After being the boss of Clifford Chance and steering the world’s largest law firm for about a decade, Stuart Popham says:
“There are 59,000 Indian law graduates joining legal process offices in India every year. That’s a third of the total lawyers in the UK.” So the firm will deconstruct its transactions: in the way that an Airbus has its wings made in one country, fuselage in another and “its assembly, the design, the difficult aspects” in another. “Commercial law has to go that way; to take cost out.” http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article2719318.ec*
So the whole challenge is to move the work to where people are. It is a step towards working smarter; the most essential policy to adopt in this roller-coaster global situation.
This is the right time for the High Street firms to harvest in the Indian lawyers in India, by training them, educating them and grooming them so as to be capable of providing high level legal support from India; much above the document review or the typical paralegal work.
To speak in terms of economics, it is more beneficial to create an Indian replacement of a junior UK lawyer than a paralegal; the saving is much higher. In the wake of the Legal Services Act, the most affected ones will be the high street law firms. So why not take an alternative route to success?
*You might not be able to view the web-link if you are not a paid online subscriber of Times UK.
From a purely legal or business perspective you are quite right and it would appear to be a way forward. However the UK Border Agency is stiffling the possibility of UK employers bringing into the UK non-EU employees and they are now cutting back dramatically on the Points Based System quota of immigrants. There is at present a JUdicial Review of this policy working it's way through the courts and many beleive that this is the last chance we have to save our profession or indeed any meaningful employment immigration to the UK. Kindly see my posts on this topic at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.solicitorsfirm.com/davidson-morris-solicitors-immigration-cap-judicial-review/
and
http://www.solicitorsfirm.com/points-based-system-v-politicaly-based-statistics/
www.solicitorsfirm.com
Good observation.
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