Mercury News has a recent article exploring the market for legal outsourcing. Money quotes:
Offshoring legal work is the latest play in the rapidly changing and increasingly global theater of business, where all kinds of white-collar jobs — from software engineering to tax-preparation services — are being sent abroad. It’s still not clear how big legal offshoring will be, and skeptical audiences question the ethics involved in sending legal casework and privileged client information overseas.
But Gupta’s Speedera is not alone among technology companies taking the cue on legal offshoring. Cisco Systems arranged with a U.S. law firm to have technical writing done by engineers in India for some of its patent applications. Microsoft had patent research done in India. General Electric has experimented with a legal team in India to draft contracts and other legal documents.
In Palo Alto, the Mumbai-based law firm Nishith Desai Associates recently raised the curtain on IP Pro, an offshoring service supplementing its core business of advising U.S. clients on India’s legal system. IP Pro already has three or four “big name” clients who are “trying us out,” said the firm’s Vijay Sambamurthy. Its staff of eight paralegals in India drafts U.S. patent claims, which are checked for quality by a domestic law firm.
“The potential is huge,” Sambamurthy said. “You can cut your costs by at least 40 percent.”
Some of the biggest Silicon Valley companies are waiting in the wings.
Via elawyer Blog, via Rick Klau. Rick’s original article linked to an article in the Chicago Tribune about outsourcing in a variety of professional service industries.