THE FUTURE of any organisation depends upon the capability of its workforce and to retain such workforce it has to invest considerably. This expenditure may at times increase the cost of production or operating the organisation. Organisations use many types of cost management and cost reduction techniques to minimise their expenses. This practice also applies to the legal industry.

Legal practice is very lucrative and remunerative in developed countries like US, UK and the European Union. There the cost of retaining even entry-level employees is very high. Many well known law firms of these developed countries outsource their back office and clerical work to Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) companies in India.

According to Praveen Dalal, managing partner of the internationally renowned LPO and techno-legal KPO Perry4Law, “LPO in India is attracting lot of foreign firms and companies to outsource their legal works to India. During the last month alone, Perry4Law received various requests regarding partnerships, LPO assignments, empanelment requests, etc. We are hopeful of even a larger services contribution when the Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) industry in India would emerge and mature as Perry4Law is world renowned for it techno-legal KPO services.

Clearly, there is a difference between the current LPO assignments and future KPO assignments as the latter requires “domain-specific expertise” that very few firms actually possess in India. Similarly, the market for information and communication technology (ICT)-related LPO and KPO services in India is still emerging and more is expected from market leaders like Perry4Law in the said market.

LPO and KPO assignments are bound to increase owing to developments like the global financial meltdown that has now unnerved the US. More and more corporate houses and investment banks from the US are looking towards the Indian LPO industry for legal advice. In the present globalised world, India is surely heading for a great start.