New Norm: Sending Legal Work Abroad

Law Practice

Posted Aug 21, 2007, 10:31 am CDT
By Martha Neil

Once upon a time, U.S.-based corporations routinely hired American law firms to do virtually all of their legal work. But today, using cheap foreign lawyers—or even American lawyers in lower-paid parts of the country—to do routine tasks such as document review and conducting due diligence on merger partners is becoming a standard practice. This approach is aided, of course, by the ease of transmitting documents via the Internet.

Not every law firm will discuss the subject. But those that do often readily admit that putting lower-paid lawyers from other geographic locations on the on the legal team is commonplace. One reason why is that corporate clients push for it, so law firms have little choice but to agree, according to Bloomberg.

"The objective is to have only the most valuable people in London or New York, and the others in India, China or Columbus, Ohio,'' says New York attorney Robert Profusek. He co-chairs the mergers and acquisitions practice at Jones Day, which sends low-end work to the cheapest locations and plans to open a document center in India.

India is a popular choice for such outsourcing, because attorneys there are trained in English-language courses that use a common-law model, like England and the U.S. Also, a legal pay scale that provides for huge savings to American companies, compared to the cost of hiring U.S. lawyers, is viewed as generous there, Bloomberg reports. A junior Indian lawyer might earn as much as $8,160 a year, while top first-year associates at major U.S. law firms are paid starting salaries of $160,000 or even more.

However, outsourcing can create concerns about whether attorneys on the other side of the world are being adequately training and supervised.

"India has very talented lawyers,'' says Janine Dascenzo, managing counsel for legal operations at General Electric Co. The Fairfield, Conn.-based company sends about $3 million in routine legal work annually to an affiliate in that country. "But it's a misconception that you can just send work there and it gets done," she adds. "You need proper supervision and security.''

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Posted by Marilyn - 1 year, 1 week, 1 day, 9 hours, 57 minutes ago

"India, China, or COLUMBUS OHIO?” I guarantee that this is the last time my Columbus Ohio based Fortune 500 company hires that firm!
Posted by Krista - 1 year, 6 days, 11 hours, 42 minutes ago

It seems pretty unfair that top partners are billing $1,000 per hour, but they’re sending work to India so lawyers there can earn less than $10,000 per year. Not to mention, there are plenty of new lawyers in America who would be happy to do this work without requiring the astronomical salaries of “top” new hires.
Posted by Eliot Katz - 1 year, 6 days, 11 hours ago

Read this e-mail from ABA Journal online.

Eliot
Posted by Jeff - 1 year, 6 days, 9 hours, 5 minutes ago

You will get another Enron out of this. Due dilligence and doc review while boring are not unimportant. The huge Tobacco settlement was based on one letter buried in a doc review.
Posted by Matt - 1 year, 6 days, 6 hours, 57 minutes ago

Why don’t we outsource large firms entirely? Think of the cost savings clients could achieve by hiring firms where the partners earn $30,000 to $50,000 a year! Call me a nativist, but I don’t want foreign lawyers working my case any more than I want foreign doctors handling my health--with or without “supervision.”
Posted by Molly Maguire - 1 year, 6 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes ago

Yes, let a faceless attoney who is not admitted in the local jurisdiction do your doc review, then send the confidential information to his russian stock broker, and let the nightmare start. They will have one NY attorney supervising 100 doc reviewers and then another to pray. India can’t even do call centers correctly. Go ahead and do it, I can’t wait to be on the doc review regarding the investigation of the offshore doc review. Be sure to let your malpractice carriers know what your up to!
Posted by STEVEN - 1 year, 6 days, 5 hours, 9 minutes ago

Shame on Jones Day and thier partners for permitting such crap. Why was it necessary to disparage Columbus, Ohio lawyers. The managing partner should stop taking his $500,000.00 a year salary.
Posted by David - 1 year, 6 days, 3 hours, 39 minutes ago

I don’t know much about the Hindu religion but if they honor asses in India as much as cattle, this guy is going to be a regular saint.
Posted by June - 1 year, 4 days, 5 hours, 44 minutes ago

Go ahead: just hire the American American attorneys abroad first… in fact, hire those that keep their licenses active and do legal English editing and English document reviews for a living but can’t afford to pay the rent because no one in the countries they have relocated into (due to marriage) will hire ‘foreigners’… unless they can’t help it… and/or discriminate (legally) based on sex and age… The xenophobism in some of these prior comments is just a little too thick...and I, myself, am, I am happy to say, available for such work. - an American attorney and editor working and living abroad, and hoping the global village would include her online services...men desverre (but unfortunately in Norwegian).. not yet.

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