Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Enter the UK legal market


It seems that soon the lawyers in UK would have to stop counting/ banking on a body or bundle of work that only lawyers are exclusively authorised to perform. Though there has been a haphazard development of reserved legal activities over many centuries, it seems that with the ABS as being implemented in the UK, much of the reservation and protectionism will have to be given a go bye.

As reported by the Times UK, even a regulation specialist like Ian Miller has said that “There are large swaths of legal work that you do not need to be a lawyer to handle, so why bother with the hassle and expense of being regulated?”

Times UK also reports that an American academic namely Thomas Morgan has noted “Particularly lawyers who serve organizational clients are likely to find themselves competing for attention against a wide range of foreign lawyers and non-lawyer consultants. Fewer issues are likely to be seen as distinctly ‘legal’ in character.”

This is perhaps the right time and opportunity for the Indian providers of off-shored legal work to strike synergies with UK based lawyer as well as non-lawyer firms intending to take advantage of the ABS model. Successful synergies shall open up a flood gate of work that can be moved to India.

Legal assignments like mergers and acquisitions need not necessarily be done by Solicitors in UK and with the ABS loosening up things; it will be a right move for any Indian LPO to hold hands with intending non-lawyer firms and entities and enter the UK legal market as a new entrant.

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