Offshoring legal work is hot a topic judging by the number of conferences and the growing list of companies in India that provide offshore legal support.
Conferences: Tomorow (May 15, 2007) I am a panelist in The World Is Flat: What You Need To Know About Effectively Outsourcing Legal Services (ALM, Law Journal Newsletter web audio conference, $). Next week ALM hosts Legal Industry Outsourcing Forum For Both Work Product And Support Services, an all day conference in NYC.
Updated List of Outsourced Legal Services: Joy London and I have updated our directory of Outsourced Legal Services. We now list 77 providers, up 20 from the prior update in January, more than a 30% increase over just a few months (new entries are not necessarily new companies). Thanks to the blog Legal Process Outsourcing for identifying some of the vendors now on the list.
Thoughts: Law firm interest in outsourcing appears strong and entrepreneurs in India appear optimistic based on the growing list. But I’ve not seen solid data on just how much and what type of work is being offshored. Considering that Clifford Chance and Baker McKenzie have offshore operation centers, however, I think the upward trend is solid and likely to continue. And as US BigLaw continues to grow and merge, firms will find managing operations the traditional way challenging – offshoring will likely increase its appeal.