Many discuss legal outsourcing but few admit doing it.
I predicted in January that more law firms will go public about outsourcing. As more law departments reveal publicly that they outsource and offshore, barrier for law firms to do the same falls.
HSBC launches offshore legal team for bulk work in LegalWeek.com (7 Feb 2008) reports that “FTSE 100 banking giant” HSBC “has set up a team of four lawyers in its global service centre in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.” The article also reports that BT “last year expanded its existing offshore legal function in New Delhi with two new outposts in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires to support its US operations”
Separately, Offshoring litigation work in India is a podcast by The International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (click here for landing page for CPR’s complete podcast directory). CPR interviews co-founder Sanjay Kamlani and VP of Legal Services Shelly Dalrymple of Pangea3 (40 minutes). Starting at about time mark 26:50, Mr. Kamlani shares that Philip Morris has a 10-person Pangea3 team working on day-to-day contracting worldwide.
How many more BigLaw partners will go on record about the risks of offshoring legal work when their clients – or companies they would like as clients – are already doing so?
See list of outsourced legal services for other companies offshoring.
This first appeared at Strategic Legal Technology at Prism Legal.
Update (29 Mar 08): Picking an Outsourcing Partner (The Recorder, 31 Mar 08) reports that O’Melveny’s marketing department outsources research to India.