Need of social media policy in the legal industry today

Social media is the latest networking tool for LPO’s and Law Firms to market their services and practice. It is the great tool for capturing new clients and maintaining the business relationship with existing clients.

Attorneys of law firms and lawyers of in-house legal departments of corporations are increasingly reading blogs and are actively involved in social media these days. They will be interested to find latest information, new development in the legal industry within less time.

Blogs are the best way to convey LPO’s and law firms expertise, point of view. More and more lawyers today are blogging. The ABA Journals web sites Blowg Directory links to over 6500 Legal blogs in more than 100 categories.

According to lexblog.com “eighty two of the 2008 AmLaw 200 firms are blogging, publishing a total 228 Blogs”.

According to Technorati's state of the Blogsphere 2008 report, the number of blog readers grew to 60.3 million in 2008.

Employees presence in the social media also helps the clients to understand LPO’s and law firms in detail. It will also enhance visibility and search engine ranking.

However, there is the need of social media policy in the legal outsourcing sectors, law firms and in-house legal departments of corporations when the employees or lawyers use the social media during office hours. Lawyer’s activity in social media shall also comply with particular state bar rules and ethics.

A decade ago, when I was having political science lecture at the college, our professor used to say us. A night watchman was hired for particular bank. He was well liked for the faithful performance of his duty. One evening, president of the bank came to bank at Eight O’clock, greeted the watchmen and explained that he was going to get some papers from his office, for he had been called to London and planned to take Ten O’clock flight. As watchmen listen to employer words, watchmen said “don't take that flight. I had a dream about that flight last night. I say it crash to earth and all were killed”. Following his suggestion, the president cancels his trip. The next day there was news on the flight that it had crash to earth and all the people aboard were killed. The president rewarded him with $1000 and dismissed him from the duty. You can argue that since he had saved his president’s life, he should be given more reward and should be promoted. Do you think the night watchmen have business of dreaming at night? Don’t you think he is supposed to be awake on duty? When he is hired as night watchmen his duty is to watch and not to sleep. Hence he was dismissed.

Similarly when a person is hired to discharge some functions, his duty is to discharge such functions for what he is being hired. In many companies and firms, when the work is not properly monitored, employees are found in playing games on the system or through social networking sites applications. They are also found in chatting with their friends for long hours. They can also go to an extent of watching videos online or search for new jobs, passing inadvertent comments through social media or using office mail for personal use, sending inadvertent mail/comments to the people who they dislike etc and they use their time in unproductive work. Although these things make them free from stress, valuable time required for the completion of the work would be wasted. There would be no quality in the work they perform. No one would restrict their freedom of chatting for long hours, playing games, watching videos etc. An employee can use his spare time and weekend days for this. But it should not be the office platform or office hours for this purpose.

Suppose an employee/lawyer who has been assigned a work of reviewing contract, if he uses the time in unproductive work and review the work hurriedly, even the misplacement of a single comma can cost a client millions of dollar.
In legal research work, if a lawyer uses wrong citations, provisions or gives a wrong legal advice or misses out an important dates for filing, it may land him or the firm in legal malpractice suits.

Although few law firms and companies have its own social media policy, many of the LPO’s and law firms are far behind it. Companies like IBM, Microsoft etc have its own social media policy and updates it regularly. Employees are bound by its policy and breach of it ranges from warning to their removal. Recently Infosys announced its decision to come up with new social media policy.
Most of the appointment letters from companies and law firms does not speak about social media policy, although an employee adhered to confidentiality agreement.

A study from Trend Micro shows that many employees around the globe are using social network while in the office.

Many of the companies and law firms are concerned about the productivity. Whether employee use of social media at work is productive or unproductive is a debate that has been raging for many years.

Some studies shows that use of social media during office hours lose productivity. Some studies show that it will increase the productivity. Many of the firms, companies do not allow employees to visit social networking sites for any reason while at work as they believe that it make them to “social not- working, in the office”.

Blocking is not the right method unless the company or the firm has proper social media policy. An unproductive employee still find many ways to be unproductive without using the internet.

Many LPO’s do not provide an access to the internet to its employees working on the LPO project.
However, internet is required for better understanding on the project they are working on. When the legal research work is involved access to the internet provides more answers and quick response to the issues involved in the legal research. A
lawyer can go through the recent changes in the legislation and quick
answers to the questions posted on many social networking sites.
Through this the lawyer can build up the case research by using legal
databases.

Finally, use of social media in the legal industry during
working hours has its own merits and demerits. It depends on the
employees how they use it. If they use it for productive work it
could be productive and if they use it for unproductive work it
could be unproductive. There is a need of social media education to
employees how it can be used it in a productive manner. Legal industry
needs to come up with its own social media policy in the coming days.

Outsourcing: One tree Many branches

Outsourcing industry is not new phenomenon. Driven by the competition and cheap labor outsourcing of manufacturing jobs took place in 1980. Over the period of 3 decades outsourcing history in India, outsourcing has not just remained as an outsourcing; it has led to many inventions, many new areas, and many branches. Outsourcing industry was a sapling when it was started India. Global business leaders planted this sapling in the past and now it has grown as a big tree. This tree has led to many branches. These branches have led to many sub branches.
Black book of outsourcing identifies outsourcing industry by Business process outsourcing (BPO), Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (FAO), Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO), Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO), Legal process outsourcing (LPO), Document Process Outsourcing (DPO), and Educational Services Outsourcing (ESO).
In general, outsourcing service providers uses many acronyms in relations to the services they offer.

Manufacture Process Outsourcing: MPO In the beginning outsourcing industry started with the outsourcing of manufacturing processes to India. Today there are thousands of companies in India offering contract manufacturing (CM) services to abroad. For example, VF Corporation, US major in manufacturing of Jeans- manufacturer of jeans is in JV with Arvind Mills to manufacture, design, market and distribute VF’s branded lifestyle apparels.
Nike, a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States, is in contract with many companies in India to produce its Nike branded products and export it to them.
Similarly there are thousands of companies in India offering contract manufacturing services to companies abroad. Indian companies manufactures variety of products, right from pens, mobile phones, PDAs, TVs, servers, laptops and other computer equipments, electronic products to ships and aircrafts.
Although the MPO is quite different compared to BPO, KPO and LPO industry, it is the part of the outsourcing and one of the branch of outsourcing. If the cheap labor has made the MPO possible, advancement in the telecommunication, internet and technology, and lower cost have made the BPO, KPO and other outsourcing industries roots in the Indian soil very strong.
MPO has also made the way for medical product outsourcing (MPO), where the medical products are manufactured and supplied abroad. MPO is also the acronym for medical process outsourcing.

Business Process Outsourcing: BPO
BPO process can be defined as the outsourcing of the business process from the country where it is costlier to perform to the area or the country where it can be performed in a decreased cost.
In other words, it is the foreign company or the firm setting up their office (also called as captive BPO’s) and hiring the local staff to carry out the business process or the functions of the firm. It can also outsource the process to third party BPO providers.
Given the proximity of BPO to the information technology industry, it is also categorized as an information technology enabled service or ITES.
It is not clear as to which was the first BPO in India. As per the information given in wikipedia, In the early 1980s several European airlines started using Delhi as a base for back office operations, British Airways being one among them.
In the second half of the 1980s, American Express consolidated its JAPAC (Japan and Asia Pacific) back office operations into New Delhi.
In 1990 GE (general Electric) started to outsource. Later the IT majors like Wipro, Infosys (Progeon), Inforlinx, HCL, Satyam (Nipuna) and Patni entered the BPO market in 2002 .
Today there are many captive and third party BPO providers in India. According to a recent India BPO study by NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies (India) and Everest Research, the BPO business is expected to touch USD 15-20 billion by 2012 .
The type of business services the BPO industry offers includes Customer Support Services, Technical Support Services, Telemarketing Services, Employee IT Help-desk Services, Insurance Processing, Data Entry Services / Data Processing Services, Data Conversion Services, Book Keeping and Accounting Services, Internet / Online / Web Research etc.
Most of the BPO’s today operate as the back office operations for their US and UK Clients. BPO is the continuous process. For example, purchase of the products and customers transactions in the bank takes place regularly and BPO industry will be having a regular work on customer support services and technical support services. Whereas as in the LPO industry, continue process of the work depends on the number of factors including changes in the legislation and court procedures. LPO work/project is outsourced on the needs of Law Firms and in-house legal departments of the corporations.
BPO industry has led to the several sub branches/sub segments like Financial Process. Outsourcing (FPO), Accounting Process Outsourcing (APO).

Knowledge process Outsourcing: KPO
KPO process can be defined as the outsourcing of the knowledge process (knowledge/information related) from the country where it is costlier to perform to the area or country where it can be performed in a decreased cost.
KPO is an offshoot of BPO. It is one of the branches of outsourcing and sub segment of BPO industry.
As to the origin of the term ‘KPO’ a report by Evalueserve “Origins of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO)’’ states that “Although a few companies began providing higher-end, knowledge-based services as early as 1997, this trend did not gain much momentum until 2003, and it was Evalueserve’s Chief Operating Officer, Ashish Gupta, who coined the term Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) in September 2003, in an effort to differentiate between his firm’s services and those of the established BPO firms.’’

According to a report of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian chamber of commerce that serves as an interface to the Indian Software industry, Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India.

The type of services the KPO industry offers s include: Investment research services (equity, fixed income and credit, and quantitative research), Market research services, Legal research services (also known as Legal Process Outsourcing), Patent research services, Engineering Designing, Drafting and Rendering, Mechanical, Structural, Architectural and Civil- Technical Writing & Communications, Remote IT infrastructure Management, Helpdesk, OS, Applications, Database Administration, Maintenance & support, Animation, 2D, 3D modeling etc.

KPO has made the way for many other sub branches like Research Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO).

Legal Process Outsourcing: LPO
Legal Process Outsourcing involves in-house legal departments, corporations, law firms or organizations outsourcing legal work from areas where it is costly to perform, such as the United States or Europe to areas where it can be performed at a significantly decreased cost, primarily India.
Legal Process Outsourcing is an offshoot of KPO.
Outsourcing Legal work to India began in 1995, when the US based Bickel and Brewer opened its office, Imaging & Abstract International (captive LPO and Subsidiary of Bickel and Brewer LLC) in Hyderabad. I & A International dealt with digitalization of the legal documents and creating searchable databases such as to scan, abstract and index documents. Later on, the firm hired lawyers to review documents produced in lawsuits. In 2001, GE was the first company to offshore its in-house legal work in India. Since then a lot of companies have entered the arena in one form or other.
Although outsourcing legal work to India began in 1995, the process was not known as LPO until 2005. The term, “LPO” or “legal process outsourcing” is the media invention. It was first appeared in 2005 in the media.
Legal process outsourcing (LPO) is also considered as one of the sub-segments of business process outsourcing/KPO industry.
Today a number of BPO players in the country have started their LPO divisions as part of BPO Divisions.
Several reports on the LPO industry states that LPO is expected to reach USD 4 billion and generate over 79,000 jobs in India by 2015.
Most of the LPO’s in India categorizes the LPO work/Projects as high–end work and low skilled work. Low end work/Low skilled work does not require more application of mind or the law to the low skilled work. Whereas, the high end work requires the application of mind and more knowledge and expertise in the field what the work is about. Lower end work sometimes could be monotonous work. This monotonous work made LPO employees not to stay in an organization for long time and they are tend to work in different LPO organizations. LPO industries today classify paralegal services, legal coding, legal transcription, document management services as lower end tasks jobs. And the legal research, drafting of pleadings, patent drafting, are considered as high end tasks.
Most of the LPO’s in India receive lower end task jobs the same work which can be carried out by paralegals in US. LPO’s in India charge the client on per hour/per line or per page basis.
However outsourcing legal works helps client to save upto 70% of the cost.
The type of services LPO’s in India offers includes personal injury, bankruptcy and foreclosure, contract review and management, legal transcription, electronic discovery etc.
LPO has led to the many other sub branches including Patent Process Outsourcing (PPO). Since the many LPO’s specialized in providing service on particular area of law, it can also lead the way for sub segments/sub branches like E-discovery Process outsourcing (EPO/EDO), Legal Research Outsourcing (LRO), Personal Injury process outsourcing (PIO).

Information Technology Outsourcing: ITO
ITO refers to the outsourcing of the Information technology related work to the country where it can be carried out in the decreased cost. Such as programming, Software Development, Web Designing & Development, Animation & Multimedia, Search Engine Optimization. Even ITO has led to the sub branches like Software Development Outsourcing (SDO).

Human Resources Outsourcing: HRO
It is also called as Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). Recruitment Process outsourcing is a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer outsources or transfers all or part of its recruitment activities to an external service provider.
The typical service includes Payroll Processing, Workforce Management, Employee Services, Compensation and Benefits, Resourcing Services, and Talent Management Services etc.

Engineering process outsourcing: EPO
EPO process can be defined as the outsourcing of the engineering process from the country where it is costlier to perform to the area or country where it can be performed in a decreased cost. The services includes CAD, Building Information Modeling, Project Management, Construction management, Structural design, Shop drawing, document management system, Detail engineering, conceptual scheme, Discrepancy report services, quantity estimate services, reverse engineering, reliability engineering, area charts services, code compliance analysis, material specification services, construction documentation, accessibility compliance, records management, energy audits, energy modeling services, landscape designing, site services, topography etc.
The EPO market in India is expected to exceed US $ 40 billion by 2020.
EPO is also the acronym for the Employee Process Outsourcing and Educational Process Outsourcing.

Document Process Outsourcing: DPO
DPO is a specialized area of Business Process Outsourcing involving the outsourcing of Document Processing, to a third-party service provider that is a specialist in that area. Document Processing involves the conversion of typed and handwritten text on paper-based & electronic documents (eg. scanned image of a document) into electronic information utilizing one of, or a combination of, Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR), Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and experienced Data Entry Clerks.

Medical Process Outsourcing: MPO
MPO can be defined as the outsourcing of the medical process from the country where it is costlier to perform to the area or country where it can be performed in a decreased cost.
The type of services the MPO provides includes Medical Transcription, Medical Billing, Medical Coding, Medical Insurance Collections, Healthcare Website Designing, Healthcare Staffing, Medical forms processing, Designing of SEO compatible healthcare websites etc.

Web Development Outsourcing: WDO
WDO can be defined as the outsourcing of the website development process from the country where it is costlier to perform to the area or country where it can be performed in a decreased cost.

Finally outsourcing industry in India is on growth and it is leading to several branches and sub branches. In the future, it may possible through outsourcing and liberalization of industry that a lawyer in India represent/ argue clients before US and UK Courts, an Indian doctor can provide treatment to patients abroad, a Civil Engineer can oversee the construction work abroad, a Teacher can take classes regularly and conduct exams to students abroad

What contributes to the success of LPO

LPO is not a new phenomenon, driven by the competition, temptation of lower cost and client’s preference to have quality work with lower cost led to the emergence of Legal Process Outsourcing in 1995. US based Bickel and Brewer was the first law firm to outsource its legal processes to India in this regard. Thereafter, many LPO’s got established and some of LPO’s were closed down as they were not able to get the projects and not able to convince the benefit what the LPO industry is offering for.

As Mr. Sanjay Bhatia, head of operations for SDD Global in his recent blog “Starting Your Own LPO? Here’s How To Do It. And How Not To” states “The most common mistake LPO entrepreneurs commit is believing that in order to succeed, all they need is a good office, infrastructure, internet connectivity, a well-designed website, and a legal team”. In fact, all these contribute towards the success of LPO’s, there are many other factors which can really contributes towards the success of LPO’s.

Setting up an LPO and hiring the people experienced in Legal Process is not a difficult thing. Successfully continuing with the LPO industry, having LPO projects throughout the LPO process, and providing quality work to the clients who trust us really matters.

Law firms and in-house legal departments of the companies do not approach you for outsourcing their project unless you have established yourself as the good and competitive in the LPO industry or have established yourself good for the quality of the work.

Many LPO’s have been set up as part of the BPO division. Many companies run their LPO division as their competitor runs the LPO division.
Many companies are running the LPO division with the loss and use the money generated in other divisions to run the LPO division.

In spite of all these, LPO industry still has a growth. Today’s outsourcing industry is the result of GATT/WTO. Non discrimination and the fair treatment are the main principles of WTO. WTO promotes the free movement of services and products in WTO member nations. As the many industries are witnessing globalization, legal industry will be liberalized and the LPO industry will witness the huge growth.

Delay in accepting the new change is common in many industries. When someone starts to utilize it and tells the benefit of it, gradually others will start to adopt it. LPO industry is the same thing in this regard.

Outsourcing a process to LPO does not depend on the single partner of the firm, all partners’ needs to have consensus. It may take some time to arrive at the decision. But one day, most of Law firms and in-house legal departments of the corporations will accept the new changes and utilize the quality of service which the LPO industry offers.

Going through the success of LPO’s in a LPO industry, many factors will contribute towards their success.

Management: The management of the LPO’s includes head of the Law Firm or partners of many international law firms, experienced lawyers of USA, UK, and India. They are the main contributors towards bringing the projects to the LPO Division. They will also provide adequate training to the employees on their process. The work is also properly supervised by the US and UK Lawyers.

Marketing: Marketing is the backbone of every business. An important aspect of the LPO job involves finding new clients, developing and managing relationship with the clients. LPO industry cannot survive without clients or without any projects. Many leading LPO’s in India have got marketing professionals by the designation of marketing executive, senior marketing executive, assistant manager, manager, project manager, assistant business development officer, and business development officer. Most of the marketing professionals are from LLB and MBA education background having experience in International marketing and have got good communication and presentation skills. Even some attorneys act as the marketing professionals and get new clients to the firm. Marketing professional in the LPO will be having a clear understanding of legal procedures and working of LPO. Their main role includes looking for foreign law firms, in-house corporations who are willing to outsource their legal process to India. A marketing professional needs to introduce the company and its capabilities, needs to understand the company he is contacting, its history, partners, and directors. Then he shall discuss LPO services to such law firm or the company and discuss their pain areas or areas where we as company/LPO could work together and suggest Legal Outsourcing as a solution. Besides these roles and responsibilities a marketing professional needs to conduct extensive market research, shall be willing to travel, make cold calls, make presentation to the clients, conduct videoconferencing, teleconferencing, handle the client visits, requires to prepare a detailed business plan to sight goals and objectives, target markets to bring account to the LPO. He shall also be ready to spearhead the business development activities for the given region, willing to work as per regional timing and always look for expansion of the LPO business and lead to earn more profits.

Employee’s recruitment, training and salary: In many LPO’s one need to complete 3-5 rounds of interviews(written, oral and technical) to gain entry into the LPO. After the recruitment, a candidate needs to undergo project specific and other training for 3 months by LPO industry leaders, attorneys, solicitors and clients. Sometimes there will be an on job training.
Most of the successful LPO’s in India employs more than 100 employees consisting of Attorneys, solicitors and paralegals.
The salaries in the most of leading LPO’s ranges from 20k to 25k for freshers and 25k to 35 for one or two year experienced professionals. Besides these, health insurance facility, free club memberships, cab facility are provided to an employee.
Most of the employees in LPO sector work for 8 hours per day, they also work in shifts as the many LPO’s in India work on 24X7 basis. Employees will be having two days weekly off and other leave benefits.

Quality: ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality as “the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.” Quality refers to Measure of excellence or state of being free from defects, deficiencies, and significant variations. The services what we provide for the clients must be free from errors. LPO shall provide the quality beyond their client expectation. Many LPO’s adopt Six Sigma methodologies in their quality process.

Client relationship management (CRM): As the getting new client is difficult thing, maintaining the proper relationship with the client is also a difficult. A proper client relationship must be maintained when we provide quality of services to the client and when they are more reliable on us. It also involves attracting and winning a new client, retain the client, entice the former clients back into the fold.

Infrastructure and security: Many successful LPO’s in India has secured infrastructure includes owned office place, secured FTP servers for uploading and downloading data, high speed broadband internet connectivity round the clock. Telephonic calls including conference calls, online meeting, Encrypted emails, secured VPN technology, Citrix web access, Web accessible secure online databases, Extranets, FTP sites, Access via Firms collaborative document sharing and database applications, Uninterrupted power supply and backup.
Many LPO’s have got physical security including video surveillance, security guards at all important locations, adequate fire protection.

Data security and Confidentiality: In many LPO’s employees need to sign non disclosure agreement and the employees are provided with unique user accounts and password, and passwords are changed periodically. Every computer and folder is password protected. Surveillance cameras or closed-circuit security cameras are fixed to track the employee’s movements. Personal communications or data recording devices, such as mobile phones, handbags are not permitted anywhere in the working premises.
It is not possible to access the work of team by the other team. All incoming and outgoing mails are monitored on exchange server, and all attachments are filtered.

Social media internet: Social Media is the latest networking tool for LPO’s and Attorneys. It is the great tool for capturing new clients. Many LPO’s in India have got their own Blog page about LPO and they are in touch with many of leading news papers of the USA and UK to give an insight on LPO sector.
Attorney of a law firm, and lawyers of in-house corporations, are increasingly reading blogs and participating in social media these days. They will be interested to find latest information on the industry within less time
According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report, the number of American blog readers grew to 60.3 million in 2008
Many leading LPO’s in India have got their company profile in Linkedin. Many companies and attorneys use Linkedin, twitter and facebook. Social media can help LPO’s to understand individual client personalities. LinkedIn is a powerful professional network, with members from each of the fortune 500 companies. LPO’s in India can effectively use social media for its growth.

Back office operations: Many of the LPO’s In India acts as back office for many departments of corporations and Law Firms abroad.

LPO website: Having well balanced web presence is the best tool for developing the online marketing which attracts the clients. The website shall have proper design to attract clients; it shall capture the attention of clients in seconds. Website content can increase LPO’s search engine ranking, educate and qualify prospects, and enhance LPO’s credibility. Once potential client arrive at LPO’s Web site, the content must win him over and move him to make a call to an LPO. Most of the successful LPO has the features like search within the website, news on LPO, sitemap, work samples, management and LPO team member’s profile. A well crafted online video made available on LPO website or you tube also can help LPO’s to connect with more clients and promote an LPO.

SAARC: SAARC is not the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in LPO term. It refers to Speed, Accuracy, Availability, Reliability and Cost (SAARC). While the Speed refers to the time taken to carry out any of the service functions, Accuracy ensures the completeness in carrying out the communicated function with respect to a reference level, Availability refers to the likelihood with which the relevant components of the service function can be accessed for the benefit of the customer at the instant of request, and Reliability refers to the probability that the service function will perform within the specified limits for speed, accuracy and No information is to be supplied to an unintended party, nor can information be changed by an unintended party. Finally, the cost is the major factor in outsourcing the LPO projects and it involves performing the work in decreased cost compared to the work performed in US and UK. It involves cost saving upto the 70%.

Before outsourcing project

LPO industry is on growth today and expected to reach $4 billion by 2015. Many law firms and in-house legal departments of the companies hire the services of LPO providers on a temporary or ongoing basis. Many law firms in UK, USA, and Canada receive a calls, mails from LPO providers from India, Philippines, and South Africa.

Legal outsourcing makes the lawyers to reduce a cost to the client; it will also allow them to have extra hours by hiring external staff. It is possible through outsourcing that an attorney can send documents for review before he heads home in the evening and have it ready on his desk in the morning.

The law firms and companies today needs to recruit more people when they need to handle the more matters and need to downsize during less busy times. This problem does not arise when they outsourcing it to LPO provider. The work can be outsourced on the business requirements. Besides they can save money on the infrastructure, maintenance and the cost on the new technology.

However, it depends on the organization and the firms need for legal outsourcing. Law firms and in-house legal departments of companies need to think whether there is any need for outsourcing legal work to LPO provider, and the benefit they are getting from LPO providers. They also need to think how much they can save in terms of costs and what is the quality of work they would receive from LPO providers.

Who requires the LPO Services?

1. Law firms: The cost involving the maintenance of the office and an expenditure on the technology is increasing. Many of the law firm clients prefer for the low cost services with the high quality. LPO industry is only the answer for all these needs.

2. In-house legal departments: Although legal departments of the corporations do not generate revenue for the company, it will defend the company from law suits. In- house legal departments of companies these days requires the more staff on managing the documents, they need more staff to review the documents before suing any parties. LPO providers can effectively manage the legal documents and analyze the documents before suing any parties. It can also utilize the LPO provider services to draft all types of agreements related to business transactions of the company.

3. Law firms expecting more work or intending to increase the size of the firm: LPOs are not against to hiring practices by law firms. Law firms can also hire the external services or have a contract with LPO providers to act as the back office operation of the Law Firm.

4. Firms / companies especially set up for getting the clients and outsourcing: After going through the success of LPO industry, firms and companies are being set up especially for getting the clients and outsourcing legal work to the LPO providers. These companies and firms mainly act as the mediators between the LPO providers and Law firms.

5. Individuals: One of the benefits in Common Law Countries the citizens have got is, individuals need not be always represented by Lawyers in courts. They can individually file complaints or defend the cases. But it would be difficult for an individual who does not have the knowledge of law. Law also states the Ignorance of law is not excusable. Today, it is possible for Individuals to represent themselves before the court with the help of LPO providers. E.g. In a foreclosure and bankruptcy proceedings, the debtor may not be having money to afford a lawyer, he will surely outsource it to the LPO providers.

Before outsourcing legal work

Although many LPO providers claims to be having experienced in all areas of law, and claims to be having such number of attorneys and paralegals, the answer to the question would be known only when we personally visit the facility of the provider and having an interview with the lawyers and paralegals working in LPO. Hence, it is very important to take many steps before outsourcing.

When you are outsourcing a small project you can outsource the work after having formal interview, video conferencing or VOIP session with the LPO provider and after going through the sample work done by them.

But when you are outsourcing a major project, you need to take many steps to know that particular LPO provider is capable of performing the work as expected.

Before outsourcing legal processes to LPO provider……..

1. Go through the LPO provider profile on the web and attorney profiles if any
2. Enquire about the type of training they are providing to lawyers and paralegals at the LPO organization.
3. Ask them for the case studies and sample work
4. Send the sample project for solution and ask them how much they can save in terms of cost on particular project. Ask for detailed report on how they can solve it, the technology, and software’s to be used on particular project, number of attorneys and paralegals to be assigned on the project, and the time limit within which they can complete the project.
5. Send the trial work to ascertain the LPO provider’s ability to complete the work with high quality. Suppose the work involves document review of millions of document. Send only hundred or thousand files for document review to ascertain the quality of work.
6. If the trial work is done properly, have a telephonic interview, video conferencing, or VOIP session etc.
7. Have the necessary agreements with the LPO provider. E.g. Service provider agreement, service level agreement, confidentiality agreement etc…
8. Visit the facility: When you are outsourcing major project, visit the provider facility and speak to the Team who are going to work on you project
9. . Check for data security and confidentiality
10. Check the support and training required from your side.
11. Client consent: Although it is not mandatory to disclose to the client that his work being outsourced, it is the obligation on the part of the Law firm to inform to the client that his work being outsourced.
12. Client fee: it is not mandatory to inform to the client about the fee agreement with the LPO vendor.

American Bar Association Formal Opinion 08-451:

Even the formal opinion of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility (Formal Opinion 08-451), in its Lawyer’s Obligations When Outsourcing Legal and Nonlegal Support Services. States…….

1. Supervise the work throughout the project
2. conduct background checks of any lawyer, nonlawyer or placement agency involved
3. Interview the lawyers involved, and assess their educational background;
4. inquire into its hiring practices so as to ascertain the character of the employees who are likely to have access to client information;
5. Investigate the security measures in effect in the provider’s premises, including its computer network and refuse disposal systems;
6. Make reasonable efforts to ensure that the person’s conduct is compatible with the rules of professional conduct.
7. Have a personal visit to the location where the work is performed in order to get firsthand sense of its operation and the professionalism of the lawyers and non lawyers involved.
8. Ensure that the legal training received in that country is comparable to that in the United States,
9. Ascertain the extent to which client property and other confidential client information may be subject to seizure in local court proceedings.
10. Evaluate the risk that client information may be lost or the project disrupted in the event of a dispute between the lawyer and the service provider.
11. Oversee the execution of the project adequately and appropriately
12. Inform the client about outsourcing their work to LPO provider and get the consent if necessary
13. Verify that the outside service provider does not also do work for adversaries of their clients on the same or substantially related matters

LPO as career for lawyers and law graduates

Legal Process Outsourcing(LPO)

Legal Process Outsourcing involves in-house legal departments, corporations, law firms or organizations outsourcing legal work from areas where it is costly to perform, such as the United States or Europe to areas where it can be performed at a significantly decreased cost, primarily India.

LPO for Law graduates:

Starting a career as a lawyer in court is really difficult for a junior, one need to practice under a senior lawyer for years and it is really difficult to establish one’s own practice.

India

Earlier, in India after graduation, one had to do 2 years of LLB degree and 1 year of practice under a lawyer to work as a lawyer, later the 3 year course was introduced with the court visits in the final year. In 1985, five year LLB course was introduced. Many students in India applied for LLB 5 years course just because they did not get the medical and engineering seats.

In India one has to complete 12 (10+2) years of education to apply for 5years of LLB, and one has to complete 3 years of graduation course after 10+2 to apply for 3 years of LLB course. Students applying for 3 years of LLB in India have come down of recent.

There are about 700 Bar Council approved law colleges in India and about 80,000 law graduates passes out every year.

There are only few national law schools in India, one has to write Common Law Entrance Test (CLAT) to be eligible to get into these premier law schools. The salaries of students passing out from these schools have crossed more than 12 lacs per annum.

Only few graduates make hard effort and join a corporate law firm. Many of the law school students passed out of national law schools get into corporate law firms and in-house legal departments of companies.

In India, after 5 years of the law graduation, many of the graduates enrol themselves in the state bar council and start practice under a senior lawyer or a law firm having 2- 20 lawyers.

United States (USA)

In USA, after 12 years of education ( i.e. after secondary education), one has to complete 4 years of bachelor degree and score at or above the seventieth percentile in the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) to apply for Juris Doctor (J.D.). There are 200 American Bar Association accredited law schools (188 with full accreditation and 12 with provisional accreditation) in the country.

In USA, J.D is a 3- 4 years course which make them to earn a degree in Law.

Once the J.D. is completed, candidates require to appear for the bar exams of particular state to practice in such state. In USA, it is a difficult task to get into the top Law firms in the country.

United Kingdom (UK)

In UK, after 13 years of education, ( i.e. after GCSE and A-level), one applies for LLB or diploma in Law and then takes a one year Legal Practice Course (LPC) to become a solicitor or Bar Vocation Course to become Barrister. LPC is usually followed by two years' apprenticeship, known as a training contract. Bar Vocational Course (BVC), followed by 1 year training in set of barristers' chambers, known as pupilage.

There are also other graduates, who after their graduation apply for Common Professional Examination (CPE) (also known as law conversion course or the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL).

Foreign lawyers become solicitors in UK and the numbers of solicitors are on growth.

It is difficult to have a training contract in UK. It is also difficult to join top law firms in UK.

Since the LPO industry is on growth, LPO industry is the best option for Law graduates of India, USA and UK as it gives more stability and career growth.

There are many LPO’s in India offering Indian fresh law graduates the post of legal assistant, legal associate and legal executive or associate attorney at the entry level.

Law graduates from USA and UK can join the LPO industry and assist the LPO team. They can also take role in the marketing and business development of the LPO, they can also act as the coordinator between the LPO and the clients.

LPO for Lawyers:

Law education is not perfect unless you start practice in court for some years. All the law graduates are not lawyers, but all the lawyers are law graduates. Lawyer profession is also called as the noble profession. Lawyers are considered as the officers of the court in India.

Some people describe the law profession as “work- no money, work- money, and no work- money”. It is evident that where you will start to practice with no money for few years and start to earn money as you continue practice and at the later stage, you will be having no work, only money - your juniors will carry out every work.

Lawyers represent the plaintiff and defendants in the case and take a lead role in drafting of contracts, registration of properties, companies etc…

Lawyers’ roles vary depending upon the area of law they practice and the firm where they practice.

There are about 1 million lawyers in India, more than 1 million in USA and about 80,000 solicitors in UK.

If you are not having a good practice as a lawyer/ attorney/ solicitor or interested into a LPO, LPO is the better option for the Lawyers. LPO sector today needs the service of Lawyers having good drafting skills, it would be easier for lawyers draft complaints, motions and to research on the legal issues faster then the fresh law graduates. Lawyers also can take up the review of work done by the junior level LPO employees in the LPO sector.

As the US and UK lawyers are concerned, they can have partnership with the LPO vendors and share the profit. They can also take part in review and supervision of LPO work.

Designation:

LPO industry today offers many designations depending on the nature of work involved. E.g. Legal executive, legal assistant, associate attorney and legal associate at the entry level. Senior legal executive, Senior legal associate, assistant team Lead, and team lead after 2 years of experience. And Assistant manager, Manager, Assistant project manager, project manager, Vice president etc... after 3-7 years of LPO experience.

Salary:

The salary for entry level varies from Rs.8, 000 to Rs. 20,000 depending on the firm and reputation it has got.

Team lead would be getting salary of Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000, and the Assistant project manager salary would be Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 60,000.

As the lawyers of UK and USA are concerned, the salary depends on the current salary offered for lawyers in US and UK.

Need for legal malpractice insurance today

There are about a million lawyers in USA. The lawyers in USA are on growth. Many number of law graduates passes out every year and joins a law firms. The client case always cannot be won. There will be verdicts in favor or against a client. Negligence on the part of the lawyer will also contribute towards the losing of case.

A legal malpractice case is a set back towards the growth of the law firms if there is no effective legal malpractice insurance for the firm.

Legal malpractice is defined as any negligent or wrongful act committed by an attorney that causes damages to his or her client.

There are many types of insurance available today. Legal malpractice insurance which comes under the professional liability insurance refers to an insurance provided by the third party towards the claim of a client against an attorney. If the clients sues an attorney for legal malpractice, although attorney is liable for the amount claimed the Legal Malpractice Company/ firm pays the amount. Hence there would be no burden on the lawyer paying the huge amount.

According to the statistics, every 5 out of 100 attorneys in USA are facing legal malpractice cases. More than 35,000 cases are filed annually on the alleged legal malpractice of attorneys. 25% of the legal malpractice cases are related to personal injury, 23% are related to real estate, 11% is related to Bankruptcy and collections and the 8 % is related to family law. As a general rule, legal professionals are not required to obtain legal malpractice insurance. Only 60% of attorneys in USA have legal malpractice insurance[1]

Legal malpractice insurance available to lawyers and law firms may be classified into many such as: Individual, Small, Medium, large Law Firms and medical malpractice insurance for employed lawyers.

Individual lawyers availing legal malpractice insurance is lesser today. And the legal malpractice insurance offered to small law firms are lesser.

Working in a legal department of a non- legal corporation does not make the lawyer immune from claim, legal malpractice case on the lawyers employed in corporations also increasing.It is also mandatory under certain law to disclose about the professional liability insurance with the client. E. G. In California, Rule 3-410 of the Rules of professional Conduct which is effective from January 1, 2010, It is mandatory on the part of an attorney to inform about the professional liability insurance in writing to the client at the time of clients engagement.[2] Most state or county bar association lawyer referral programs require their member attorneys to be insured. In many states, counties and cities, bar association "endorsed" insurance programs are aggressively marketed.

While defending legal malpractice claims, attorneys not only lose money but also valuable time. The average figure may vary from 250 to 300 hours per case that can be billed. This insurance protects a lawyer for each lawsuit he has to face.

Thus, attorney malpractice insurance becomes necessary. In many of the legal malpractice claims, insurance company negotiates with the victims and offers the compensation. In most of cases, insurance company designates a law firm for the representation of the defendant.

Since the legal malpractice cases are on growth, there are many law firms in USA exclusively offering their service on Legal malpractice cases.The cost of a policy is directly influenced by the degree of risk involved in the profession. For example, if a lawyer/ law firms are into banking or real estate, the cost may be quite higher than a regular cost of a policy.

Most professional liability policies are written on a "claims-made" (i.e. coverage will apply to a claim made against the insured within the coverage period provided by the policy regardless of when the injury occurred) basis, though sometimes coverage is available on an "occurrence" basis.

There are also coverage like Tail Coverage which is runs for a specific number of years that coverage will exist when a law firm cancels its insurance policy or dissolves. Coverage also will continue for a lawyer who retires or leaves private practice to become a teacher or assume a judgeship.

There are also Specific Coverage a specific area of law that is high risk, such as securities, banking, personal injury and real estate, may have higher insurance premiums and coverage limitations that may apply. Some policies may not cover some forms of legal malpractice such as fraud theft or willful injury.

Deductibles: A deductible applies to a professional liability policy just like any other type of insurance policy that is issued. A deductible typically applies to loss and defense costs. A higher deductible may be required by an insurer for high risk individuals. A high deductible also can be used by the insured to lower the cost of the policy. Deductibles can apply per policy claim or paid on an annual basis.

Coverage Agreement and Exclusions: Individuals who purchase a professional liability insurance policy should always read the coverage agreement and review the policy's exclusions. The coverage agreement provides details about the coverage and any additional people covered by the policy. The exclusions on a policy are acts by the insured that are not covered by the policy or are covered by another type or kind of insurance.

Even more important is the question of whether claims expenses are including within the limits of liability or whether they are payable in addition to the limits of liability. Even when claims expenses are payable outside the limits of liability, some carriers provide a specific, separate limit for defense (usually equal to the limit for damages), while some carriers are silent on the issue, which – theoretically, at least – means that claims expenses are unlimited.

There is also an issue about coverage of lateral hires. Many insurance carriers will customarily cover the attorney from the date of hire, on the assumption that the former firm's policy will respond to claims arising from the time that the attorney was employed by or a member of that firm. It is really difficult to find out whether particular attorney or law firm carries Legal malpractice insurance as the many state law does not make it mandatory to disclose it to the client. However, it is good on the part of the client to get such information from an attorney.

In many countries insurance companies offer professional liability insurance to doctors, engineers, lawyers, web developers, accountants, architects, real estate brokers, appraisers, and website developers . In India, although we see few companies offering medical malpractice insurance to doctors, there are no law concerning filing of a legal malpractice case against the lawyers and there is no legal malpractice insurance available to lawyers. In India, if lawyers commit a breach of his fiduciary duty, there is state bar council to take action against the Lawyers including suspension and removal from the name of the lawyer from state bar council.

[1] http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/medical_malpractice/legal.html

[2] http://www.calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_generic.jsp?cid=14053&id=3422

Setting up of Supreme Court bench in Bangalore

Indian Supreme Court which is established under Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India serves as the highest court of the land in the country in appellate jurisdiction and acts as the guardian of constitution. Art.124 to Art.147 of the Indian Constitution, speaks about the composition and jurisdiction of Supreme Court. Supreme Court of India came into existence on 28th of January, 1950. The Supreme Court of India comprises the Chief Justice and not more than 25 other Judges appointed by the President of India.

Recently there is a demand for setting up of Supreme Court benches in many states. There is also a demand for setting up of bench in Bangalore as the representative of South Indian states. Now the question/ issue arises is- Is there a necessity of setting up a Supreme Court bench in south India?

As we see in many developed and developing countries, Supreme Court is Unique for whole country where the highest court of the land situates in one place and conducts its proceedings, we cannot get an examples of the judges or benches sitting in the some other location of the country and delivering a justice.

However, when it comes to India, India is quite different from the other country in delivering a justice; we see High Court benches are established in number of places of the state to deliver a speedy justice.

When there is a demand for setting up of Bench in South India, other states of the country have also asked for setting up of benches in there respective states.

There about 50,000 cases pending before the Supreme Court; setting up the bench would not dispose the pending cases, unless the number of Judges in the Supreme Court is increased.

The need for the attention is that people of south India are not accessible to the Supreme Court as it is very far, time consuming, and costlier process.

More than 80,000 of law graduates pass out in the country every year. It also represents large number of Lawyers from south India. As the Supreme Court is far from south India, it has become difficult for juniors lawyers in South India to practice under the senior lawyers of Supreme Court and appear before the Supreme Court.

Setting up the bench in Bangalore would solve all these problems and make accessible of highest land of justice to the people of remote areas.

A Bangalorean needs to travel 1735 km to reach Supreme Court, people from Trivandrum needs to travel 2289 KM to reach Supreme Court. It has become very difficult for common people to get an access to the Judiciary of Supreme court. Even from the people of many Cities and villages from Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh are facing the same problem. Setting up a Supreme Court bench in Bangalore would solve all these problems.

Considering the hardship faced by the people and access to the judiciary there is a need for setting up a bench in Bangalore.

A bench can be set up in Bangalore by making appropriate amends to the Art. 130[1] of Indian constitution.

Alternative to the setting up of Bench in Bangalore:

1. Supreme Court shall strengthen its e-filing procedure:

Supreme Court of India allows case filing through the Internet (E-Filing). Any Advocate-on-Record or petitioner can file his matter through internet, sitting anywhere in the world. The text can be typed on the computer. Documents, including affidavits and vakalatnamas, need to be submitted by scanning them. Counter/rejoinder/fresh applications/ caveat/ additional documents can also be filed through internet either by Advocate-on-Record or by petitioner-in-person. This e-filing process is unknown to many; there is a need for strengthening and educating about its e-filing process.

2. Video conferencing:

Although court requires the personal presence of the accused during the evidence before the court, video conferencing has made many states of the country to save the cost involving transport and other risks. Accused persons are heard through video conferencing facility available in the particular state judiciary. Since the, Supreme Court is very far from south Indian States, there is a need for having procedure as to the follow up of cases and arguing on the case through video conferencing.

3. Concession in travel fares or free tickets:

Government of India shall allow the people of the country involving in Supreme Court cases to travel to the Supreme Court with the concession in their travel tickets or of free of cost.

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[1]

130. Seat of Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court shall sit in Delhi or in such other place or places, as the Chief Justice of India may, with the approval of the President, from time to time, appoint.