| RIGHT
from filing patents to drafting transnational
contracts to creating necessary information back-up
for global corporations in litigations and providing
support in contract management - - ,one can outsource
a wide range of legal work, bringing in similar
scale of economies that business process outsourcing
brings to companies.
Indian companies have come of
age offering legal outsourcing and making a difference.
They are eyeing the $200 billion US market. Significantly,
while there are different projections as to what
is in store for the Indian market place, one estimate
by Forrester puts this at about $3.9 billion by
2010.
Interestingly, this is not just
about attorneys, law grads or practising professionals
of law at the bar alone. A host of other professions
such as engineers and technology experts would
be part of this trend, bringing in different domains
and pooling resources to provide the end product
and service.
The co-founder, Chairman of Pangea3,
a legal outsourcing services provider based in
the US with operations in India, Mr Sanjay Kamlani,
said, "a patent-related services can be offered
from outsourced centres at a fraction of the cost
needed to process it there.. That means for the
same amount, a US company can file for more patents."
Speaking to Business Line, Mr
Kamlani, a co-founder of OfficeTiger and its general
council and Chief Financial Officer then, said
that Pangea3 has been seed funded by Mr Sunil
Wadhwani, a co-founder of iGate and Mr Avinash
Bajaj, former CEO of eBay India.
"There is lack of clarity
in what constitutes legal services in the outsourced
mode. This has created different assessment of
the current market size and the future potential
India holds in the international marketplace,
given its advantages.
If you look at all major IT firms,
and leading business process outsourcing companies,
they all handle legal services in one form or
the other. But when it comes to classifying them,
they are clubbed with general BPO players. This
brings in disparity," he said.
If you analyse the market size
from a different perspective, it clearly emerges
that the market is now about $1.5 billion and
is projected to grow to about $3.9 billion to
$4 billion by the year 2010.
This is something which research
firm Forrester also predicts.
They come to
us
"If what can be offered
under the ambit of legal services is analysed,
we are just looking at the tip of the iceberg.
This can be expanded to a range of related services
including content and support services. It brings
many advantages. This can be gauged from the fact
that we don't have to market our services. In
fact, law firms approach us for services,"
Mr Kamlani said.
"Often people believe that
such services require different skills covering
a range of services. It is not the case. What
it needs is knowhow, and not just knowledge. Since
the approach is more or less similar be it in
the US, the UK or India, it is pretty easy to
adjust to requirements," he said.
V.
Rishi Kumar
Hyderabad , Sept. 13
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