Legal Research Outsourcing: Key Facts To Consider

In today's continuously evolving business environment, to stay competitive, companies worldwide are outsourcing business operations that can be done more efficiently and inexpensively overseas. Like how outsourcing has revolutionized other industries like IT, software, health care, call center services etc., it's only a matter of time before it brings the legal research industry too into the same league.

Legal process outsourcing service providers also now have the expertise to provide a wide range of legal services, including contract drafting and management, compliance assistance, litigation support, e-discovery, review & management, and patent support.

State of the Legal Research Outsourcing Industry

The size of the global legal process outsourcing market has been valued at USD 10.77 billion in 2021. This tremendous market size is further expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 31% from 2022 to 2030. The LPO revenue in 2030 is also expected to cross USD 117.89 billion in 2030.

At present, the Asia Pacific region is dominating the global legal process outsourcing market, achieving a share of 70.8%. This is mainly due to the significant revenue generation in offshore sites APAC regions dominated by India and the Philippines.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley conducted a study that reveals that lawyers and legal assistants working in India on behalf of the US companies earn, on an average, around one-third of what their US counterparts are paid. This disparity alone results in cost savings of anywhere between 60 percent and 70 percent.

India is likely to be the primary beneficiary of the legal research services outsourcing trend due to the significant wage disparity between Indian and U.S. attorneys. Moreover, the number of English-speaking attorneys entering India's legal market every passing year is on the increase.

Criteria for selecting a Legal Research services Outsourcing Location

1. Large wage differential
2. Highly qualified workforce
3. Common law jurisdiction
4. English-speaking
5. Advantageous time zone difference
6. Good work ethics
7. Good communications
8. Infrastructure
9. Stable government
10. Growing economy

In India, for example, there has been a significant drop in telecom rates over the past few years, the reasons being the launch of India's first private undersea cable and the privatization of the telecom industry. Greater bandwidth availability makes for easier and unlimited access to online legal databases.

This equips overseas legal staff in locations like India with the same legal research capabilities as their counterparts in the United States. There are various projects that you can outsource once you are comfortable with the notion that the quality of your work product to not likely to suffer on account of any inherent incapability of the outsourced legal team.

Legal Tasks that Can be Outsourced

• Indexing and objective coding
• Database creation and maintenance
• Legal transcription
• Contract drafting and management
• Compliance assistance
• Litigation support
• e-discovery
• Review & management
• Due diligence reports
• Fifty-state surveys
• Patent and trademark work
• Review of transactional and litigation documents
• Drafting contracts, research memoranda, pleadings, and briefs

Risks of Outsourcing Your Legal Research Requirements

Unauthorized Practice of Law

Legal research services outsourcing may not raise unauthorized practice of law issues. Stephen Gillers is a professor at the New York University School of Law and is a legal ethics expert. He says, "There is no problem with outsourcing because even though the lawyer in India is not authorized by an American state to practice law, the review by the American lawyers sanitizes the process". This practice enhances your project and keeps us on the right track to fulfilling your legal needs.

Confidentiality

Yet another concern is the confidentiality of information we handle for you on behalf of your customer. We have made substantial investments in securing computer networks and information systems from hackers in order to safeguard legal information.

Outsource Legal Research Services to FWS

By some estimates, 20 percent to 50 percent of all US legal work will eventually be outsourced and a prime location for outsourcing is India. Flatworld Solutions has global delivery centers in many low-cost countries around the world, including in Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India (also known as India's outsourcing hub), and the Philippines. We have been in the outsourcing industry for over 20 years now and while legal research may be novel to the outsourcing industry it is a strategic area of strength and growth for us.

Expand your possibilities! Contact us now.