Thursday, March 27, 2008

Legal Process Outsourcing: Potentially Benefitting from Global Recession

I have been speaking to leaders of top LPO companies in India and hope to post quotes from them about their take on impact of the economic recession on LPO.

In an exclusive interview, SDD Global Solutions Chairman Russell Smith told me, "No one likes a recession, but for quality legal outsourcing providers, it will mean more business, not less." As Smith reports, "I just got back from a two-month marketing tour of the U.S. and Europe, and one in-house corporate counsel after another told me of the increasing pressure to cut legal budgets. For many, that will mean outsourcing." Says Smith, "Recessions and depressions generally don't reduce the need for legal work, but they do reduce the tolerance for high legal fees. Also, not all industries suffer during downturns. Many of our clients are media and entertainment companies, and that's a field that's almost recession-proof. When times are tough, and people don't have jobs, the demand for movies and television programming often goes up, not down. It's partly escapism, but also an increase in free time."

Business leaders often have a way of introducing wit in the most serious of situations!

Reader comments and opinions on their prediction of the impact of recession on LPO are welcome.

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