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1. Posted by Carolyn Elefant - 1 year, 2 weeks, 5 days, 18 hours, 7 minutes ago

   There was a post on this in Wired as well - http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2007/06/hollywood-offsh.html

2. Posted by JD - 1 year, 2 weeks, 3 days, 11 hours, 18 minutes ago

   Outsourcing and illegal immigration are two sides of the same coin. It’s all about cheap labor.

   There’s no job that can’t be done elsewhere for less. It’s up to good attorneys to put an end to illegal immigration and outsourcing. Otherwise, say goodbye to the U.S. of A.

3. Posted by Sushi - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours, 48 minutes ago

   It’s great to save a dime until something goes wrong, then who do you sue for malpractice? They can get cheap surgery in India too. Triple bypass is only $25.

4. Posted by Loyola - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes ago

   How is this not the unauthorized practice of law?  Unless these folks in India are admitted to the CA bar, how can they provide legal opinions and perform other functions that are done by an attorney without running afoul of that? 

   Do these studios care that the legal opinions and motions may not pass muster?  And that any supervision claimed could be considered illusory?

5. Posted by Steve Perkins - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 5 hours, 11 minutes ago

   That’s actually a really good point, Loyola, about the unauthorized practice of law issue.  To answer your question though, no… I doubt that studios care about illusory supervision (hell, most ON-SHORE supervision is basically illusory!).  However, I’m interested as to whether the ABA or state Bars care.

6. Posted by Skeptical - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 37 minutes ago

   Excellent points from all of the above.  You would think with the recent issues in China we would learn our lesson - it’s bad enough India’s movie industry calls itself ‘Bollywood’.  How long will it be before the lawyers start deliberately issuing misleading opinions to cause as much havoc in our entertainment industry as there currently is in our toy industry?  The competition to gain an edge in today’s market is fierce and there’s no guarantee in the international field that others will play fair.

7. Posted by John J McGowan - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 4 hours, 22 minutes ago

   I agree with Posters 3-6 (above).  This trend has been going on for a while, and will continue to plague the American Bar (which seems committed to believing that the practice of law somehow is immune or exempt from the law of economics).

   I wouldn’t hold my breath, waiting for the organized bar, or the state courts, to rule on this as the unauthorized practice of law.  Hell, virtually all of the law firms were getting ready to marry accounting firms in the late 1990s until the corporate scandals drove the idea of muiltidisciplinary practice (i.e., CPAs rule the world) from the field.  Things will only change if (as Poster #3 suggests) things start going wrong and high profile clients are left twisting in the wind.  One thing I plan to do, if in litigation I encounter work done by an unlicensed Indian firm, is to press the whole attorney-client privilege question and contend that only advice provided by a duly licensed attorney is entitled to privilege (otherwise, you might as well protect bartenders’ advice if rendered by someone who went to law school).  Start exposing secrets, and clients will get a clue.  In the meantime, huge economic imbalances in rate structure will drive this trend forward.

8. Posted by skeptical 2 - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 57 minutes ago

   Fact is anything more than 250 an hour is too much.  The market is telling us this.  That is what is the boost in outsourcing to India means.

9. Posted by N - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 40 minutes ago

   Ironic and instructive to see an article on outsourcing and cushy perks together.

10. Posted by Concerned - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 33 minutes ago

    After reading the profiles of some of the employees who are in the “legal” department at SSD Global, as a client, I would be concerned to have this group working on any legal issue, let alone an issue that has the potential for high dollar claim brought against the studio.  None of the “legal professionals” have any US legal training.  From the web site I cannot ascertain where there is any US attorney supervision or oversite.  In CA, a person may sit for the bar without attending an ABA law school, or any law school for that matter.  Why haven’t any of the “legal” professionals in India taken the CA bar to give SDD Global some form of legitimacy? 

    With the amount of money involved (100’s of millions, if not billions of dollars), it would appear that the executives in Hollywood are the embodiment of “penny wise, pound foolish.“

    I am sure this practice of “outsourcing” higher-end legal work will be tested in the US court system soon.

11. Posted by Greg - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

    I’m baffled why firms don’t look first to sourcing work to branch offices in less expensive markets in the US first. The legal field is one of the only ones left where lawyers graduating from the same schools and with the same experience can charge double or triple depending on the market that they’re in. An LA entertainment firm can cut their legal costs 50% just by opening a branch office in Nashville (where the depth of experience in the entertainment bar is, as one might imagine, pretty deep).

12. Posted by better, faster, cheaper - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 1 minute ago

    I say more power to the Indians.  Everyone loves capatilism until it doesn’t work for them.  We would all like to think that no one else can do our jobs but what we’re finding out is, this isn’t true.  As much as we may not want to admiti it to ourselves, practicing law is not rocket science and just like programming a computer, it can be done better, faster,  and cheaper.  If law firms don’t figure that out then the legal industry will go the way of the tech industy to Mumbai.

13. Posted by StephenG - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes ago

    This is absolutely the unauthorized practice of law, but how do you get jurisdiction over someone practicing in India?

    America will never be able to compete with foreign countries when it comes to labor because most countries don’t have the same basic labor and consumer laws that we have here. Until these other countries raise the bar and increase their standard of living (which isn’t going to happen anytime soon) our labor market will continue to bleed.

14. Posted by Richard Mendales - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 25 minutes ago

    While there are clear problems of professional responsibility with outsourcing, American law firms themselves are increasingly using cheap, barely supervised labor by hiring contract attorneys, who are paid $35/hour or less, receive no benefits, and have little incentive to work carefully.

15. Posted by Sushi - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 17 minutes ago

    Acutally (Poster 12), law practice becomes seemiingly “not rocket science” by those that do it everyday, and I have never encountered a profession that likes self abuse more than us, but things can go very, very wrong and cost millions and millions of dollars when then do go wrong, when you miss a tiny vital deadly thing. We all know that multi-million dollar cases may very well hinge on ther interpretation of a single word. So lets keep it to the locally accountable licensed and insured professionals please. 
    This is just another sign that 7 years of school to get a law degree is not worth it, you would think our Bar Associations would do something to protect our industry. Ehem…..ehem.

16. Posted by Sushi - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 14 minutes ago

    Good point Richard, they need to stop that practice of overuse and abuse of contract attorneys.  If Biglaw can pay paralegals 75-80k a year, they can hire discovery attorneys for at least the same and still make hefty profits off thier work.

17. Posted by boomr - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 54 minutes ago

    You know what would solve all of this outsourcing problem (and the attendant need to charge astronomical hourly rates)?  Make law school less expensive.  There’s a very easily explained reason why other countries’ professionals are less expensive than ours are:  because they have no educational debt (unless they come to the US to be educated).

    If new lawyers didn’t start off being $150,000 in the red before earning their first paychecks, then firms wouldn’t have to pay them $160,000 a year to attract the top graduates.  Second through seventh year associates wouldn’t have to have similar raises to prevent lateral transfers, and partners, just to make sure they’re on top, wouldn’t have to expect $300,000 to half million dollar partnership draws.

    Of course, there are also the issues of higher costs of living, market size, industry stodginess preventing change with the times, etc., but the headwaters of this river are in the legal EDUCATION system, not the legal market.

18. Posted by Tim Bracken - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 39 minutes ago

    In response to the questions above about the legality of having Indian lawyers do legal research and write motions, the different state bars have likened such practices to delegating work to a non-lawyer clerk.  As long as the clerk/Indian lawyer is nominally supervised, and as long as a U.S. lawyers is ultimately signing papers, this practice has been treated as proper.

19. Posted by Tim Bracken - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 38 minutes ago

    In response to the questions above about the legality of having Indian lawyers do legal research and write motions, the different state bars have likened such practices to delegating work to a non-lawyer clerk.  As long as the clerk/Indian lawyer is nominally supervised, and as long as a U.S. lawyer is ultimately signing the papers, this practice has been treated as proper.

20. Posted by Eyes wide...open. - 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days, 32 minutes ago

    Things can go “very, very wrong” but we’re assuming that the studios are run by a bunch of unsophisticated hacks who know very little about business.  I’m a transactional attorney at a major national law firm and regularly deal with clients (some with debateable business accumen) who make major decisions based on a cost benefit analysis.  These people know the risks and have weighed the cost of potential claims against the transactional costs of using big market law firms.  Like one of the posters said, you have to love capitalism.  Without it, would we be making what we do?

21. Posted by Gunther H Schiff - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day, 23 hours, 37 minutes ago

    This trend seems to be a reaction to the incresingly ridiculous charges by many American law firms.  When charges approach $1000 per hour and newly minted attorneys are charged at $350 or more per hour,the “business” (no longer a profession) of lawyering deserves any surcease from these charges the clients can devisie.

22. Posted by LESLIE PLUMP - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day, 22 hours, 20 minutes ago

    THIS IS ALL VERY INTERESTING.  AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY AND BEGINNING OF THE 2OTH IMMIGRANTS FLOODED TO THE UNITED STATES TO FILL AVAILABLE JOBS.  AT THE END OF THE 20TH AND BEGINNING OF THE 21ST THE JOBS WERE OUTSOURCED.  THESE ARE MERELY TWO DIFFERENT METHODS OF FILLING AVAILABLE POSITIONS.  THE IMMIGRANTS WORKED FOR LOW PAY AS DO THE RECIPIENTS OF THE OUTSOURCED WORK.

23. Posted by Barry - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day, 17 hours, 59 minutes ago

    My wife and I are both senior US lawyers.  I work for a firm that provides outsourcing services, using Indian resources, in 4 areas: litigation support, IP, contract management, and research; our target audience is law firms and corporate law departments.  She works for a large international corporation.

    My wife is trying to manage legal costs for her company.  She knows that some quantity of work that is billed by her outside firms - some, but not all - can be done by lawyers in India at significantly reduced rates compared to the US.  She also knows that some of the work now done in the US is being charged at ridiculously high rates even though it is being performed by young associates, or even paralegals.  My wife thinks her company and others are beginning to see the value of outsourcing some work to save costs, without diminishing their insistence on quality.  These are international businesses which are used to having a variety of work done by people around the world, and they are beginning to realize that some of their legal tasks can similarly be performed in various parts of the world and still be managed ultimately by licensed US counsel.

    Four Bar associations - one in NY, two in CA, and one in FL - have all found outsourcing to be ethical and each has determined that lawyers who use outsoured services are NOT assisting in the unauthorized practice of law.  All four Bar opinions have said the work that is outsourced must be supervised, and the lawyer who is licensed in the jurisdiction is ultimately responsible for the work that is done, just as they would be for any work performed by an associate, paralegal, or contract lawyer here in the US or elsewhere.

    In my company’s case, we have senior American lawyers working with licensed and experienced Indian lawyers and paralegals, some of whom are also licensed in the US.  Our company is certified to International standards for data protection.  We have stringent confidentiality provisions in place.  All work done in India is reviewed by our senior US lawyers, and then passed to the clients - be they law firms or corporate law departments.  Neither my company’s US or Indian lawyers are providing   legal advice to the clients; we provide services to licensed attorneys, and they provide their clients with their opinions and analyses.

    Some companies may not be built on this outsourcing     , but we think it works for us.  We can reduce costs, have senior US attorneys serve as communications intermediaries and quality control checks, and still provide quality services to the lawyers who ultimately are providing advice to their clients.  Business is global, and the practice of law can, under the right circumstances as I have outlined, adjust to the global realities of today’s marketplace.

24. Posted by Barry - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day, 17 hours, 55 minutes ago

    I noticed that one word was omitted from my last post.  In the last paragraph, first line, after the word “outsourcing”, I meant to include the word “model”.

25. Posted by Shanika - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day, 13 hours ago

    I wonder why the ABA is silent when the ABA approved law school J.D.s and newly passed attorneys (with massive law school loans) keep doing document review in warehouses for $25/hr (with no benefits)? That is far less than the $60-$100 hr paid to the Indian attorneys? Could this be a quality issue? Can ABA please investigate and protect its “ABA approved” seal of approval?

26. Posted by Alon Solomon - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day, 1 hour, 17 minutes ago

    I can add my comment as in Israeli attorney who worked at two of Israel’s largest, full service and prominent law firms (S. Horowitz & Co. and Shibolet & Co). Today I accompany Israeli investments outside Israeli (Europe and east cost) and some international investment in Israel.

    When working at the above firms, we represented many international and US companies in Israel, or executed legal transactions vis a vis prominent American law firms. Many of the associates and some of the partners at the Israeli firms gained their LLM in Ivey League schools and also have NY licenses. Others simply have significant international experience backed up with the high level of Israeli law schools. I can assure you that in most cases (although not in all of them) the level of the Israeli attorneys in high end legal work where (and is) equal to their American colleges, all the more so with respect to “simple” legal work. 

    The average fees in significant firms in Israel may range between $ 150-$300 as for partners hours (with respect to large scale of work) and $80-$150 for associates. The level of manpower is very high, and many have additional education in math, computers or finance. Today, when executing transactions or legal work in the US via US firms, I pay (or the local companies that I represent pay) outrages amounts as retainer fees, which in many cases has significant impact on the costs of the transaction. Costs of $500-$900 per hour are very common. So, anyone can do the math for himself or herself, especially if he or she stands in the executive level of a company doing international business or even local transaction within the US. Such executive shall probably prefer solutions of outsourcing. In many case, as we all know, the legal work is routine and rather simple for the professionals.

    To my point of view, I believe that many US law firms are really exposed in his respect or simply have to wake up and smell the “Indian” coffee.

27. Posted by sounder rajan - 1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day, 1 hour, 17 minutes ago

    Since all issues concerning Outsourcing of Legal work is being hotly debated in many of the posts ,I think the ABA should initiate a Code of Conduct by appointing a Task Force to go into this issue. They should visit India and take the views of Indian Lawyers doing the work. If any assistance is required the IBA can be sounded.This requires long term approach as Outsourcing is a reality and the best way is for ABA to regulate it.

28. Posted by Robert - 1 year, 2 weeks, 18 hours, 14 minutes ago

    Posts 23 and 26 make the most sense, legally and pratically speaking. This is no different than using a good Associate or Paralegal. In the end, I can spend a fraction of the time “checking” and “reviewing” the work as opposed to the cost of “doing the whole thing” and I will sign the document and be responsible. Would Barry, from Post 26 be willing to share what Outsource Company or Companies he and his wife use, please? Thank you.

29. Posted by Barry - 1 year, 1 week, 6 days, 17 hours, 57 minutes ago

    As I mentioned in my earlier post, I actually work for an outsourcing company.  The company is Quatrro Legal.  The website is www.quatrrolegal.com.  My legal background is described on the Our Team page.

    Quatrro Legal is a subsidiary of Quatrro BPO, whose CEO and executives helped create the outsourcing industry in India.

30. Posted by Barry - 1 year, 1 week, 6 days, 17 hours, 36 minutes ago

    My company’s full corporate name is Quatrro Legal Solutions, Inc.  We have put together a very extensive list of FAQs that provide a broad overview of outsourcing, and also address specific questions from the perspective of corporate law departments, law firms, and insurers.

    The 4 Bar Association opinions I mentioned earlier that all have found outsourcing ethical are contained on the website - use the Legal Ethics link to the right of the picture, or go to http://www.quatrrolegal.com/legal_ethics.html.

31. Posted by J.D. - 1 year, 1 week, 5 days, 18 hours, 26 minutes ago

    If illegal aliens were attorneys, the ABA would have demanded a secure border decades ago.

    It’s sad that there are SO MANY POSTS here, but next to none on stories dealing with illegal immigration.

    I guess wealthy attorneys don’t care much about the working class these days.

32. Posted by Vidya Devaiah - 1 year, 1 week, 5 days, 7 hours, 35 minutes ago

    Wow.  Where to begin?  As Public Relations Officer for SDD Global Solutions in India, it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me!  The first thing I want to say, which is the “man bites dog” story that has yet to be picked up by the media, is that companies like ours are actually creating more work for U.S. (and Hollywood) lawyers, not less.  In fact, to serve the needs of our clients, from India we’re hiring Hollywood and other lawyers as local counsel to work on so-called “sexy” litigations and other matters, which, if not for us, would simply have been settled, and never pursued, just to avoid exorbitant U.S. legal fees.  For example, SDD Global has been hired to do the research and drafting for the motion to dismiss the Los Angeles libel complaint by “Jane Doe” against HBO, Sacha Baron Cohen and Da Ali G Show, where a plaintiff says she was defamed in that program.  She complains that viewers actually believe that the fictional character, Ali G, had sexual relations with her, as if a cartoon-like, non-existent character can get you pregnant.  If it were not for SDD Global, this case, like so many others, would simply have been settled, and the frivolous plaintiff would have been paid off.  Instead, because offshoring to India has made litigation cost-effective, our client is responding to this bogus compaint with a motion to dismiss, and we are hiring Los Angeles attorneys to help out.  This is Los Angeles legal work, which, without us, would not exist.  The same scenario is replicating itself over and over again, because clients do not mind hiring U.S. lawyers, so long as the work that can be done in India is done in India.  In fact, some law firms are embracing the change, and reaping rewards from it.  One example is our parent law firm, New York-based Smith Dornan Dehn, which went so far as to set up its own legal outsourcing company in India, namely, us.  As a result, the SDD law firm is receiving more revenues, not less.  This is coming from (a) existing clients who send them “elective” legal work that otherwise would never be performed, due to cost, but which is not a problem when our U.S. lawyers are paid only to supervise and edit the work of attorneys in India, and (b) new clients who come to the firm only because of its reputation for developing an outsourcing alternative to the old model.

    Regarding the various complaints posted by various commentators, I recommend that you check out the cover story of LexisNexis’s latest legal magazine, which features SDD Global and addresses all of these issues in great detail, at http://www.sddglobal.com/lexis_article_with_footnotes.htm .  This article demolishes all of the myths we have heard against legal outsourcing to India.

33. Posted by Vidya Devaiah - 1 year, 1 week, 5 days, 7 hours, 32 minutes ago

    The key points are :

    MYTH NUMBER ONE:  Indian Lawyers Lack the Skills and Aptitude to Handle High-End Legal Work for the West

    Attacks on the competence of Indian lawyers and law graduates are about as valid as saying that Indian software engineers are incapable of handling sophisticated IT work.  To the contrary, the Indian IT industry is a world leader, and the same will be the case with offshored legal services.

            A.  Indian Legal Training vs. Western Legal Training

    Legal education in both India and the English-speaking West serves essentially the same purpose – to train its graduates to “think like lawyers” and to teach them how to conduct research in the British-based, common law system.  Western law schools, however, do not train students to practice law.  A recent study conducted by Harvard Law School and LexisNexis reveals that 75% of U.S. law graduates admit they do not have the necessary skills to practice law.  Interestingly, when young lawyers were asked what is the one thing that they wish they had learned, the most frequent answer was “how to draft a motion.”  Yet, motion practice is at the heart of litigation services provided to clients by law firms.

    Since Western law schools are mostly litigation-oriented, their failure to train students in the most basic of litigation skills is especially disappointing.  However, clients who pay high hourly fees for corporate and transactional work by recent U.S. law graduates often are short-changed even further.  It is typical for Western law students to graduate from law school without ever having learned how to draft a contract.

    So you might expect that these deficiencies would be met by rigorous training programs undertaken by Western law firms.  Guess again!  The Harvard / LexisNexis study reveals that 64% of young lawyers receive no organized,  on-the-job training.  They learn as they go along, mostly by trial and error, with their firms’ corporate clients footing the bill.

    By contrast, reputable legal services offshoring companies in India provide rigorous training for their lawyers, and the hours spent on training do not appear on invoices to clients.  At SDD Global Solutions, for example, all of our Indian attorneys are trained by veteran Western practitioners who are at the top of their fields.  Our training program accomplishes what Western law schools and many law firms have failed to achieve, namely, the systematic preparation of young lawyers to provide quality legal services.

            B.  English Communication Skills in India and the West

    George Bernard Shaw, and later, Winston Churchill, famously referred to Britain and the United States as two countries “separated by a common language.”  Because Indian legal education is conducted in English, and because India generates 80,000 English-speaking law graduates per year.  Similar statements have been made about the difference between English communication skills in India and the West.  What these accusations miss is the fact that, at least in the U.S., many law graduates are notoriously incapable of writing effectively in English.  The problem is so severe that some large U.S. law firms now assign a writing coach to each incoming associate.  However, most lawyers in the West never receive this kind of training.  By contrast, reputable legal services offshoring companies in India provide training in English writing for all of their attorneys.

            C.  The U.S. Bar Exam vs. Indian Leaving Exams

    In India there are no bar exams.  Instead, Indian law students, unlike U.S. law students, must pass a comprehensive final or “leaving” exam in order to graduate.  But in part because India has no bar exam, some commentators have suggested that Indian lawyers working for legal offshoring companies should be required to pass a certification test, to demonstrate their ability to provide Western legal services.  This is an admirable effort.  But who will develop a certification system for Western lawyers, many of whom lack skills needed to properly practice law?  Regarding bar exams in the U.S., they are useless, except as a public relations device for the legal profession.  As noted by New York University Law Professor Harold I. Subin, they test “nothing relevant to the practice of law”:

    The bar exam…. is good public relations for the legal profession. Most people are unaware that the exam tests nothing relevant to the practice of law and therefore feel that the organized bar is protecting clients against unqualified lawyers.

    The bar exam is the final degradation ceremony through which one must pass to join what is sometimes called the legal fraternity…. The term is apt, with the bar exam serving the same socializing purpose as hazing [known in India as “ragging”]: drinking in useless legal data is the profession’s equivalent of swallowing goldfish or great quantities of beer, and leads on exam day to a similar regurgitative result.

34. Posted by Vidya Devaiah - 1 year, 1 week, 5 days, 7 hours, 30 minutes ago

    MYTH NUMBER TWO:  “You Get What You Pay For,” or in Other Words, Low Cost Equals Low Quality

    The tremendous cost savings available from legal services offshoring are sometimes met with disbelief.  Some partners at large law firms in particular are prone to making comments such as “you get what you pay for.”  First, let’s examine what a client pays for when it hires the typical large Western law firms (although there are exceptions):

            (a)  staggering real estate costs, due to the location of office space in some of the most expensive locations in the world, most of which are at least 43 times more expensive per square foot than SDD Global’s office building in Mysore, India;

            (b)  having most of the work done by newly minted (and sometimes even unlicensed) associates who admittedly lack many of the skills needed to practice law, but yet are paid a starting salary of $160,000 per year, and who are learning as they go along, at the expense of clients, who in turn are charged as much as $360 or more per hour for the privilege;

            (c)  unnecessary stretching out of work assignments or sometimes padding of time sheets, structurally encouraged by an hourly billing system that rewards heavy hours and inefficiency, as young associates struggle to meet ever-increasing demands to increase their billable time, with yearly quotas that have risen from 1600 hours in the 1960’s, to 2100-3200 hours at many large firms today; and

            (d)  generally a high-quality level of service, due to editing and supervision by talented senior lawyers, but at a cost that clients are no longer willing to tolerate, especially when offshore providers offer flat rates and hourly rates that average from $25 to $90 per hour for high-end work, and $10-25 per hour for lower-end work, as compared to $300-2000 per hour for Western lawyers.

    When a client hires a reputable legal offshoring company in India, whether directly or through a forward-thinking law firm that passes along the savings, the client pays for high-quality, efficient, and timely legal services, performed by enthusiastic and qualified lawyers at locations that serve the best interests of the client.  So yes, “you get what you pay for!”

    MYTH NUMBER THREE:  The Higher the Level of Work, the More Risk of Ethical Violations or Breaches of Confidentiality

    An issue sometimes has arisen as to whether the high-end legal research and drafting services provided to Western clients from India amounts to an unauthorized practice of law.  This rapidly is becoming a non-issue.  Ethics panels in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Florida all have concluded that that the offshoring of legal work to unlicensed attorneys is permissible, so long as the work is supervised by a licensed attorney.  The New York Times has quoted Stephen Gillers, a professor at NYU School of Law and legal ethics expert, as stating that “‘[t]here is no problem with off-shoring…because even though the lawyer in India is not authorized by an American state to practice law, the review by American lawyers sanitizes the process.’ ”

35. Posted by Vidya Devaiah - 1 year, 1 week, 5 days, 7 hours, 30 minutes ago

    In fact, virtually all major law firms in the U.S. routinely use non-licensed attorneys to perform legal work, and they bill their clients for it.  The hours of summer associates, who have neither graduated from law school nor passed a bar exam, are billed out to clients at rates as high as $260 per hour or more.  Moreover, the work of first-year associates, who start work at law firms before their bar exam results are in (and who often fail on their first attempt), is billed out to clients for as much as $360 per hour or more.  This is all permissible, because the work is supervised by licensed attorneys.

    The same is permitted in the case of legal offshoring firms in India.  At SDD Global Solutions, for example, we are an India offshoring company managed by a U.S. law firm, such that all of the work by Indian attorneys is supervised, reviewed, and edited (if needed) by licensed U.S. attorneys.  Several other high-end legal offshoring companies also have licensed U.S. attorneys on their payroll, or at least affiliated with the offshoring unit.  Even where the offshoring companies themselves do not employ licensed attorneys, the work can be supervised by in-house counsel for corporate clients, or by Western law firms who act as intermediaries, hiring the offshore unit on behalf of their clients.

    On the subject of confidentiality, this is a legitimate concern of clients, regardless of whether the legal service provider is a Western law firm or an offshoring company in India.  Based on my experience both with U.S. law firms and the provision of legal services in India, I believe that quality offshore providers generally are doing a better job than U.S. law firms in addressing this issue.

    For example, at SDD Global, we use secure, hack-proof IBM servers, and the latest Cisco ASA firewall to protect data and systems from internet vulnerabilities.  Even more protection is provided by a Linux environment throughout our offices.  Electronic access control is provided for all areas of the building, such that no one is able to enter any floor or project area without being specifically authorized to do so, and without using a custom-made electronic access card.  Our offices are virtually paperless, and passwords are required for all data access.  Most importantly, we take great care in selecting employees.  We hire only one out of every 900 applicants, and only after a lengthy battery of evaluations and tests, as well as a thorough background check.  SDD Global is not alone in this attention to security.  As research analysts have reported regarding our industry, “vendors have invested significantly in systems and processes to ensure data security – often to a greater degree than their overseas clients.

    Compare this with many U.S. law firms, where Microsoft-based networks are vulnerable to hacking, where paper trails abound, where employees are able to roam the offices at will, and where in one famous case, a person posing as an attorney was entrusted with the management of important client files, even though this felon had never attended law school or passed the bar exam.

36. Posted by ali hussain - 1 year, 1 week, 3 days, 13 minutes ago

    i am a new immigrant ot us having a llm degree and 8 yrs of law practice in india,i need to appear for bar exam in texas. i fully agree with the views that legal outsourcing to indian lawyers is justified as they are well trained in written english and education.