In this roundup: buzz about lawyer ratings, a note on the Indian legal market, and technology as law firm competitive advantage.
Lawyer Ratings
The blawgosphere buzzed with news of Avvo, a lawyer rating service for consumers. (My own rating does not indicate my inactive/retired status and misses my Massachusetts registration.) Meanwhile, LexisNexis offers Peer Review Ratings on Martindale. I wonder how many GCs are using these. From what I can see, use of technology does not directly enter the rating process. See the “Top 10 Firms – Peer Review Rated – Overall”
Legal Offshoring Writ Large: The Indian Legal Market
I write regularly about legal process outsourcing and offshoring, especially LPOs in India. I have not previously covered the Indian legal market itself, which is highly regulated. For a good overview and analysis of the current regulatory situation, see Mark Ross’ blog post, Liberalization of India’s legal services market and the impact on the Legal Process Outsourcing Industry. Ross is a British lawyer who now works in the US for LPO Lawscribe.
Technology as Competitive Advantage for Law Frims
Mark of Success in the Feb 2007 issue of Corporate Counsel reports that Unilever has outsourced management of its huge trademark portfolio to Baker & McKenzie. Unilever sent RFPs to 30 firms; 27 replied. The database technology Baker offered was a key factor in the firm winning the business. Unilever cut its trademark staff from 54 to 28.