Everyone is talking about LPO trends, projections and predictions for 2010. According to Value notes, the outsourcing research organization, 20% of LPOs have been withdrawn from the industry in the last two years. [1]. According to Integreon’s 2010 LPO predictions, the largest LPOs will reach more than 500 attorneys working on document review, contract management and due diligence projects, with some smaller providers going off the market entirely. [2].
Chicago-based independent legal process outsourcing advisory firm Fronterion says LPO’s main location, India, will face competition from emerging countries such as South Africa and the Philippines. [3]. It also maintains that India is currently the leading geography for legal outsourcing with over 85 percent of legal outsourcing abroad. [4].
Frankly speaking, India has not achieved growth as expected, but there is still hope for LPO growth in the country. As I said in my previous blog, the success of LPO depends on the quality of service we provide to the client and the client we work for. The size of the LPO does not matter. Even small LPOs earn huge income from legal research and corporate service work that can equal the income generated by the paralegal services of larger LPOs.
Although the liberalization of the legal industry in the country is on hold due to the recent ruling handed down by the Bombay High Court, there is pressure from the United States and the United Kingdom to open up the Indian legal market. There are many questions being asked to the Indian legal fraternity that if Indian lawyers can practice foreign law while in India, why can’t foreign law firms practice their own law with offices in India? However, the opening of the legal market for the foreign country will depend on reciprocity. We have to look at the respect that is given to Indian law firms and lawyers practicing in that country and the procedure involved in that and, on the same basis, India can open its legal market.
In terms of competition from other countries, there are about 22,000 lawyers in South Africa, about 7,000 lawyers in Sri Lanka and about 40,000 lawyers in the Philippines. Of this number of attorneys, only a few are in the outsourcing industry. They mainly offer legal transcription services as part of BPO services or as part of their law firm services in there. Since India has a large pool of talented lawyers, India would retain more than 85% of legal outsourcing work worldwide and work on electronic discovery will double as foreign companies require early case evaluation for their seniors. chances of winning and defending cases.