Why Outsource?
- Why should our company consider outsourcing some legal work?
- Won’t we lose control? What about our outside U.S. legal counsel?
- How will our U.S. lawyers react if we outsource legal work to India?
- Can we outsource some legal work directly?
These are some of the questions raised by companies considering outsourcing. Even though some U.S. law firms are resisting outsourcing, there are compelling reasons for clients of those firms with substantial legal expense to consider outsourcing as an adjunctive, timely and economical means of obtaining legal services.
The foremost reason to consider outsourcing a portion of the legal work of your company is because it makes sense economically. A lawyer works for his clients. Clients do not work for their lawyers. According to Blooomberg.com, “clients are pushing firms like Jones Day and Kirkland and Ellis to send basic legal tasks to India”. 1 Unlike law firms which have been prompted by clients to outsource, Haynes and Boone, a well-known Texas law firm, chose proactively to proceed with legal outsourcing in order to better serve its clients.2
Secondly, legal outsourcing, properly implemented and administered, will significantly increase the amount of legal work which can be effectively handled by salaried, in house counsel. With “chore” legal services performed offshore, in house counsel are freed to engage in legal services not amenable to outsourcing such as planning, court attendance, strategic guidance and personal engagements.
1 See Bloomberg.com article by Cynthia Cotts and Liane Kufchock, “Jones, Day, Kirland send work to India to cut costs.” Aug. 21, 2007
2 No reference herein to Jones Day, Haynes and Boone or Kirkland and Ellis should be construed as an endorsement, either expressed or implied, of SENDLAW.com by any of those respective law firms.