Legal publication The Recorder reports in Outsourcing Reaches Corporate Counsel (8/25/04) that more inhouse counsel are finding ways to use offshore labor. Separately, a recent Business Week article discusses some extraordinary security measures Indian outsourcers are taking that might allay some concerns about confidentiality and privilege.
Here are several interesting points from the Recorder article:
One of the potential barriers I have discussed in prior posts is confidentiality. In Fortress India?, Business Week (8/16/04) discusses how Indian outsourcing companies are clamping down on security and confidentiality to address U.S. and European fears of identity theft. Measures include ID cards, prohibiting workers from taking any personal items into work spaces, shredding conversation notes, call monitoring or recording, watching workers carefully, masking sensitive data, removing any hardware from PCs that would allow downloading or copying data, and video surveillance.
All these measures are designed to prevent Indian workers from stealing data that might allow identity theft. (Editorial aside: it seems to me US operations might emulate these measures as well given the problem of identity theft stemming from within the US.) The measures described in the article are far more stringent than the security I have seen at most law firms. While these steps do not necessarily address the legal sanctions that might be required to protect client confidences (e.g., restraining orders or sanctions), in a practical sense, they would likely address confidentiality considerations that might otherwise inhibit using offshore legal services.