It isn’t the monopoly of Big Brands

A few days back, one of our Legal Consultants and LPO experts was having a chat with an intending investor. The investor being an Indian businessman of repute, queried as to whether law firms in the west would at all want to be clients of small and mid-sized LPOs in India. The investor, having gone through the recent news items about the LPO industry, seemed to be put off by the fact that all big names of the west were off-shoring their work only to the big names of the east…then where does a small/medium Indian LPO stand?

Now let us see the other side of the story. During the past week, the same consultant of ours was having an exchange of mails and conducting web-meetings with a US lawyer who being a partner of a mid-sized law firm was extremely interested to know about the kind of legal work that small Indian LPOs could handle. “Can you please send me a list of all that a small Indian LPO can handle? How much would you bill us for ……..?”, was the specific query of the foreign lawyer.

We are sure that the above two paragraphs shall serve as two important pieces of a jigsaw puzzle for you to easily put them together to get the entire picture.

You are correct; the big names of the west for very many reasons will always off-shore to the big names in the east. But that is not all of the story; there are numerous small to mid-sized law firms in US and UK who would be more than happy to off-shore their work to the small and medium sized LPOs in India. The reason is obvious; the so called big Indian LPOs with their extremely heavy overheads have a very high billing rate which the small and mid-sized foreign law firms will never be willing to shell out. Whereas the small and medium sized LPOs with their moderate overheads shall always be in an advantageous position to cater to the needs and requirements of the small and medium-sized law firms of the western countries.

While small and medium sized LPOs in India will have the advantage of approaching hundreds of small and medium sized law firms in US and UK for selling their services, the so-called big Indian LPOs will have to anxiously wait till the Tintos and Microsofts knock their door.

The basic fact is that an off-shored legal work must necessarily be:

 Conducted in a data-secured environment;

 In consonance with the quality-prescriptions of the client; and

 Delivered to the foreign client within the prescribed turn-around time.

For the fulfillment of the above mantra: It is not all necessary that the Indian LPO be housed in an all-glass-office located in the most expensive area in the uptown of the city or the floor be laid with Persian carpets. Neither is it necessary that the employees be favored with cocktail parties in Five- Star hotels in every quarter of the year.

Such being so, if run with integrity, meticulousness and observance of legal and business ethics, a small/mid-sized Indian LPO can well cater to the needs of the legal off-shoring industry.

So, cheer up, gear up, rise and do all that is needed to give vent to your business-desire of diversifying into the Legal Process Off-Shoring domain……The horizon is too huge and wide; you can tread great distances.