Outsourcing Legal Work
Legal transcription jobs have been outsourced from the USA to India for a long time. A new trend is emerging with lawyers that live in India are carrying out litigation support for American firms. It is a good fit because both countries base their legal system on the British model and both countries carry out legal proceedings in the English language. This industry is growing by 60% per year. This doesn’t translate to a decline in business for American law firms. Laws passed in the US in 2006 created a huge demand for electronic recording of legal proceedings. It was not just a matter of getting the work done cheaply, firms in the US were swamped with work as a result of the “e-discovery laws.”
The Washington Post interviewed a recent graduate from an Indian law school who was much happier in an air conditioned office doing prep work for a US firm than he would have been working in the domestic court system. This has me wondering if you can add ‘virtual brain drain’ to the litany of other criticisms leveled against the institution of outsourcing. If India’s brightest and best can enjoy a better quality of life working remotely for Americans, that will leave those in the bottom of the graduating classes to fill the vacancies in the Indian legal system. One of the most important figures in modern history was a mediocre Indian lawyer.
