During the past three years the revenue of Indian firms offering legal process outsourcing services has grown by 60 percent annually. This sector provides a big opportunity for law graduates
One of the beneficial fallouts of the global telecommunications and internet revolutions has been the rapid emergence and scaling up of business process outsourcing (BPO) services. Since the American IT industry began outsourcing coding and calculus operations followed by the banking, finance and travel industries which outsourced backroom operations to Indian BPOs, today a large number of foreign companies and firms out-source operations including R&D, accounting, knowledge processing etc to them. And a recent addition is legal process outsourcing (LPO).
LPO is one of the value-added BPO services involving outsourcing of routine legal paperwork such as property transfer documents, legal notices etc from law firms abroad to more economical offshore destinations. Indian lawyers have an advantage inasmuch as the Indian, US, British and Commonwealth countries’ legal systems are based on common law.
According to estimates of Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies), the revenue potential of legal services outsourced from the US is $3-4 billion (Rs.15,300-20,400 crore). During the past three years, the revenue of Indian firms and individuals offering LPO services has grown by 60 percent annually to Rs.2,624 crore. Given this high rate of annual growth, the LPO business is expected to create 79,000 jobs in India by 2015.
With work orders beginning to flow not only from the US but also from legal firms and corporates in the UK, Australia, Singapore, and other Common-wealth countries, multinational corpor-ations and law firms, publishing houses and legal research firms have jumped on the bandwagon and are outsourcing legal knowledge processing services to India.
This is a big opportunity for the estimated 300,000 law graduates churned out annually in India. “A growing number of companies abroad are beginning to offer a broader range of value-added services such as contract review, patent writing, litigation support, general research and review, to Indian LPO firms and units,” says a Nasscom spokesperson.
The basic qualification for entry into this career is obviously a law degree with almost every university in the country offering the three-year LLB degree programme to higher secondary (class XII) school-leavers. The country’s best legal education is provided by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) at Bangalore which offers a five-year degree programme. Following the NLSIU example, several universities have also introduced five-year law degree programmes while others are in the process of doing so. Besides a law degree, business management and communication skills are useful as it becomes imperative for LPO team leaders to work to tight deadlines and interact with attorneys overseas.
With the LPO sector booming, there’s no dearth of opportunities. Fresh law graduates start as junior associates drafting contracts and doing legal research for Rs.23,000-30,000 per month. Senior associate attorneys earn Rs.35,000-40,000 while reviewing contr-acts or writing legal opinions. The next step up the ladder is to the position of team leader (Rs.42,000-46,000). Project lead attorneys earn Rs.46,000-52,000 per month; and at the top, legal managers in charge of multiple projects command Rs.70,000-100,000. Career progression is fast.
“When I graduated in 2004, the LPO industry was at a nascent stage in India. However, I thought working in an LPO would provide me a platform to hone not only my legal but managerial skills as well, and this is exactly what has happened in the past eight years. The opportunity to interact with inter-national clients and acquaint oneself with diverse international laws has been an added benefit,” avers Jeniza Debara, client manager at Exactus, India’s first online legal information resources firm which provides legal services to ten major clients including four global legal publishers, a Fortune 500 company and India’s largest corporate house.
Averse to working in a traditional law firm, Debara, a graduate of Government Law College, University of Mumbai, signed up with Exactus immediately after graduation as an associate attorney, rising within a few years to the position of legal manager. As such, she liaises and coordinates all facets of outsourcing both internally and with clients, including overseeing and managing Exactus’ business research, contract review, due diligence and litigation support projects. Currently, Exactus Corporation Pvt. Ltd employs 20 attorneys with experience of the US, UK, European and Indian legal systems. With an offshore office in Philadelphia, USA, Exactus delivers LPO services from Mumbai.
“A career in the LPO industry offers great prospects. Legal outsourcing has multiple facets and the rate of business growth during the past couple of years has been very encouraging. In this industry, law graduates have numerous opportunities to interact with clients and lawyers abroad. Moreover, greater monetary benefits and easier working hours vis-à-vis law firms are added advantages,” elaborates Debara.
For young legal practitioners and graduates confronted with the prospect of the law’s delay and the inevitable ‘waiting period’ which can stretch to years, quick career progression offered by the sunrise LPO industry is an option worthy of careful consideration.
Indra Gidwani (Mumbai)