NOW, TESTING TIME FOR LAWYERS

Source: The Tribune
April 18, 2007

The nascent legal process outsourcing (LPO) industry in India is set for a quantum leap with the introduction of a new Global Legal Professional (GLP) certification test for law graduates in the country.

The test, an initiative of the LPO industry, seeks to provide a standard measure of skills and knowledge required for the industry in India, which is expected to be worth $2 billion by 2015.

"This test will help the LPO industry employ quality staff from the 80,000 law graduates India produces every year," said Sachin Malhan, chairman of Rainmaker, a leading recruitment firm focussed exclusively on the legal industry.

"When the test is held this year, we expect a boom in the LPO industry in the next year and a half," he said, adding the first of these tests, every six months, will be held in September 2007 at various centres across the country.

"By the end of this year, I expect the (demand for manpower) number to be at least around 3,000. By 2015, it will go up to 80,000 and the LPO industry in India by that time will be worth around $2 billion (from $300-400 million today), going by recent surveys," he said.
"This test is also an attempt to promote the talent in India to companies in the US and UK," Malhan said.

He said that the problems faced by the Indian LPO industry that actually started two years ago has been mainly over privacy issues and talent availability.

"Western firms were apprehensive about privacy issues and talent availability. But given the outsourcing work coming in the financial sector, this should cease to be a problem," Malhan said.

"With this test, the availability of talent will make companies outsource more and more work to India to cut costs," he said, pointing out that while in the US a lawyer charges $250 per hour, the same work can be done in India for as less as $15 an hour.
On the kind of work that is being outsourced to India, he said that there were three types of legal work: contract management and reviews, document management and intellectual property rights (IPR).

He said the Indian legal system is based on the old British system as also the US legal system, which is why more and more companies from the US and UK will outsource work to India. The new GLP test will thus help companies zero in on the best minds in the business and then train them.

Asked about the future of the legal industry in India, he said, "The Bar Council of India is actually planning on letting in foreign law firms into India. That will surely globalise the legal industry.

"And the LPO industry has the capability to change lives of at least 10,000 law graduates every year." — IANS