Advertising

The Seattle Times Company

NWjobs | NWautos | NWhomes | NWsource | Free Classifieds | seattletimes.com

The Seattle Times

Nation & World


Our network sites seattletimes.com | Advanced

Originally published Sunday, May 11, 2008 at 12:00 AM

E-mail article     Print view

Plenty of outsourced work for India's law graduates

When Aashish Sharma graduated from law school two years ago, his father had visions of him arguing in an Indian court and eventually becoming...

The Washington Post

GURGAON, India — When Aashish Sharma graduated from law school two years ago, his father had visions of him arguing in an Indian court and eventually becoming an honorable judge.

Instead, Sharma, 25, now sits all day in front of a computer in a plush, air-conditioned suburban office doing litigation research and drafting legal contracts for U.S. companies and law firms. He is part of a booming new outsourcing industry in India that employs thousands of English-speaking lawyers such as him to do legal work at a small fraction of the cost of hiring American lawyers.

Legal-process outsourcing is being called the next big thing in Indian business. It marks India's climb up the chain of outsourcing jobs — from low-end, back-office service functions in call centers to high-value, skilled legal work.

In the past three years, the legal-outsourcing industry here has grown at about 60 percent annually. According to a report by research firm ValueNotes, the industry will employ about 24,000 people and earn revenue of $640 million by 2010.

Indian workers who once helped with legal transcription now offer services that include research, litigation support, document discovery and review, drafting of contracts and patent writing. The industry offers an attractive career path for many of the 300,000 Indians who enroll in law schools every year. India and the United States share a common-law legal system rooted in Britain's, and both conduct proceedings in English.

The explosion of opportunity here was triggered by what are known as "e-discovery laws," a set of U.S. regulations established in 2006 to govern the storage and management of electronic data for federal court actions. Overnight, the volume of information to be stored, archived, filtered and reviewed for litigation swelled. But there were not enough affordable lawyers or paralegals to do the work in the United States.

"The new e-discovery rules sent American companies scurrying all over the place. Neither the corporates nor the law firms in America are geared to do this kind of work at short notice. And that is where the Indian players come in. We can bring together a large number of skilled lawyers in no time at all and at one-fifth the cost," said Srinivas Pingali, executive vice president at Quatrro, which also offers technical support, credit-card-fraud management and consumer research.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

More Nation & World headlines...

E-mail article Print view      Share:    Digg     Newsvine

advertising

A Bing deal for Microsoft, News Corp.?

Amazon, Wal-Mart escalate Web price war

6.8-magnitude quake rattles Tonga

8 charged in probe of terrorism-recruiting network in U.S.

Hate crimes against gays, religious groups up, FBI says

Advertising

Video

New Beginnings Christian Fellowship
Coming in this Sunday's Pacific Northwest Magazine: Pastor Braxton's mission is to preach a message that appeals to everyone.

PNW Magazine | Easy As Pie
Real Salt Lake wins MLS Cup
Raw Video | Real Salt Lake fans celebrate
Raw Video | Real Salt Lake receives the MLS Cup trophy
Raw Video | MLS Cup Opening Ceremony
Real Salt Lake fans enter Qwest Field
LA Galaxy's David Beckham
Real Salt Lake's Kyle Beckerman
MLS trophy arrives in Seattle

Marketplace

 
Most read
Most commented
Most e-mailed
 
 
Advertising