What is LPO?

LPO for Legal Process Outsourcing. 

Legal Process Outsourcing is where a law firm or corporation obtains legal support services from an outside source, often a law firm or legal support services company (LPO provider).

  • An LPO implies undertaking legal work assigned by corporations in which in-house legal departments or organizations. 
  • The work is given to external companies, local lawyers, or paraprofessionals. 
  • Due to the extensive and unending nature of work, top Indian firms often outsource their operations to be efficient. 
  • Firms undertaking LPO are able to significantly decrease their cost of operations.

Features of LPO

  • Cost saving
  • Access to talent
  • Reduced time
  • Flexibility

Note: LPO should not be confused with offshoring. Offshoring is the process of employing cheap overseas labor to complete tasks remotely.

Types of LPO Services

The LPO services one can provide are vast and are most commonly offered namely agency work, document review, legal research and writing, drafting of pleadings and briefs, and patent services.

Some commonly asked-for services are as follows: 

  • Court appearance for appearance counsel and per diems
  • Summary of the cases cited in an opposing party’s brief
  • Legal research and memos
  • Motions
  • Pleadings
  • Discovery, including subpoenas, RFPs, RROGS, and RFAs
  • Discovery responses and pleadings like motions to compel/quash/protective order
  • Document review
  • Deposition summaries
  • Leases
  • Wills
  • Trusts
  • Powers of attorney
  • Agreements
  • Legal articles
  • Demand letters and other correspondence
  • Corporate documents like operating agreements, by-laws, and corporate resolutions
  • Secretarial including presentations
  • Legal publishing services
  • Contract drafting and review services
  • Business/market research
  • Form completion and information population, such as tax forms
  • Document review including e-discovery
  • Administrative such as accounting and billing

Types of LPO Providers

  • Third-party multiservice providers
  • Third-party niche providers
  • Captive centers of large legal and audit firms
  • Captive centers of corporate legal departments

Why LPO?

In the recent few years, the global spending on legal services has been estimated to be over $680-690 billion (of which about 60% is accounted for in the United States and Europe). 

With such demand for legal services, corporations and law firms need to handle the large volumes while keeping costs in check and maintaining profitability. This is where LPO comes into the picture, wherein core legal functions are delegated to external counsel to complete the assigned task on the basis of set parameters and fixed timelines.

India, with its large pool of English-proficient lawyers trained in common law, is anticipated to reach USD 11.01 by 2025 of the global Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) requirement and is estimated to be at $35.9 billion by 2025.

Pros and Cons of LPO

Pros:

  • The LPO industry is a sunrise industry, which should see a boom in the next 3-5 years. There is a tremendous variety of work at all levels of expertise and high-end opportunities even for graduates of top law schools. 
  • It offers attractive remuneration and future management prospects, including an opportunity to work in a corporate structure that straddles borders, making this sector all the more striking for law graduates. 
  • The remuneration for fresh graduates starts from 22,000 – 40,000 but easily touches 70,000 in a span of 2 years. There is a certain level of predictability of income that comes with this job, unlike practicing in Indian law courts where there is no fixed income. 
  • Annual appraisals and performance bonuses are common things in LPOs. 
  • There is also the convenience of fixed working hours which is mostly between 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. Only a few of these LPOs do night shifts but they are the exception rather than the rule. 
  • The option of working from home on a busy personal day ensures work-life balance which is usually non-existent for a lawyer.

The pattern of working of an LPO is that of a corporate format that ensures uniformity in the workspace. There are promotions, increments, hierarchy, proper office spaces, a safer environment for women, and other associated benefits. 

This is comparatively a lot better than working as a junior lawyer in smaller law offices wherein there is a lack of corporate culture/professionalism and 12-14 hours of work every day!

Cons:

However, there are some issues that plague the industry in India, such as: 

  • There is a stigma attached to the word ‘LPO’ and lawyers usually refrain from working under this tag. 
  • The work is that of foreign laws and there is no application of Indian laws in this industry which makes the employees out of touch with domestic laws. 
  • More importantly, the work done in this industry is repetitive, and monotonous and is hence considered as ‘grunt work’. 

For these reasons, lawyers still refrain from working in LPOs

Conclusion:

But the LPOs industry is still at a nascent stage in India. In spite of all odds, there is a lot of scope for expansion and growth. There would be a lot of job opportunities in this field in the coming years.

LPO: Making Headway in India

LPO has been progressively growing in India. Many legal firms from overseas are choosing Indian legal firms for services to reduce costs. This has made India favorable for legal work. 

  • It has also provided freshly qualified law graduates to prove their worth and also earn well. 
  • The Indian LPO sector expects growth in a number of services namely document review, legal publishing, contract services, etc.