This is a new one for Indian talent helping US lawyers. And this time it is Indian doctors. Forget the $300/hour services being offshored, the outsourcing market is on a roll. How about seeking support from India for services that are typically between $500-$800 an hour?! St. Petersburg Times has this piece on the new use of India. Some snippets:
Sims, the Ocala lawyer, incorporates India into her law practice with a twist on the typical outsourcing model.
After a positive experience with doctors on a trip there, she started MD in a Box. For $90 an hour, the company links lawyers with Indian doctors who screen potential cases, analyze records and perform medical research. The same service with American experts costs between $500 and $800 an hour, Sims said.
The company's most powerful tool is also its most technologically advanced. Lawyers can hire an MD in a Box doctor to be present during depositions using Skype, a software program that allows the doctor to listen to the proceedings in real time.
If the Indian doctors catch a defense expert making a medically suspicious claim, they quickly send literature or rebuttal questions to aid the cross-examination.
Since MD in a Box opened for business last year, a handful of Tampa Bay lawyers have become happy customers.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
More steps towards raising standards in LPO
Amidst growing concerns over infestation of the (young but promising) LPO space, can be heard calls for defining some quality (and perhaps ethics and conduct) standards by the relatively larger and more established players. See earlier post here.
More recently, LawScribe, one of whose directors is Mark Ross - LPO industry's persistent advocate of self-regulation and accredition of vendors - recently made this press release about formation of Legal Outsourcing chapter of International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP).
To quote Mark from the press release, "There is a compelling need for collaboration between clients, providers and advisors to address the requirements specific to the emerging legal outsourcing industry. There have been a number of calls from within the industry to bring about self-regulation and internal accreditation and quality standards. I believe that by bringing key stakeholders together through appropriate forums such as the IAOP we can help raise the standards and inspire confidence from within the industry."
More recently, LawScribe, one of whose directors is Mark Ross - LPO industry's persistent advocate of self-regulation and accredition of vendors - recently made this press release about formation of Legal Outsourcing chapter of International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP).
To quote Mark from the press release, "There is a compelling need for collaboration between clients, providers and advisors to address the requirements specific to the emerging legal outsourcing industry. There have been a number of calls from within the industry to bring about self-regulation and internal accreditation and quality standards. I believe that by bringing key stakeholders together through appropriate forums such as the IAOP we can help raise the standards and inspire confidence from within the industry."
Manhattan to Mumbai to Manhattan: LPO at work!
Update: The ABA Journal directory on blogs also includes this blog under the LPO category, see screenshot below:
The long awaited ABA Journal piece on LPO is finally out. This blog contributed to the piece and is happy about that!
The first instance of legal work being outsourced to India took place in 1995, says Rahul Jindal, a prominent LPO blogger. It started gaining steam after 2000, and Jindal estimates that there are about 100 legal outsourcing companies that employ between 600 and 800 Indian attorneys.
The piece is not your average LPO reporting concotion quoting the same numbers ad nauseam. The meat of the piece is really something on the lines of a-day-in-the-life-of-an-Indian-attorney-working-for-an-LPO - which I think is a novel perspective about the space.
The first instance of legal work being outsourced to India took place in 1995, says Rahul Jindal, a prominent LPO blogger. It started gaining steam after 2000, and Jindal estimates that there are about 100 legal outsourcing companies that employ between 600 and 800 Indian attorneys.
The piece is not your average LPO reporting concotion quoting the same numbers ad nauseam. The meat of the piece is really something on the lines of a-day-in-the-life-of-an-Indian-attorney-working-for-an-LPO - which I think is a novel perspective about the space.
Monday, October 08, 2007
LPO: The "genius" among us!
Update: Mark Ross of LawScribe has this story - about the same "company"!
"I read your latest blog posting with a smile on my face. I don't know if you ever managed to see LexGenius' website before they took down (following LawScribe's threat of immediate legal action!).
Their website was virtually word for word a duplicate of the LawScribe site - it went as far as to completely copy Kunoor Chopra's profile but substitute in the name of the LexGenius founder!!
Although we were flattered somewhat I was left with little alternative other than to fire off a quick email saying that if the website wasn't down within one hour, then they would be hearing from our attorneys. I actually received an email (quite polite) within minutes saying that they had taken down the site"
Quell horreur! Quell scandale!
The fascinating thing about India is that given enough time one can search for anything or anyone. Unfortunate as it is, a search for me-too or fly-by-night LPO vendors doesn't take long.
Consider this: The popular internet media outlet, Rediff News, published an interview - titled "India is the best in legal offshoring" - with Russell Smith of SDD Global. Soon after another legal offshoring company (probably) simply stole it! An LPO called LexGenius (!) changed the title to "LexGenius in India is the best in legal offshoring" and posted it on nearly 20 web sites, pretending the interview was with LexGenius. Nearly every site later took down the fraudulent posting, but at least one did not. You can see the phony version at http://www.articlealley.com/article_219752_18.html .
This blog has archived copies of the phony articles, just in case someone acts smart this time, as had previously happened! Anyone have more stories on such "vendors"?
"I read your latest blog posting with a smile on my face. I don't know if you ever managed to see LexGenius' website before they took down (following LawScribe's threat of immediate legal action!).
Their website was virtually word for word a duplicate of the LawScribe site - it went as far as to completely copy Kunoor Chopra's profile but substitute in the name of the LexGenius founder!!
Although we were flattered somewhat I was left with little alternative other than to fire off a quick email saying that if the website wasn't down within one hour, then they would be hearing from our attorneys. I actually received an email (quite polite) within minutes saying that they had taken down the site"
Quell horreur! Quell scandale!
The fascinating thing about India is that given enough time one can search for anything or anyone. Unfortunate as it is, a search for me-too or fly-by-night LPO vendors doesn't take long.
Consider this: The popular internet media outlet, Rediff News, published an interview - titled "India is the best in legal offshoring" - with Russell Smith of SDD Global. Soon after another legal offshoring company (probably) simply stole it! An LPO called LexGenius (!) changed the title to "LexGenius in India is the best in legal offshoring" and posted it on nearly 20 web sites, pretending the interview was with LexGenius. Nearly every site later took down the fraudulent posting, but at least one did not. You can see the phony version at http://www.articlealley.com/article_219752_18.html .
This blog has archived copies of the phony articles, just in case someone acts smart this time, as had previously happened! Anyone have more stories on such "vendors"?
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Another LPO Industry Report
LegalForest, Robert Lee's company has a new report on LPO, available for purchase at their website.
My favorite quote from the preview is:
Proponents of the LPO industry might point to the recent $7M Series C funding of Pangea3 (July 2007), perhaps the leading general service LPO, as a sign of the increasing legitimacy of this industry. However, at the same time comes news that one of the top ten LPO providers (as ranked by the Brown Wilson Group annual Black Book of Outsourcing), NeoWorth LPO, is no longer accepting new clients, and in fact may be closing its LPO operation!
Having previously worked with Robert Lee, I can say with some confidence that the readers of this report should expect some commentary grounded in reality than analyst reports conjuring up numbers for present industry size and anticipated growth.
As Eminem may put it, will the real LPO vendor(s) please stand up?!
My favorite quote from the preview is:
Proponents of the LPO industry might point to the recent $7M Series C funding of Pangea3 (July 2007), perhaps the leading general service LPO, as a sign of the increasing legitimacy of this industry. However, at the same time comes news that one of the top ten LPO providers (as ranked by the Brown Wilson Group annual Black Book of Outsourcing), NeoWorth LPO, is no longer accepting new clients, and in fact may be closing its LPO operation!
Having previously worked with Robert Lee, I can say with some confidence that the readers of this report should expect some commentary grounded in reality than analyst reports conjuring up numbers for present industry size and anticipated growth.
As Eminem may put it, will the real LPO vendor(s) please stand up?!
Monday, October 01, 2007
Small scale M&A in lower-end LPO
Update: Tricom India, a provider of EDD and litigation support services announced acquisition of US based ‘Apex Document Solutions’ a full service provider of litigation support services for legal practitioners.
Earlier...
Here's the piece. Some snippets below:
Mysore-based Software Paradigms (India) Ltd (SPI) on Monday announced the acquisition of Comat Technologies, a medical transcription (MT) firm. SPI is the city’s largest IT and business applications solution provider.
As part of the deal, SPI will take over all the US and UK BPO/LPO (legal process outsourcing) customers of Comat Technologies being serviced from Mysore.
Over 400 of its employees working on MT, legal transcription and legal coding services will be transferred to SPI’s payroll, taking the number of SPI employees to over 1,000 and double the size of its operations.
Earlier...
Here's the piece. Some snippets below:
Mysore-based Software Paradigms (India) Ltd (SPI) on Monday announced the acquisition of Comat Technologies, a medical transcription (MT) firm. SPI is the city’s largest IT and business applications solution provider.
As part of the deal, SPI will take over all the US and UK BPO/LPO (legal process outsourcing) customers of Comat Technologies being serviced from Mysore.
Over 400 of its employees working on MT, legal transcription and legal coding services will be transferred to SPI’s payroll, taking the number of SPI employees to over 1,000 and double the size of its operations.
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