Draft n Craft’s Support in Wage Discrimination Lawsuits

Wage discrimination lawsuits are very common and frequently seen in the US legal system. Employers who do not pay overtime or appropriate minimum wages or deny rights of the workers actually violate state and federal laws such as the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA). They may not be necessarily violating the rights of one or two employees but for many of them. For violating labor laws like FLSA, a wage and hour lawsuit can be filed against the employer. Such a lawsuit can become a class action lawsuit if many such workers who have faced similar harm come together and sue the same employer for their rights.

Draft n Craft, one of the leading legal support companies based in New Delhi, India, has been continuously supporting the legal industry with a variety of its services that allow law firms to save a lot of time and money without compromising on the quality of the work.
 

Usually, deposition summaries, legal research and writing of different legal documents are frequently used during the different stages of the case. But time and again there are a plethora of different documents which need to be organized and prepared in way that they are presentable and serve their purpose. For instance, one of the clients of Draft n Craft, an employment law firm dealing majorly in class action litigation cases, sent a huge set of documents to be used to determine the overtime owed by the employers to the employees. The team at Draft n Craft was provided with the pay slips along with the hours worked [time cards] of each employee. Based on the rate of pay and the details provided, the team at Draft n Craft quickly put together a spreadsheet to evaluate the actual overtime owed by the employer versus the amount already paid by the employer to the employee. This helped the law firm to move forward on the case at a faster pace and get the desired results.
 

Serving more than 200 clients in the US, Draft n Craft is one of the most promising legal outsourcing company based in New Delhi, India. The company offers variety of legal, paralegal and administrative/secretarial support to law firms, in house legal departments and other legal vendors. The services offered by the company not only save time and money but also help improving attorney-paralegal ratio of law firms. For more details about the company and its services, visit www.draftncraft.com or send an email to connect@draftncraft.com

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How Important Is Legal Research in Your Practice?

Legal Research can be a complex and time-consuming process for attorneys and paralegals. A small negligence can cause major damage to the firm as the outcome of the research leads to legal decision making. The fundamental step in research is to find the appropriate cases governing the issues in question but the ability to analyze what is found and reach a conclusion based on it is also equally important. Usually legal research is known to take much time and effort, and access to online legal research databases such as LexisNexis and Westlaw can be costly. Consequently, law firms and other attorneys turn to companies like Draft n Craft to outsource their legal research needs.

Usually legal research is known to take much time and effort, and access to online legal research databases such as LexisNexis and Westlaw can be costly. Consequently, law firms and other attorneys turn to companies like Draft n Craft to outsource their legal research needs.

We, at Draft n Craft have a team of immensely talented attorneys who are trained on the U.S. judicial systems. Our dynamic team of attorneys and paralegals come from various backgrounds and share their rich experience in carrying effective legal research for our clients. They efficiently sift through data using the different research tools available with us likeLexisNexis. Following are some of the key highlights of our legal research service.

• Proficient, precise, and comprehensive legal research for each of the different U.S. jurisdictions
• IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion) Memo with legal analysis of issues presented by the client’s set of facts
• Annotated summary of Shephardized cases relevant to the client’s issue(s)
• Conclusion advocating the clients’ legal position
• Available instantly on demand, predictable and fully reviewable
• Quick turnaround time

If you are interested in using our legal research service or have any query, please send us an email at connect@draftncraft.com . One of our experts will get back to you to understand and discuss your requirements.

Draft n Craft Marks Its Fourth Year In to the Legal Process Outsourcing Industry

Draft and Craft Law Firm Pvt. Ltd, a cut-to-the-chase Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) Company celebrated its 4th year of service to its clients on Monday, January 9, 2012. The company has proudly served a number of clients in the US and UK because of their reliability and exceptional services. Draft n Craft specializes in providing services like Deposition Summary, Contract Outsourcing, Legal Research, Legal Transcription, E-discovery and paralegal services.

Draft n Craft believes in making Global presence by sharing its knowledge and thoughts with the whole industry. It has been actively participating and partnering in international events such as the Global LPO Conferences and the Legaltech Conference.

Mr. Rakesh Sharma, the Managing Director and CEO of Draft n Craft, says "we are extremely glad of the hard work we have put in these four years, working united as a team to benefit our clients in the US and UK. We are pleased to have had the opportunity to help the law firms, corporates and solo practitioners in the legal and paralegal sector. We, at Draft n Craft have seen significant growth in each service area over these four years and they will continue to spread our wings across all continents in the years to come."

In the last four years, Draft n Craft has established itself as the complete solution vendor in India and also as the most agile group in the outsourcing sector.

Draft n Craft came in to play when there were just few names in the industry. While many LPOs came and vanished with no traces, Draft n Craft continued to do what it was best at delivering quality results. The industry is back to how it started in terms of the number of LPOs. It now consists of the big players who started of big and continue to stand where they were and some like Draft n Craft who have moved inch by inch to come to the position at which it is now.

A bittersweet journey with bumps on the road, Draft n Craft has managed to achieve its goals and its clear, Draft n Craft, is here to STAY!!

All about the Color YELLOW for the Attorneys & Law Firms

We all love celebrating our festivals with much hoopla. The colors, gaiety and joy look irresistible during the festival season.

Festivals are a way to give our mind and body a change from the otherwise mundane life. It seems impossible to not to get be-dazzled by the little joys which such festivals flag on.

At Draft and Craft Law Firm Pvt. Ltd. the festivity has kicked off really well and the “Festival Blast” is in full swing.

Last week, we colored the whole Draft n Craft GREEN. Huge discounts and offers were given on services like document review, deposition summarization, contract outsourcing solutions, legal transcription and paralegal services.

By giving plethora of discounts and bargains we thrived in making the attorneys and the law firms believe that the grass is greener on their side rather than on the other side. The Green week came to an end with a much Talkabout “Green-A-Thon”. We at Draft n Craft turned down the power on November 30, 2011 for thirty minutes to show our gratitude to none other than “the mighty Nature”.

Festivals are definitely a way to celebrate life and also, a way to get the brain to release more endorphins. Keeping this in mind, Draft n Craft announces one more week of happiness. The color of celebration this week is YELLOW. We are giving MORE discounts, MORE offers and MORE bargains on our services like document review, deposition summarization, contract outsourcing solutions, legal transcription and paralegal services. Not only this, continuing with the series of Webinars, this week it’s all about “Festival: Repercussions on Law Firms” on December 7, 2011.

Hence, DON’T THINK!!! Just avail the discounts before it’s too late and you wait restlessly for another year.

Green a Thon at Draft N Craft We have Done Our Bit Now Its Your Turn

‘The grass would be greener on your side’” is how Draft n Craft celebrated the Green Week.The firm went Green with the sole motto to offer something amazing to attorneys this festival season.

The festival blast has just not been restricted to good deals and offers. It is about celebrations while keeping the spirit of work alive.

Draft n Craft celebrated Green-A-Thon the whole of last week. Draft n Craft walked an extra mile to pay its gratitude to the mighty nature by turning off the power for 30 minutes. The employees at Draft n Craft even planted trees to celebrate the green-a-thon week.

Festival Blast is here to help attorneys live their festivities to the fullest. Draft n Craft is taking care of the attorney workload and giving special offers without compromising on the quality of the work. Each week is dedicated to a color and the next color to be celebrated is YELLOW, the color of success.

Upcoming Webinar: “Festivity: A Boon or a Bane for Productivity?”

If you are a Law Firm, Solo Practitioner or an In House Council thinking ‘what it takes to increase the productivity and efficiency of your firm even during the festival season?’ Here's the golden chance for all of those who want to explore it further. Draft n Craft is hosting a free webinar “Festivity: A Boon or Bane for Productivity?” on Thursday November 17th 2011 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time.

This webinar will give you a lot of tips that will help you to achieve the maximum output with regard to productivity and efficiency. So don't just wait, as progress is a process and we will take you through that process in this webinar. Register ASAP!

Click here to get registered. Registrations open for first 100 registrants only.


About Draft n Craft

Established in 2008, Draft n Craft is a cut to the chase Legal Process Outsourcing Company with strong and dedicated work force of professionals. Having established a brilliant track record, Draft n Craft has been partners of growth to many of the law firms and corporations in the UK and US. Draft n Craft’s supreme focus has always been on helping lawyers deliver the best value to their clients by working on process and technology optimization, and by devising ways to rationalize client’s operational spending.

A Festival Blast for attorneys

To begin the festive season, Draft n Craft announces the Festival Blast – with special offers on all its services throughout the festive season from October 25, 2011 to January 15, 2012.

This festival offer comes at a time when most attorneys in the United Kingdom and United States are getting ready for the festive season to kick off. This time of the year comes with a package deal of excess workload and backlogs. With the limited number of working days and less staff, it is a tedious task for the attorneys to keep things organized.

A legal process outsourcing company established in 2008, Draft n Craft has been always given its bit to the legal industry. “After having received appreciation by many attorneys for the help provided by us during the festival period last year, we felt the need to continue with the tradition we started and go all out to join hands with attorneys to help them enjoy to the fullest the festive season without having to worry about the work”, said Rakesh K Sharma, Chief Executive Officer of Draft n Craft. The festival offer will be full of special offers and discounted pricing on all the services being offered by Draft n Craft. It is estimated that on particular days the offers will be unimaginable.

By offering high quality legal and paralegal services to law firms and corporates in US and UK, LPO companies in India have stood by the law firms to ease the burden of monotonous and repetitive work. Be it services like Document Review, preparing Deposition Summaries, reviewing contracts, Legal Transcription or even paralegal services, LPO companies such as Draft n Craft have joined shoulders with their clients by working efficiently and cost effectively. Infact, Draft n Craft is going a step further by offering special discounts during the festival season to enjoy the festivity to its peak.

About Draft n Craft

Established in 2008, Draft n Craft is a cut to the chase Legal Process Outsourcing Company with strong and dedicated work force of professionals. Having established a brilliant track record, Draft n Craft has been partners of growth to many of the law firms and corporations in the UK and US. Draft n Craft’s supreme focus has always been on helping lawyers deliver the best value to their clients by working on process and technology optimization, and by devising ways to rationalize client’s operational spending.

Draft And Craft Law Firm - Legal Transcription Festival

The changing times has made law firms and corporations aware of the importance and need of legal transcription. Understanding this increasing demand of reliable legal transcription, Draft n Craft has constantly endeavored to provide the best.

From legal to business transcription, Draft n Craft has time and again proved its brilliance in the field.

After working with over 25 clients and the successful delivery of more than 15,000 files in the last 2 years, Draft n Craft is celebrating its 2nd anniversary for excellence in legal transcription services from 11th October - 15th October 2010.

Rakesh K Sharma, Draft n Craft's Chief Executive, said: "Achieving this milestone only reflects the quality of service and the high level of customer satisfaction that we provide. I am overwhelmed with the response received by our clients."

As Draft n Craft achieves this high point, their employees celebrate a week long festivity to mark its success in the field and their contribution in achieving it.

About Draft n Craft

Established in 2008, Draft n Craft is a cut to the chase Legal Process Outsourcing Company with strong and dedicated work force of professionals. Having established a brilliant track record, Draft n Craft has been partners of growth to many of the law firms and corporations in the UK and US. Draft n Craft's supreme focus has always been on helping lawyers deliver the best value to their clients by working on process and technology optimization, and by devising ways to rationalize client's operational spending.

For enquiries, email at info ( @ ) draftncraft dot com dot

Visit us at http://www.draftncraft.com.

CONCERNS – LEGAL OFFSHORING TO INDIA.

The advent of legal off-shoring came out of the crying need to cut costs. We understand the reasons of various giant in electronics, automobile & other sectors opening their industries across the border with motive to transfer the technology for developing the products at cheaper rates. Many big brands of the world had opened their units in countries like China, India with the sole motive to produce the units at lower cost. One does not understand as to why concerns were not raised for those, off-shoring of huge industries out of their countries.

Let me examine it from the view point of consumer living in developed country. Mr. ‘X’ living in a developed country wants to purchase an article. He gets two options i.e. pay ‘A1’ for the said article being produced & sold in his country or pay ‘A2’ for the same article but being produced in other country & sold in his country. The different questions arising in his mind for choosing one of them can be put like this.

A. What is the difference between A1 & A2?
B. Is there any quality variation between the articles produced in different countries?

Mr. ‘X’ would prefer buying the article in which he pays less and gets the quality product. As I understand Mr. ‘X’ would buy article by paying ‘A2’ as the cost would be quite less. I am sure Mr. ‘X’ did not think of the loss of job in his country if he buys the article produced in other country. No eyebrows were raised for the export of goods produced by developing countries to developed countries.

But incase of export of services by developing countries to developed countries the logics become different. However, we still think of loss of jobs while talking about offshore industry. The concerns raised for outsourcing of services get a national touch when we try to understand and justify the outsourcing. The real concerns like quality, confidentiality are dominated by the issue of Nationalism. The decisive factors determining the issue of off-shoring/ outsourcing are:

a) The need of outsourcing which in turn is influenced by following things:
i. Cost effectiveness
ii. Non-availability of resources
iii. Time Zone Benefits

b) The availability of provider /people to give services depending on the following:

i. Being compatible in providing the services
ii. Availability of resources
iii. Capable of delivering quality services
iv. Breaking the language & accent barriers

The Push & Pull factors match up to determine and resolve the concerns of this infant outsourcing/off-shoring industry.

IMMIGRATION OR OFFSHORING

Developed economies always become attractive and as such magnetize people from other economies. This results in people traveling by any mean to those countries where the economies are developed. United States have always been attracting people from developing countries since long. Number of people applied for immigration to US, similarly number of people were granted one or the other type of visas in last five years. US policies for visa had become tough after 11th September’2001 it was but natural.

How so ever tough the immigration policies had become yet the immigration continued people have always been finding one or the other ways to travel to developed countries like US & UK. This had always put lot of constraints to their economy, security, culture, religion & other aspects of those countries.

I understand the immigration was the first part of balancing the economies. The next step turned out to be off-shoring of services instead of inviting people to the country. The birth of off-shoring is being deep rooted. The debate between immigration versus off-shoring is yet to commence so it may not be ideal to find any opinion on the same but it will developed once there will be interaction & discussions.

Need for 2nd Level Legal Offshoring

Everybody thought the growth of legal outsourcing would multiply but it didn’t grow as it was expected. In the first level of legal outsourcing, eyes were set on cost cutting.

Despite excellent projections it couldn’t come out of its infancy stage. The proximity of clients and vendors could not increase. Many LPO’s were born like bubbles and vanished identically. All the way it was a good signal to show there was a gap between two ends. The said gap could be bridged if some better means were discovered.

The first level of legal Outsourcing consisted of Captive centers and off shoring of the services to LPO’s.

The Captive Centers started closing down not because of the same were un-economical but primarily due to other problems connected with the working. The stress taken by a company in running the Captive Unit had started becoming a nuisance to them. The very purpose of setting up Captive Unit came under attack whereby its future was sluggish. Though a good number of captive centers have been efficiently working yet most of them could not prove to be economical. Factors like investment, employee attrition rate, changes in Government Policies and day to day running problems discouraged companies to open their Captive Unit.

The mushrooming of LPO’s had put the clients into a saga of disbelief. It had become very tough to settle down with third party vendors. It was inevitable that confidentiality would be bridged and exit policy was tough.

There was a need to find better ways for offshoring legal and paralegal services. The important key points of offshoring decisions include: - The reputation of the company, the non compromising attitude towards confidentiality, keeping control on the working and having cost savings. Law firms of UK / US were divided on off shoring and subsequently about the nature of services to be offshore. The mist had become so heavy whereby the answers could not be found for off shoring while keeping in mind the key points. There came the need of 2nd level outsourcing. The solution to these problems lies in attaining the benefits of Captive Unit at the price of Third Party vendors and this is required to be dealt with “aptly”.

Draft n Craft launches AptCaptive™: Level 2.0 of Legal Process Outsourcing

So much is talked about Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) that we barely find any law-firm and corporation incognizant to the concept and its benefits. Despite this, there is reluctance towards outsourcing in general and offshore outsourcing in particular.

Traditionally, there are two popular modules of outsourcing the legal processes: first through Third Party Service Providers/Vendors (TPSP’s) and/or second by owning one’s Captive Unit in offshore locations. Though both are popular but one cannot rule out the risks and impediments associated with either.

 Perceptions on outsourcing legal work to vendors (TPSP’s)

Perceptions favoring:

1. No huge capital investments required.
2. Customized solutions.
3. Competitive pricing.
4. Flexibility to scale up and down business relationship.
5. Retains decision-making, therefore relationship with TPSP is clear (fee-based, quality-based).
6. As it is a contract based mutual agreement thereby there is more business commitment.
7. Ability to focus on core business issues.
8. No compromise in quality at cost effective rates.
9. Better process maturity, resource flexibility and economies of scale.
10. Flexibility in deploying new technology.
11. No requirement to hire additional personnel.
12. No legal or statutory compliance issues to set up a new unit.

Perceptions discouraging:
1. Risk of Confidentiality being at stake.
2. Risk of possible drop in quality standards.
3. Absence of processes to monitor metrics and possible timely intervention when issues are escalated.
4. Tight business margins.

 Perceptions on owning a Captive unitPerceptions favoring:

1. Maintenance of in-house confidentiality & quality.
2. Management and retention of control over risk profile, especially for critical business areas.
3. Development for global delivery models with centralized and standardized processes.
4. All investments made on people and infrastructure is completely retained.
5. Better control over processes, time lines & enhanced quality of operations.
6. Alignment of offshore initiatives with their culture & values.
7. Creation of robust technology infrastructure for greater efficiency and scalability of operations.

Perceptions discouraging:

1. Huge Capital Investments.
2. Recurring Costs.
3. Hassles of incorporating the captive unit offshore like India.
4. Exit impossible without incurring high costs.
5. Compulsion to keep absolute control over processes.
6. Legal Requirements to set-up captive unit, say in India:
i. Incorporation of the Company as a legal entity.
ii. Local registrations.
iii. Bank Accounts.
iv. Appointment of Company Secretaries & Auditors.
v RBI/Government Approvals.
vi. Ensuring legal and statutory compliances.
vii. Local taxation issues.
7. Human Resources requirements of captive center
i. Staffing .
ii. Training & Talent management.
iii. Hiring of Core Team.
iv. Employee retention.
8. Facilities & Infrastructure
i. Vendor Management & Negotiations.
ii. Hardware & Software Procurement Systems.
iii. Communications & Network Integrations.
iv. Acquisition and operationalizing of facilities.

With the aim to revolutionize the LPO paradigm, Draft n Craft has devised the “apt solution” destined to enrich legal outsourcing experience throughout the industry.

“The AptCaptive™ is an advanced Legal Off shoring model tailored and run as per client’s requirements by Draft n Craft, retaining all in-house benefits at reduced costs.”

For a long time, a desire was felt throughout the industry to transcend to new levels of Legal Process Outsourcing. Without doubt the AptCaptive™ is at present the lex epitome of the legal outsourcing industry. The module however is so ambitious that, in its initial stages Draft n Craft will be offering this to only a limited selected group of companies and law firms.

For any trade enquiries, contact info@draftncraft.com.

Legal Research Outsourcing: Our Means and Your Ends

Among the series of Webinars being hosted by Draft n Craft, Rajni Minhas, Assistant Legal Head, held a Webinar on Legal Research Outsourcing: Our means and your ends.

The purpose of this webinar was to question the paradigm shift in the needs, means and results of Legal Research in wake of integrating world. After holistically looking at the intricacies of the service, the webinar aims to understand and analyse the regulatory and ethical aspects of the same.

Topics Covered in the web cast were:

o Legal Research outsourcing Needs
o Multi jurisdiction research
o Legal Research tools & deliverables
o Memo Writing
o Ethical and Regulatory aspects of Legal Research outsourcing.
o Issues of Confidentiality and Quality
o Process Flow
o Pricing the Legal Research

Webinar on Outsourcing of Legal Transcription

This Webinar on outsourcing of Legal Transcription was conducted by Shweta Saini, Head- Marketing, Draft n Craft, on 20th Day of November 2009. The Webinar holistically looked at legal transcription as an important service and the web cast covered :
· Analysis of the ethical and regulatory aspects of Legal Transcription outsourcing.
· Drivers & Risks of legal transcription outsourcing.
· Errors and Omissions insurance coverage.
· Evaluating if there is actually any labor arbitrage possible given the associated risks and negative externalities?
· Evaluating the importance of Contract Excellence.
· Price considerations.
· Course of the work flow.
· Issues of Confidentiality and Quality
· Less Haste, More Speed
This recording of the webinar is a must view for attorneys, in-house Counsels, paralegals, LPO professionals, law students.

OUTSOURCING - A CAUSE FOR LAY OFFS ?

I remember a woodcutter cutting the branch on which he was sitting. It was really the most foolish act one could think of. Nobody shuns one’s source of existence. In case I am working on a project which is very dear to me then I shall find it hard to share it with anyone else. No doubt, the human psychology always guides people to restrain them from doing any act which is not conducive to their interests.

An old man has beautifully said the hand on the latch of main door controls the outward and inward flow of technology services, jobs, opportunities etc. the decisions which are warranted due to compulsions are not good howsoever economical they may be. The growth of Legal Process Outsourcing industry had put a big question mark on the quantum of outsourcing by solicitor firms. Critic to the LPO raised the issue backed the law firms involved in outsourcing will end up in outsourcing their lawyers out of the firm. They started projecting that it will create a big unemployment in highly skilled and respectable profession of lawyers. On the other hand, outsourcing professionals viewed it differently and claimed it merely as a part of globalisation and win win situation for the providers and outsourcing people. According to them, Legal Process Outsourcing has become necessary and natural due to the different variables of two places and countries.

The outsourcing can be commoditized and compare with different outlooks. An economist might compare it with the usual role of demand and supply. In thermodynamics we describe the flow of energy from one place to another depending upon the variable temperature. The Legal Process Outsourcing had begun with the outsourcing of transcription work similar work had commenced with medical transcription. Slowly medical transcription had grown beyond outsourcing of audio files. The Legal Process Outsourcing has also starting shattering the thin line of outsourcing legal transcription in the beginning. The service industry of developed countries like UK, US found a big support in the growth of Legal Process Outsourcing.

I personally believe lay offs from the law firms were primarily due to their inability to match up the expenses and receipts. They have been charging good amount from the clients and in turn paying solicitors a good amount. As people chose to get the same services at lower rates, the receipt of the solicitor firms fell down and in turn lay off started. Nobody thought of reducing the salaries instead of preferring lay offs. One can easily view; the solicitors already into outsourcing were more capable to match up the receipts and expenditures. Apparently, lay offs are not the result of outsourcing but the net results of fall in profits. A growing organisation cannot lay off people. The misconception spread amongst people needs to be set right. In case of solicitor firms outsourcing works in no way curb them from taking more work. Statistics are clear if a solicitor firm charges US$300 per hour from its clients for a contract review and accordingly pays US$150 to its in-house solicitor. There is a good margin but the same diminishes if the client is able to get the work done from another solicitor firm in half of the rates. But the truth lies in the fact that in case the solicitor firm outsources the work of contract review and the price of US$50 and the in-house solicitor simply vets the work received from the service provider. The client would be happy to pay the US$150 to the firm. In a way firm will also gain by cutting down the cost and marginally passing the benefit to the client.

Impact of Recession on LPO business

The human psychology always guides one to allure towards bigger things before being attracted to smaller ones. Everybody tries to be instantaneous in unfurling the answers to the questions confronted. If a person is placed in a position to save different currency notes from fire, he would naturally try to save bigger currency notes before hand.

The recession has acted like a compelling force to make people save in these prime times. People have tried hard to curtail their expenses. The status of solicitors in UK and USA have always remained unblemished and at a dignified position. Their status has always been alluring and attractive because of the confidentiality and quality of services rendered by them. Many business houses started outsourcing their work but the area of outsourcing in solicitors firms remained aloof. The reason of it being so was simple. One may outsource the physical working but none may outsource the ideas, thoughts, intellect and other tactics involved in the profession of the solicitors.

The business of LPO began with the outsourcing of back office support work which primarily consisted of secretarial work. It was further noticed entering into the second category of outsourcing i.e. in respect of paralegal work. It involved working of lawyers to provide good legal research, document review, document drafting etc. It required lawyers who were trained and conversant with the working on the tools. They have been providing a junior lawyer support to the solicitors in UK and USA.

Clients of solicitors based in UK and USA in order to reduce their expenses sought their services being outsourced to some service providers. In turn, the solicitor firms started outsourcing their work to providers in countries like India. This pace of outsourcing got a major push due to recession. The evil of recession has compelled solicitor firms to cut down their cost so as to provide same services at more competitive prices. Significantly, the focus of outsourcing is now tilting towards the legal services in place of secretarial and paralegal services. Legal Process Outsourcing has attained another dimension with the increase in outsourcing of legal work. The reasons for the beginning of outsourcing may be different but the reason of outsourcing the legal services like contract drafting, document review, deposition summary are the outshoot of recession. Recession has proved to be a reason for outsourcing for bigger services from the office of solicitors. There is no doubt that the LPOs have been benefited by the extraordinary growth of software and tools. The availability of software and competent personnel in countries like India has attracted the outsourcing to greater extent. It can be easily visualized that most of the big solicitor firms will have their extended branch offices in India.

GROWTH OF LPO

The Legal Process Outsourcing has brought geometrical changes to advocacy. It is the globalization which has brought LPO into focus. Somebody had rightly defined law as common sense. This hypothetical definition becomes clear when we look into Legal Process Outsourcing where lawyers of one country start working for other country. The barriers of different laws are shattered by knowledge, which no more remains confined to one country. The big solicitors firms like “Clifford Chance”, “Linklaters”, “Allen & Overy” are no more being confined to one country, they have opened their offices in Europe as well as in Asia.

Legal Process Outsourcing has brought excellent opportunities to the individual lawyers and law firms of countries like India. Individual lawyers can increase their earning by working as Freelancers or by joining LPO’s. Similarly law firms catering to the local needs of people have suddenly got excellent exposure by getting outsourced work from solicitor firms of USA & UK. This has brought drastic change to the legal profession in countries like India. The solicitor’s firm of USA & UK has also been stressed out under the work. At the same time the cost cutting also playa vital role in outsourcing legal work. It will not be out of place to mention that the day is not far when the economies of different countries will interact so fast to bring equalization of the currency differences and in turn the quality of services. The days are not far when the lawyers of one country will argue and contest cases in other country even without traveling to the said country. The advancement in information technology has catered to the growth of LPO industry. The benefit of cost saving on both ends and without loosing the quality has been the main allurement for the growth of LPO’s.

JOBS IN AN LPO - 2

It is true that every lawyer wants to be a part of the growing sector i.e. legal process outsourcing. We must remember that we don’t get all that we desire till we work hard to achieve the same. Those who are looking for a temporary job in an LPO must restrain from joining an LPO. Moreover, working in an LPO cannot be a part time job. This job in itself is a career. A lawyer has to be a lawyer first and then be an employee in the LPO. The foremost requirement of a person to work in an LPO is to be a law graduate and enrolled as a lawyer. Though there are many more requirements in an LPO relating to paralegal clerks, Chartered Accountants, IT professionals etc.

Some misconceptions have developed in the legal fraternity as to the working of LPO’s. It has been off and on said that the LPO’s are in fact, not the working place of "real lawyers". The notion has been misconceived claiming that in an LPO only clerical works are being done. I will try to explain this with the prevalent concept in UK. The lawyers in UK are broadly seen as solicitors or barristers. The lawyers who prepare the briefs and do all the office work of any nature involving legal profession are called solicitors. The lawyers representing the clients in the courts are recognized as barristers. The work of lawyers in LPO’s can be to an extent compared with the role of solicitors.

The youngsters joining LPO’s should never feel discouraged while joining an LPO; rather they must feel encouraged while working in an LPO.

JOBS IN AN LPO - 1

Today, every good lawyer is yearning to get a job in an LPO. It is coming up like a dream come true. Every job is like a coin, having two faces i.e. an employer and an employee. Both of them view it with different conceptions and notions. An employer in an LPO looks for people possessing the qualities like dedication, reliability, and qualification. LPO service providers look out for more fresh graduates and they train them according to their requirements. The requirements of an LPO service provider can be enumerated as under:

(a) Excellent command over the English language with correct pronunciation.
(b) Confident in performing their tasks.
(c) Attentive and dedicated to the duties.
(d) Well aware and conversant with the usage and application of software’s.
(e) Having an urge to grow in the LPO sector
(f) Capable to adapt according to the requirements of the client.
(g) Having strong analytical skills and ability to carry on different jobs in a time bound manner.
(h) Prepared to assimilate in group working.
Of course these are only some of the qualities looked by the LPO service providers, in lawyers willing to join them. The most important requirement in a lawyer is the capability to provide high qualitative work in a confidential manner with commitments to the employer.

The general problem faced by a booming sector is the shift of employee’s loyalties. There are lucrative offers to the talented lawyers which always attempt to attract them from the present employers. Many a times, employees work in an LPO just to gain experience so that they can fly to the next employer. Long associations of employer with employees become minimal resulting in to a loss to the LPO sector. It will not be out of place to mention a booming sector becomes fragile when it is based upon talented and qualified professionals like lawyers.

The growth of information technology has given birth to the legal process outsourcing industry, so this keeps changing the fate of an LPO. Every LPO service provider keeps on looking for IT professional which can provide excellent solutions to problems. Lawyers having professional experience in information technology are most preferred part of the LPO service providers. The professionals like Accountants, Company Secretaries and Management Graduates are also joining the main stream of LPO growth.

ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF A LAWYER TO BE A PART OF LPO

Lawyers represented that part of the society which was considered intelligent and aware of legislations and capable to fight their cases in court of law. They were expected to be good craftsmen in the court proceedings. However, the qualities of lawyer varied from one part of the society to the other part. The growth of business necessitated the creation of another category of lawyers; such lawyers were supposed to be conversant with laws and had to do all the necessary acts of a lawyer except appearing in the courts. This brought into a different category of lawyers called “Arguing Lawyers.”

A good number of lawyers started looking at their careers in a different arena like Legal Process Outsourcing. The Legal Process Outsourcing industry requires lawyers to have different qualities. A person has to be a law graduate having excellent command over the English language and conversant with the usage and application of legal software’s.

The solicitors outsourcing their work make it mandatory for the service providers in India to employ lawyers for doing the legal work. A person has to be a law graduate in order to take up the legal work being outsourced by law firms and such lawyers need to be trained to work as per the need of the different outsourced assignments. A lawyer working in an LPO deals with a particular category viz. real estate, document matching, immigration, research, preparation of legal notes. Each of these categories requires different training so as to produce qualitative work. The command of English language is not only limited to brilliance in written communication but also excellence in verbal communication. This also requires the ability of recognition and distinction of accents of the English language spoken in the countries from where business is outsourced.