Think big. If you were today to think of some common traits amongst all the iconic brands that we know of, some would be apparent and some would be a little more subtle. There are the more perceptible and easily glorifiable things like think big, operational efficiencies, people culture within the organization and some more jargon you will find in each and every management book.

There is however always the other side, the side of caution and trepidation which, mostly, only the ones privy to the dialogues behind the doors to the boardrooms know of. There is, almost always, an army like discipline maintained while dealing with the regulators and policymakers. Being an icon you do not want to be perceived to be on the wrong side of the law.

You might now be just beginning to wonder how exactly iconic brands and liberalization have anything in common. As my beginning premise went – some links are not easily perceptible. The relation between outsourcing and legal practice still lies in murkier waters and a grey area which needs some good regulatory cleaning and clarification.

Profession practice of law in India is governed by the Advocates Act, however the term legal “practice” is not defined in the Act. Reliance is thus often placed upon an interpretation concluded from reading of Sections 30 and 33 which indicates that practice is limited to appearance before any court, tribunal or authority. It should thus not include legal advisory, documentation, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms etc. Further, the Section 24 of the Act provides that a person shall be qualified to be admitted as an Advocate on the State Roll if he is a citizen of India provided that subject to this Act a national of any other country may be admitted as an Advocate on the State Roll if the citizens of India duly qualified are permitted to practice law in that other country.

Unfortunately, to the question of what constitutes practice, the Bombay High Court, seems to have taken a contrary or rather a wider view – in one of the most polarizing judgments off late. As the international law firms of White & Case, Chadbourne & Parke and Ashurst have learnt the hard way in the case initiated by Lawyers Collective – the judiciary has taken a more sweeping definition of ‘practice of law’, forcing them to shut shop on ground in India. The judgement, however, has far from putting an end to the long debate only added more confusion amidst the already chaotic situation.

Now think of the work done by Indian lawyers for foreign clients in an LPO. Prima facie the work would be documentation and other transactional inputs – which cannot be, per se, called as practice of law. Truth be told, legal outsourcing is more about leveraging the developments in IT and ITes and using technology for the benefit OF law and practice of law. It is not the actual practice of law itself. However, because of the sensitive nature of the profession, and the current controversy surrounding the ‘entry of foreign law firms’ The jury is, quite literally, still out on the issue. A recent petition filed in the High Court of Madras will pick up the debate from where Bombay High Court seems to have just fell short of. The petitioner has pleaded the Court to look at the confusions straight on and clarify the situation. The petition will move the judiciary to take a clear stand on the issue more squarely.

The Illusive Link

SO much so for the regulation of law, you well yet ask, what’s the meat?

The meat of the matter is simple – law firms and prospective clients would want the regulators to come clear on the state of affairs. So far, the apprehensions were spoken of openly by the detractors of legal outsourcing and remained a concern for the existing clients too. The decision to outsource is a pivotal shift in the way you do business and at times investments incurred would take considerable time to break even.

Regulatory breach is the last thing any firm would want to be accused of – let alone a law firm where considerable reputations are at stake. The same applies for vendors too. India enjoys a favorable position vis-à-vis China in a few areas and a clear policy stand is definitely one of them.

This should be a reason for concern for Indian policymakers also, considering outsourcing is one of the top foreign exchange earning industry for the national coffers.

Once the policy stand is clear more and more firms would come and establish a direct presence in the LPO space, attracting more direct investment into the country. But till the time it doesn’t, firms would choose to tread the path of caution. They would tap into outsourcing benefits via LPO vendors but would want to avoid any long term commitment – just to avoid any regulatory imbroglio later. This is a not so attractive proposition for the clients-vendors or the government which ends up losing on an attractive revenue stream as well as on creation of more jobs.

As the link below comprising of figure clearly shows, law departments will definitely have a marked shift in the way they spend resources and the balance will definitely tilt towards LPOs. If India is to sustain the momentum it has achieved so far and flourish hereon – a marked change towards liberalization in legal services would be very essential.

http://www.prismlegal.com/images/stories/spending_shifts.gif

GATS- The Final Frontier

India is a signatory to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), an organ of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Being a signatory it is under an obligation to open up the services sector to all member nations. Legal profession is also taken to be one of the services which is included in GATS and thus once the government takes all the necessary arrangement and which will include necessary amendments to the existing policy framework also.

Once this is done firms and corporations would have the assurance of a clear regulation and would be more confident in directly investing and setting up or scaling operations in India as well as utilizing services of the Indian vendors.

About KPO Consultants

KPO Consultants is the pioneer consulting company which provides business solutions exclusively to the LPO industry. We work with the established and aspiring LPOs to set up their LPO ventures and overcome their complicated business problems and also help management make big decisions affecting top line growth of their company. KPO Consultants offers consulting in areas of strategy, operations, technology, marketing and sales, human resources, and strategic alliances. We also provide end-to-end support across entire business lifecycle; building business synergies from the scratch till realization of its benefits and ongoing developments. We have served several clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Philippines, Mauritius, India, Canada, Australia, and many more countries.

For more information, please visit our website www.kpoconsultants.com or write to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .