outsourcing lawyers

[happythoughts 0]

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That version of the drama is appealing to Ajit Gupta, chief executive of Speedera Networks, who complains about the thousands of dollars an hour he spends on fancy U.S. patent lawyers when his network infrastructure company gets into legal sword fights. He's entertaining the idea of looking to India, where Santa Clara, Calif.-based Speedera has a subsidiary, for a cheaper alternative.

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But Gupta's Speedera is not alone among technology companies taking the cue on legal offshoring. Cisco Systems arranged with a U.S. law firm to have technical writing done by engineers in India for some of its patent applications. Microsoft had patent research done in India. General Electric has experimented with a legal team in India to draft contracts and other legal documents.

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In Palo Alto, Calif., the Mumbai-based law firm Nishith Desai Associates recently raised the curtain on IP Pro, an offshoring service supplementing its core business of advising U.S. clients on India's legal system. IP Pro already has three or four "big name" clients who are "trying us out," said the firm's Vijay Sambamurthy. Its staff of eight paralegals in India drafts U.S. patent claims, which are checked for quality by a domestic law firm.

8 paralegals? Not even lawyers?

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"The potential is huge," Sambamurthy said. "You can cut your costs by at least 40 percent."

I always heard it was because "the schools are so much better, not the cost. However, if paralegals are doing the work of US lawyers, they must be good.

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Abhay "Rocky" Dhir, a Dallas lawyer and entrepreneur, thinks there are very few jobs his three lawyers in Bangalore can't perform.

For a bargain hourly rate as low as $60 (compared with $350 at the low end of the U.S. scale)

Someone is mentioning price again.

I'll bet this is illegal somehow.

[lawrocket 3]

Dude, I have my paralegal do all kinds of stuff. using forms to "plug and chug," which is what a lot of lawyering is about.

$350 per hour sounds pretty steep. Those big law firms doing patent prosection can charge just that. I don't think lawyers should be doing the technical writing anyway, unless the lawyer decides that different words should be used.

Outsourcing this stuff is probably a good idea.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[happythoughts 0]

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Dude, I have my paralegal do all kinds of stuff. using forms to "plug and chug," which is what a lot of lawyering is about.

It took a long time to get lawyers to buy a PC. It wasn't until IBM wouldn't do maintenance support on the mag-card typewriters that I could sell them.

I set up time/matters systems for several lawyers. Customer info and billing. Word processing.

The biggest use was the standard 7-page probate document with a mail/merge hookup. The legal secretaries put in variables for name, property, who-it-goes-to and let it rip. Presto - the will was printed in 20 minutes and ready to sign.

My bro-in-law said that some of the title search work is going to Singapore now. I don't know what that involves, but he seems worried about how it can be done effectively.