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An employee of Firstsource Solutions Limited, one of the leading outsourcing companies
in India, interviewing prospective job candidates aboard a Firstsource bus in Mumbai.
in India, interviewing prospective job candidates aboard a Firstsource bus in Mumbai.
Outsourced Indian Workers Thriving in Legal Sector
May 12, 2008 8:00 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
by Liz Colville
As demands on U.S. law firms increase, legal workers in India are reaping the benefits.
As demands on U.S. law firms increase, legal workers in India are reaping the benefits.
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India’s outsourced legal sector is a popular employment path for many of the country’s English-speakers and is growing at an annual rate of 60 percent, reports The Washington Post.
Aashish Sharma, a legal assistant interviewed by the Post, noted that by working for a U.S. legal firm, he avoids “going to court in India and dealing with all kinds of rough people. … I am getting valuable exposure to the American judicial system, corporate law and their way of working.”
Part of the reason for India’s swell in legal work is due to new U.S. “e-discovery laws” enacted in 2006, as well as firms’ other organizational needs. The e-discovery laws “place increasing demands on litigants, lawyers, and judges” to discover, organize, and track online information used in legal cases. Many firms saw Indian companies as the ideal place to send this type of work.
Outsourcing to India has been a popular practice among American companies for several years, but the range of companies and industries employing Indian workers is widening. CIO magazine noted in 2003 that “anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of all Fortune 500 companies are already outsourcing to India.”
In 2005, CNN/Money reported that India’s share of the outsourcing market was being eroded by rising labor costs and international competition, particularly from China. But the country maintains its edge by diversifying the types of work its employees can do.
Aashish Sharma, a legal assistant interviewed by the Post, noted that by working for a U.S. legal firm, he avoids “going to court in India and dealing with all kinds of rough people. … I am getting valuable exposure to the American judicial system, corporate law and their way of working.”
Part of the reason for India’s swell in legal work is due to new U.S. “e-discovery laws” enacted in 2006, as well as firms’ other organizational needs. The e-discovery laws “place increasing demands on litigants, lawyers, and judges” to discover, organize, and track online information used in legal cases. Many firms saw Indian companies as the ideal place to send this type of work.
Outsourcing to India has been a popular practice among American companies for several years, but the range of companies and industries employing Indian workers is widening. CIO magazine noted in 2003 that “anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of all Fortune 500 companies are already outsourcing to India.”
In 2005, CNN/Money reported that India’s share of the outsourcing market was being eroded by rising labor costs and international competition, particularly from China. But the country maintains its edge by diversifying the types of work its employees can do.
Headline Link: Indian workers excelling at outsourced legal work
Despite their parents’ wishes to work at Indian firms and courts, many Indian law graduates are finding comfort and security working for American companies with offices in India. Despite the challenges workers and employers can face in training Indians on the American legal system, the financial benefits for both parties appear to outweigh these preliminary setbacks, The Washington Post reports.
Source: The Washington Post
Background: Outsourcing in India increases, diversifies
In 2002, Wired magazine profiled some of India’s top computer programmers, who, like many other types of workers in India, “steal” U.S. workers’ jobs because they are willing to accept much lower wages. India’s workforce at that time was four times that of the U.S., and the starting salary for a programmer a mere $8,000 a year, versus $70,000 for a U.S. worker.
Source: Wired
In 2005, CNN/Money reported that labor shortage, wage increases, and international competition could erode India’s “Outsourcing King” market share by as much as 45 percent by 2007. The data, from market research firm Gartner, Inc., speculated that a “labor crunch and rising wages” would change the picture for India. But rather than “resting on its laurels,” the country was already adapting in 2005 to new market possibilities for its “vast pool” of English-speaking grads—2.5 million enter the workforce each year.
Source: CNN/Money
In 2006, Judge Lee H. Rosenthal, chair of the Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, outlined new electronic discovery laws in the Yale Law Journal. These federal amendments address the approach to, and organization of, online legal information, and were specifically made to “accommodate the vast changes in information technology that have already occurred and that will inevitably continue.” The new e-discovery laws, Rosenthal wrote, “will place increasing demands on litigants, lawyers, and judges to manage discovery [of information] earlier, more often, and in more detail than conventional discovery required.”
Source: Yale Law Journal
Outsourcing of legal jobs to India started taking off before the e-discovery laws, in 2004. According to 2004 data from Forrester Research, lawyers were then the third most common type of employee being outsourced by the U.S., behind computer programmers and accountants. Though not yet a significant force in 2004, outsourced legal work was “more than a fad,” and many companies were recruiting India’s labor force for administrative, clerical, and paralegal help, as well as for attorneys.
Source: CNN/Money
Related Topic: China gives India outsourcing a run for its money
Forbes reported this March that China is gaining ground on India’s outsourcing force, turning out a large and talented pool of its own, particularly in the engineering sector. “Chinese companies are growing rapidly due to American multinational companies’ desire to diversify out of India while continuing to control costs. The U.S. downturn has accelerated the process, as companies are looking for alternatives to India’s rising costs.”
Source: Forbes
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