Plenty of career opportunities in LPO firms

Guest article (as it appeared in Deccan Herald)

Legal process outsourcing (LPO) industry has left its pangs of dithering and clarification and reached the stage where its feet are firmly grounded in the outsourcing domain and is charged for an aggressive expansion.

Valuenotes report suggests that the Indian LPO market will be worth more than USD $1bn by 2014. The economy saw the industry strengthening even at the times of global recession where for mature and stable providers of LPO it meant more business with Valuenotes estimating LPO revenues (from India alone) to be USD 370 million for 2009.

This exponential growth is owing to increasing pressure on businesses to boost capacity, lower costs and devise efficient ways to deliver services.

For markets such as India, industry experts opine that since developed markets are turning extremely volatile the former are fast emerging as better investment destinations. This creates a big pool of opportunities for young lawyers in India as they stand to benefit not only in the domain of experience by getting a chance to do quality and multijurisdictional legal work but also finding opportunity to take up a business manager’s role as they move up the corporate ladder, which in case of a conventional lawyer is not a predictable career progression.

Litigation or work at law firms in India is associated with initial years of relentless struggle wherein the return on investment of time and money is slow.

Platform for lawyer

LPO companies on the other hand provide a platform that not only enriches a lawyer with global exposure and knowledge of multiple jurisdictions but also give them the experience to build and manage teams in a relatively short span of time. Employees’ development in such corporations becomes intrinsically linked with the growth of the corporation. Example of one such legal service provider is CPA Global where Succeeding together is one of their corporate values. To actively help its employees succeed, the company inculcates the culture of leadership at all levels. Lawyers gain in-depth knowledge of both nitty-gritty’s of law and dynamics of business owing to the international business environment provided in its functioning. Established LPO companies such as CPA Global have opened avenues to build long-term career for both fresh and experienced lawyers. A wide variety of services with various levels of complexity has today become the USP for the industry from the work spanning across Legal Research, Contract Solutions, Transaction Support to Document Review.

Opportunities galore

Opportunities such as these are now attracting many young yet experienced lawyers to join LPOs. Lawyers with LLM from international universities equipped with work experience in a law firm as well as some years in private practice choose to work for leading LPOs.

One of them said and I quote - Although legal profession offers a plethora of opportunities, the LPO industry offers a completely new avenue wherein a legal professional not only develops as a lawyer but also is presented with an administrative role.

Delving with business along with the legal nuances gives a bigger and intrinsic perspective to the legal scenario involved in global transactions. Further, it is a multi faced role which keeps fleeting from one client to another and never gets to be monotonous. Along with vast array of knowledge at the work place, the work life balance also forms a pivotal point for a bulk of lawyers transitioning to the outsourcing industry. The outsourcing industry provides more flexibility and a better platform to deliver than rigid and hectic schedules of a legal firm. A brand like CPA Global with some of the biggest names in the global business being its dedicated clients, offers the perfect platform to the legal fraternity to achieve the pinnacle of success in the outsourcing industry.

In the current scenario LPO industry is moving towards consolidation with recent mergers and acquisitions being indicative of this growth. This change is guided by the move to capture the global legal market share where LPO in India, according to some industry experts, alone is expected to reach USD $1bn by 2014, which is less than 1% of global law industry. Although this appears to be a small portion of the pie but undeniably is indicative of the huge potential of legal outsourcing and a glimpse of exciting times ahead.

Authored by Anand Sharma, CFO and Head of Management Services, CPA Global.

CPA Global named in Global Outsourcing 100 for third year running

Leading legal services outsourcing company CPA Global has been named in the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals' (IAOP) Global Outsourcing 100for the third year running – the only pure-play LSO provider to have achieved such distinction.

The prestigious top 100 listing covers the leading players in all disciplines of outsourcing, including the largest IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies. Companies selected for the Global Outsourcing 100 undergo a rigorously judged application process that assesses four critical characteristics: size and growth, customer references, organisational competencies, and management capabilities.

Leah Cooper, CPA Global's Director, Legal Services Outsourcing, said: “We are honoured to have been selected for this important industry listing for a third year in a row. Our position as the only pure-play LSO provider in the 2011 Global Outsourcing 100 establishes CPA Global as a true industry leader. Legal services outsourcing is a fast emerging sector and this high level recognition by the IAOP underlines the key role that CPA Global is playing in developing the sector.”

Michael Corbett, IAOP Chairman and chair of the judges’ panel, said: “Congratulations to CPA Global. Being named in the Global Outsourcing 100 is a great achievement, especially given the strong competition from outsourcing providers in both well established and newly emerging sectors. The companies on The Global Outsourcing Outsourcing 100 are proven leaders and rising stars. They are the companies you want to partner with to achieve success and better outsourcing outcomes.”

Note: * CPA Global defines 'pure-play legal services outsourcing provider' as a company whose sole outsourcing focus is in legal services rather than more general IT and business process outsourcing, etc.

About CPA Global
CPA Global is the world's leading provider of legal services outsourcing, including document review, transaction support, contract solutions, legal research, and intellectual property (IP). With offices across Europe, the United States, Asia and the Pacific, CPA Global supports many of the world’s best known corporations and law firms with a diverse set of legal and IP specific requirements, helping them to realise value by managing risk, cost and capacity.

Founded in Jersey, Channel Islands in 1969, CPA Global today employs 1,500 people, serving clients’ needs in over 100 countries. CPA Global has offices in key city locations such as London, Paris, Munich, Washington DC, Sydney, Hong Kong and New Delhi; and has strategic partnerships covering a number of other important markets, including Japan and Korea. The company has extensive operations in India, with some 800 people in two state-of-the-art legal services delivery centres in the Noida and Gurgaon districts of Delhi. The company's focus on quality and security in its Indian legal services outsourcing business is underlined by its certifications in ISO 9001 for operational quality and ISO27001 for IT security. For further information visit: www.cpaglobal.com or contact:

United Kingdom: Steve Clark +44 (0)20 7549 5504, sclark@cpaglobal.com
Victoria Knowles +44 (0)20 7549 4585, vknowles@cpaglobal.com
United States: Julie Mandell +1 571-227-7025, jmandell@cpaglobal.com

About IAOP
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®) is the global, standard-setting organisation and advocate for the outsourcing profession. With more than 110,000 members and affiliates worldwide, IAOP helps companies increase their outsourcing success rate, improve their outsourcing ROI, and expand the opportunities for outsourcing across their businesses. To learn more, visit http://www.iaop.org or contact:

Kimberly Maneeley, IAOP Director, Marketing & Communications
+1 845-452-0600, ext. 104, kim.maneeley@iaop.org

About The Global Outsourcing 100
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® (IAOP®) is in its sixth year of compiling its annual ranking of the world’s best outsourcing service providers and advisors – The Global Outsourcing 100. As part of The Global Outsourcing 100, IAOP also introduced a new list in 2009, The World's Best Outsourcing Advisors.

The Global Outsourcing 100 and its sub-lists are essential references for companies seeking new and expanded relationships with the best companies in the industry. The lists include companies from around the world that provide the full spectrum of outsourcing services — not just information technology and business process outsourcing, but also legal services, facility services, real estate and capital asset management, manufacturing and logistics.

Ireland to be the next stop for legal outsourcing . . .

In an article written by Russell Smith an interesting development has to come to fore. Legal outsourcing is recently been seen having a new base in Ireland. To quote him “A flurry of reports indicate that UK mega law firms Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith both are setting up legal support offices in formerly war-torn Belfast in the coming months. The outsourced jobs will include not only hundreds of back-office clerical positions, but also over 75 fee-earning legal jobs.”

Does this mean a precursor to the legal outsourcing market in India? Is the Indian market capable to handle this situation keeping in mind that the Irish government is going out of its way to support the industry? I agree with Russell when he says that a lot would be clear when Indian government will reveal its decision regarding the IT-enabled services next month.

Read more to know his opinion.