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Part - V

According to a report, there is a noticeable trend among US, British and other foreign legal departments of businesses and law firms to send their legal work to lawyers in India to cut on costs. According to a recent study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, legal assistants and paralegals working in India on behalf of U.S. law firms earn, on average, between $6 and $8 per hour. That's about one-third of what their counterparts in the United States are paid.

The process of outsourcing of legal work began with legal transcription work some years ago and is now gradually rising in complexity and volume.

Recently numerous American companies have outsourced work to employees in India in areas such as technical support and records transcription; such companies take advantage of educated professionals who work at a fraction of the cost of American employees.

US attorneys are also following the BPO route to milk huge profits. The legal profession is one of the highest paid ones in the US, with attorneys paid on hourly basis. And many-a-times, the leading lawyers and firms find it hard to chalk out enough time for all their clients. It is in this scenario that the outsourcers strike the deal to unburden attorneys from the often tedious task of writing legal briefs, pleadings and research. Many of these firms are charging anything between $50 and $60 an hour for getting the services done in countries like India, Israel, China, etc. This amount is far less than what a US attorney or researcher would generally charge for such work.

Legal outsourcing is noticeable among: -

• Overseas companies with a presence in India (say, GE through its wholly-owned subsidiary). GE's outsourcing company in India, GECIS, started hiring lawyers and paralegal staff in late 2001. Initially, GECIS was working for GE Plastics and GE Consumer Finance, outsourcing some of their routine requirements. GECIS was able to save around $ 2 million in fees in the first few months. This was enough for the company to justify expansion in this space.
  
  Some of the other firms like Oracle, Sun and Cisco have been outsourcing their patent research and documentation work to Indian firms or to their own captive centres in the country.

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*Contributed by -
Shuchi Singla,
Global Business Operations, Semester-11,
Shri Ram College Of Commerce,
University Of Delhi.