality of the vendor is tremendous.
The majority of the law firms / organizations that we interact with about outsourcing are predominantly looking at cost savings, though when we chat about the issue in more detail with them we habitually uncover the fact that they are trying to solve a problem within their legal process. These problems are more often than not related to the quality of services or productivity of team.
It has been our understanding that firms outsource legal processes for the following grounds:
- To avail huge cost benefits – Most of the firms who seek to leverage labor arbitrage look to achieve total legal process savings between 50% and 70%. This is much higher than traditional outsourcing arrangements where the cost savings often are in the range of 15% to 25%.
- *36X7 working for their clients.
- This improvement comes in three forms:
Ø Improved quality central to the service itself. Ø Enhanced commercial impact. Ø Superior strategic impact.
*That’s an only one of its kind concept followed by Acclivant. In the legal outsourcing industry, we as vendors have to work 24×7 for our clients located abroad. We deem them not only our clients but business partners. Keeping this inimitable relationship in consideration, we work together. They operate from morning to evening for around 12 hours a day. Thus our combined business working would be 36×7 working giving more output for our clients.
This industry is sure to get bigger at a faster pace. United States is the country which alone spends around US$ 150 Billion every year towards legal services which keeps on rising by 5% year on year basis. According to our industry research, this demand emanates not only from small and big law firms but from solo practitioners, attorneys, legal research companies, legal departments of various MNCs who have realized the need of outsourcing. After United States, there are other countries like UK, France and Australia which are gearing up for legal outsourcing to India. Very conservatively speaking, over 50% of legal outsourcing happening world-wide would come to India.
Gain to the economy of outsourcing country
The economy as a whole of the country outsourcing legal services, say United States, gain in various aspects. It’s not only about the direct costs saving to the companies outsourcing located there but the savings in opportunity costs are huge. They earn more because they get focused towards their main businesses. Further, the LPO vendors based in India are bound to incur expenses to entice more and more clients in their target markets. It could be “To / Through Sales Strategy” and even for that matter, they hire professionals in United States. That leads to supplementary employment opportunities for the US population. If the companies and professionals grow in the country, automatically the economy gets rewarded. Then there are other sources of revenues for the government like taxes, statutory fees, registration fees, etc. if the vendor companies / firms establish their offices in United States.
A law firm running its business usually spends lots of dollars over various business related activities which are outsourcable.
Total spending by Top 200 Law Firms in United States
| Category | Annual spend (US$ billion) | Share of total spend (%) |
Source: Hildebrandt International, US
It is therefore evident that almost 50% of the entire spending by law firms over different business dealings can be outsourced. Alongside, there are certain high-end services which are outsourced like IPR Portfolio Management, Patent Search and Application Drafting, TM and Copyright Registration and Protection, etc.
Another link in the global mind chain
Source: Economic Times Article
The entrepreneurs must frame out the sales and marketing strategies to flow in the water efficiently.
· When & How much· Rationale· Key benefits
· Client Acquisition – When & How· Sales Forecasting for one year· Sales Budget for three years
Marketing Alliances
· Acquisition Alliances· Services Alliances· Promotional Alliances· Pricing Collaborations
It would be a wise decision to understand about the business challenges in the LPO industry. Few of them can be elucidated as follow:
References:www.acclivant.comwww.google.comwww.marketresearch.comwww.nasscom.org
| Pankaj ParnamiDIRECTOR & CEO+91-98107 37210pankaj@acclivant.comOFFICE ACCLIVANT OUTSOURCING SERVICES PVT. LTD.7/9, SARVPRIYA VIHAR,NEW DELHI – 110 016INDIA PHONE: +91.11.26966100 FAX: +91.11.26967100 |
