Posts Tagged ‘outsourcing’
Thursday, April 29th, 2010 by admin
As was blogged by the Posse List (if you aren’t on their listervs now, you should be) and Gabe, WilmerHale is making the move to outsource some of its backoffice operations (originally reported by Law360). But this is good news, as Wilmer is keeping its business within the United States, (or insourcing) by going to Ohio, not Hyderabad. Good move.
From the Law360 Article,
The new facilities, which are slotted to open in September, will house the majority of the firm’s finance, human resources, information technology, document review and practice management operations, which are currently spread out between its Boston, New York and Washington offices, the firm said Monday.Those metropolitan areas come with higher price tags for rent, taxes and employee salaries. Given the economic beating the industry has taken in recent years, and the availability of sophisticated technology, it may finally be time for law firms to move their business operations — and even some legal work — to low-cost locales throughout the U.S.
The trend now is developing among the more strategic law firms to shift operations to domestic cities with lower costs and an educated populace. This is what clever, long term growth oriented law firms will be doing, rather than blindly shipping it off across the planet to a foreign country.
Tags: insourcing, lpo, outsourcing, wilmerhale
Posted in ABA Formal Opinion 08-451 | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 by admin
 In a scathing article entitled, “The Offshore Outsourcing of American Jobs: A Greater Threat Than Terrorism” Dr. Craig Paul Roberts lambastes the Corporate American whitewashing of the disastrous effects of outsourcing. A few clips,
In what might be an underestimate, a University of California study concludes that 14 million white-collar jobs are vulnerable to being outsourced offshore. These are not only call-center operators, customer service and back-office jobs, but also information technology, accounting, architecture, advanced engineering design, news reporting, stock analysis, and medical and legal services. The authors note that these are the jobs of the American Dream, the jobs of upward mobility that generate the bulk of the tax revenues that fund our education, health, infrastructure, and social security systems.
The loss of these jobs “is fool’s gold for companies.” Corporate America’s short-term mentality, stemming from bonuses tied to quarterly results, is causing US companies to lose not only their best employees-their human capital-but also the consumers who buy their products. Employees displaced by foreigners and left unemployed or in lower paid work have a reduced presence in the consumer market. They provide fewer retirement savings for new investment.
Nothink economists assume that new, better jobs are on the way for displaced Americans, but no economists can identify these jobs. The authors point out that “the track record for the re-employment of displaced US workers is abysmal: “The Department of Labor reports that more than one in three workers who are displaced remains unemployed, and many of those who are lucky enough to find jobs take major pay cuts. Many former manufacturing workers who were displaced a decade ago because of manufacturing that went offshore took training courses and found jobs in the information technology sector. They are now facing the unenviable situation of having their second career disappear overseas.”
He continues,
Outsourcing forces Americans to “compete head-to-head with foreign workers” by “undermining US workers’ primary competitive advantage over foreign workers: their physical presence in the US” and “by providing those overseas workers with the same technologies.”
The result is a lose-lose situation for American employees, American businesses, and the American government. Outsourcing has brought about record unemployment in engineering fields and a major drop in university enrollments in technical and scientific disciplines. Even many of the remaining jobs are being filled by lower paid foreigners brought in on H-1b and L-1 visas. American employees are discharged after being forced to train their foreign replacements.
The author then details how outsourcing is causing the destruction of our middle class and dropping our nation from first to third world status. Exporting our technology also creates a national security risk. The upshot of the article is that the outsourcing of our economy is having disastrous effects here in America. Of course, anyone that has had their job outsourced already knows this.
Tags: ABA, American Bar Association, lpo, offshoring risks, outsourcing, outsourcing downside
Posted in ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, China, India, legal process outsourcing, offshoring, outsourcing, outsourcing law practice | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 by admin
The tipping point grows closer. Winston Strawn equity partner David M. Hickey has defected from biglaw to an LPO. One would imagine that he is bringing his clients along from his former practice to his new position as CEO of this outfit.
Tags: ABA, lpo, offshoring risks, outsourcing
Posted in ABA, ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, David M. Hickey, american discovery, legal process outsourcing | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 by admin
 From the Movie, "Night of the Living Dead" (original) Rapidly growing legal process outsourcing outfit Pangea3 is truly seeing the world as one continent for its cut rate services. After gobbling up attorney work in the United States and the United Kingdom, Pangea3 is hungry for even more growth. The latest target for its globalization is the Australian Bar.
It always starts with the messy “back office” work, which is quickly dispatched to India for purportedly humongous savings. How long before the gutting of the ranks of overpriced Australian biglaw associates begins? It always starts innocuously enough, but soon becomes a giant sucking sound with layoffs and competition for work with unlicensed Indian attorneys, whose services are offered at third world rates. From the Bar and Bench,
Kamlani said, “We are in the process of developing a team and a relationship plan with Advent and initiating integrated service offerings in order to obtain best possible results”. It is interesting to see LPO companies looking beyond the traditional US or UK legal markets for opportunities.The Australian legal market although smaller than its western counterparts, offers similar per project billing rates as that of the UK and US.
Australian law firm revenues are supposed to be similar to that of the same size US law firms thereby providing a good opportunity for the LPOs to tap into this geography.
Much like zombies in Night of Living Dead, the first mindless converts having begun tearing the flesh from the Australian Bar. They’re coming to get you, Oz! Let’s hope they wake up down under and don’t sell out their profession the way the ABA has here in the USA.
Tags: Australia, night of the living dead, offshoring risks, outsourcing, zombie
Posted in ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, India, legal process outsourcing, litigation support, offshoring, outsourcing law practice, pangea3 | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 by admin
Symantec’s 2009 Internet Security Threat Report reveals serious vulnerabilities in the growing outsourcing industry. From the April, 2010 Executive Summary, India is seeing a major uptick in malicious activity,
India also experienced a surge in malicious activity in 2009, moving from 11th for overall malicious
activity in 2008 to fifth in this period. In 2009, India also accounted for 15 percent of all malicious activity in the Asia-Pacific/Japan (APJ) region, an increase from 10 percent in 2008. For specific categories of measurement in the APJ region, India increased rank in malicious code, spam zombies and phishing hosts from 2008. Its high ranking in spam zombies also contributed to India being the third highest country of spam origin globally. Malicious activity tends to increase in countries experiencing rapid growth in broadband infrastructure and connectivity, and the level of malicious activity occurring in India has been increasing steadily over several reporting periods as its broadband infrastructure and user base grows.
This is a serious threat, that could wreak havoc upon the entire Indian outsourcing enterprise. From an article in the UK edition of CIO,
“The whole shift to outsourcing and offshoring is [potentially] exposed because “these countries are” not up to speed on, or don’t place the same emphasis on, security,” said Kevin Hogan, Symantec senior director of global security response operations, noting that India was 11th most likely source of malware in 2008 and is now fifth in the rankings.
It’s nice to see some objective, critical information being reported, rather the relentless shilling and hucksterism we so often have to endure. Detailed, objective reports by companies like Symantec should be taken seriously and factored into the cost benefit analysis one should perform before outsourcing. It’s not just about saving x dollars per hour on the cost of contract attorneys, there are many more hidden dangers and costs associated with conducting business in the emerging markets (including India) around the world than performing the same work stateside (or “backshore”).
Hopefully this will be the beginning of a more realistic dialogue about outsourcing, including its inherent risks and weaknesses.
Tags: American Bar Association, offshoring problems, offshoring risks, offshoring security, outsourcing, outsourcing downside, outsourcing risks
Posted in ABA, ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, India, offshoring, outsourcing | No Comments »
Saturday, April 17th, 2010 by admin
See this rather disturbing article (with pictures) regarding conditions at KYE’s Dongguan, China factory. Microsoft’s products represent about thirty per cent of this factory’s output. The products made in this factory are largely exported to the United States.
Tags: outsourcing
Posted in China, microsoft, offshoring, outsourcing, sweatshop | No Comments »
Saturday, April 17th, 2010 by admin
According to the AM Law Daily, the recent suit to prevent foreign “fly in” attorneys from practicing in India, was filed by a thirty year old Indian attorney. From the article,
For one, Balaji, who names 32 law firms as defendants, claims that international firms are not properly abiding by the ban on practicing in India. “Advocates from various law firms are often visiting India and conducting seminars in various parts of our country,” Bajali alleges. “They are entering into India through visitor’s visa but the actual intention of their visit is to indirectly market and earn money out of clients from India by way of seminars.” And, later: “There is absolutely no scope for any foreign lawyer or foreign law firm to practice the profession of law in [India].”
This article suggests that the goal of the law suit is to establish reciprocity between American, British and Indian practicing attorneys. This may be part of the reason that the ABA is considering liberalizing foreign attorney practice requirements in the United States. More from the article,
But it seems clear that what Balaji is really worked up about is the lack of reciprocity between the U.S. (and, especially, the U.K.) and India in terms of allowing non-citizen lawyers to practice law in those countries. Balaji says that India shouldn’t loosen its rules and allow foreign lawyers to even give seminars in India until the U.K. and U.S. make it easier for Indian lawyers to practice in those countries.
A landmark ruling last year prohibited foreign attorneys from practicing law in India.
Tags: ABA, American Bar Association, law practice, outsourcing
Posted in ABA, ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, India, Indian Attorneys, Practice of Law in India, legal process outsourcing, offshoring | No Comments »
Thursday, April 15th, 2010 by admin
There are some interesting reactions in the Blogosphere to the ABA’s call for comments in regard to its formation of an official outsourcing policy.
First, from Kimberly Alderman over at Lawyer On!, compares contract attorneys to freedom fighters. The ABA’s request for comments, she notes, conveniently leaves us out of the equation.
Next, the National Association of Feelance Legal Professionals has a great post summarizing this snub. As a side note, this might be a good organization to join.
Lastly, Tom the Temp, also has a riff on the ABA’s call for questions.
In my opinion, this appears to be a deliberately crafted omission of contract attorneys, the group most affected by the ABA’s current policies on outsourcing. What the ABA really wants to know is how much money can be saved by large corporations and how it will ultimately affect Biglaw.
We are just the overflow workers who have zero voice or say in the matter. As some have called us, we are the “Mud People” of the law; nameless, faceless, anonymous drones who are permitted no opinion or participation. To the ABA we obviously don’t count for much.
Tags: ABA, American Bar Association, law practice, lpo, outsourcing
Posted in ABA, ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, American Bar Association, India, document review, legal process outsourcing, lpo, offshoring, outsourcing, outsourcing law practice | No Comments »
Thursday, April 15th, 2010 by admin
In its latest LPO deal, Microsoft has outsourced its document review services to India with Integreon. The Redmond giant will also use Integreon’s contract review services, located in North Dakota.
Earlier Microsoft agreed to a deal with CPA Global, in which it established,
A team of between three and five qualified lawyers at CPA now handle multi-jurisdictional legal support work, including legal research, at a base in Gurgaon, near Delhi.
Too bad for all of the document review attorneys at K&L Gates. I would imagine that many have been let go.
Tags: ABA, American Bar Association, integreon, lpo, outsourcing
Posted in ABA, ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, American Bar Association, India, document review, document review software, integreon, legal process outsourcing, lpo, offshoring, onshoring | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 12th, 2010 by admin
Robert Reich authored a piece in today’s Wall Street Journal in which he concludes that outsourcing is having a devastating effect on our economy. He states,
The Great Recession has accelerated a structural shift in the economy that had been slowly building for years. Companies have used the downturn to aggressively trim payrolls, making cuts they’ve been reluctant to make before. Outsourcing abroad has increased dramatically. Companies have discovered that new software and computer technologies have made many workers in Asia and Latin America almost as productive as Americans, and that the Internet allows far more work to be efficiently moved to another country without loss of control.
Companies have also cut costs by substituting more computerized equipment for labor. They’ve made greater use of numerically controlled machine tools, robotics and a wide range of office software.
He continues,
The only way many of today’s jobless are likely to retain their jobs or get new ones is by settling for much lower wages and benefits. The official unemployment numbers hide the extent to which American workers are already on this downward path. But if you look at income data you’ll see the drop.
Among those with jobs, more and more have accepted lower pay and benefits as a condition for keeping them. Or they have lost higher-paying jobs and are now in new ones that pay less. Or new hires are paid far lower wages than the old. (In January, Ford Motor Co. announced that it would add 1,200 jobs at its Chicago assembly plant but didn’t trumpet that the new workers will be paid half of what current workers were paid when they began.) Or they have become consultants or temporary workers whose pay is unsteady and benefits nonexistent.
All in all, a rather grim future of falling wages, increased workplace instability and global competition will continue to drive down pay and benefits for private sector workers. These same workers will be subject to increased taxation to pay for state and federal programs, which are already collapsing.
Tags: ABA, lpo, outsourcing, temporary employment
Posted in ABA Formal Opinion 08-451, American Bar Association, India, document review, job growth, outsourcing | No Comments »
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