Legal Process Outsourcing or LPO, as it is popularly known, is a practice through which law firms seek legal assistance and services from other law firms within or outside their own country. The type of services that outsourcers are looking for are legal research, legal document drafting, document review, pleading writing, contract management, litigation support, document discovery, intellectual property and patent services (search for patent prior art, patent portfolio management). , optimization of patents and patent/trademark registration processes).

LPO has become a compelling option for most companies in the west. US and UK law firms have suffered the worst economic fallout in recent years. As a result, they have started looking for options to reduce their costs. Legal services are very expensive in the US and UK with hourly rates for lawyers and consultants going through the roof. This has helped countries like India and the Philippines get a lot of legal work from abroad. The LPO market was valued at $320 million in 2008 by Value Notes research and is likely to reach $640 million by the end of 2010. Price has been the key factor for law firms looking to outsource.

Although legal work in India and other major outsourcing hubs has grown in recent years, there have also been some challenges. Some lawyers in the US and UK have started committing their fees due to the economic crisis. Some start-ups doing legal work in countries like India have been unable to deliver on their promises. This has resulted in many companies in the US seeking legal firms within their country to ensure that all processes involved are followed in an ethical manner. In addition, there are concerns looming over client confidentiality and the ethical makeup of outsourcing companies.

India has become one of the most popular destinations for companies that want to outsource legal work. This is so because there are certain very obvious advantages, such as the availability of qualified, US and UK graduate lawyers who speak English and work at cheaper rates. Also, the Indian legal system is much like its counterparts in the west. The other main LPO centers are in Japan, France, Australia, South Korea and China. Some companies are also looking into setting up their own stores in these countries to save costs. For example, SDD Global Solutions is the only US law firm to operate its high-end legal KPO service center in Mysore, India. They have managed to reduce their installation costs by almost 43 times by doing so in India. Hollywood companies such as HBO, Sony Pictures, MTV, ABC and Twentieth Century Fox have outsourced their legal work to SDD in India as this reduces their costs to just 10% of what they would pay lawyers in the US. and the response time is less.

Legal process outsourcing is an important part of the outsourcing pie. Although there are limitations and challenges around this, we can only expect growth in this sector. If the large and experienced BPO companies manage to work on the ethical and quality aspects of this vertical, we can expect unprecedented growth in the coming years.