If we go back to the time when outsourcing of the legal services started, India was the chosen one for distinct reasons, which were more convenient than another. The earliest dates of outsourcing legal work to India had happened in the mid-nineties. The reason India was at an advantaged position was because of 1) low costs, 2) the law education in India is in English, 3) brilliant infrastructures, 4) highly skilled staff, especially in the IT field, and 5) time-zone advantage. India’s workforce also used this opportunity well and made sure to solidify their position in this industry. The legal process outsourcing companies gave quality their priority over other things, which further strengthened the confidence of the attorneys, law departments and law firms about India LPOs.  

The Workforce 

Initially, when the work started coming in, the focus was on low-end tasks and it was easily adopted by the law graduates. In the early 2000, when India started creating more and more National Law Schools, LPOs gave an alternate opportunity to the law graduates who were not keen in practicing law. The quality of the students in the National Law Schools were at par with the students of Oxford or Harvard Universities. The law entrances were difficult to crack so the students were the best from day one. The students at the top law universities or the National Law Schools were given exposure at the international levels, so they became well trained on various foreign laws.  

Some students even got the opportunity to go abroad and finish their final years as part of the student exchange program. The students were encouraged by the Universities to participate in International Moot Courts and Seminars where they interacted with the best of the legal luminaries in the world. The LPOs tapped these students by offering them good salaries and growth opportunities which were not available for the beginners in the regular traditional jobs in the field of law. Further, these LPOs roped in the experienced lawyers to help them in doing the high-end legal work like legal research and contract management.  

Personal Injury work came in as one the first services to the Indian LPOS. This gave an edge to the Indian LPOs because quality was impeccable. Subsequently, Contract Management entered the sector and Contract lawyers were hired as quality checkers for even the secretarial work. The mid 2000s saw US & Canadian Immigration law firms and e-discovery companies heavily counting on Indian LPOS for support at all stages because of the sheer volume of the work.  

Technology 

India had always been ahead of many countries when it came to technology and process automation. LPOs heavily relied on technology expertise as the tools and platforms had to be accessible to Indian workforce, so that they could work with the attorneys and paralegal seamlessly. India had no dearth of IT staff and every LPO built an IT department. The investment helped the LPOs grow and was cost-effective for both sides. This department blended well with the in-house staff that supported the law firms and attorneys with everyday task. Due to this robust support, the law firms started taking help from the LPOs in creating tools that were quite advanced for that time. The tools and apps created then are in use to date.  

This has only grown stronger over the years. Today, the capabilities are such that Indian LPOs create patented tools that is used by US, UK, Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian law firms. For some law firms, the Indian LPOs do 75% of the work remotely from here. The e-discovery tools and the CLM tools made in India are now the most reliable tools and Indian workforce have learnt them well too.

Data Security 

Data Security concerns were a huge challenge in the beginning especially, when the work was getting done remotely from another country. The challenge was huge even for the LPOs. Early on cloud services were used by the law firms but slowly with advancement in technology more robust ways were adopted to handle security issues. The LPOs became ISO certified, the VPN services were adopted where work was only done on the law firms’ computers remotely and security keys are used by law firms too. This has addressed the security concerns to a larger extent.  

TLB Advantage 

TLB has one of the most experienced LPO teams in the entire southeast Asia. They have IT and Finance Leaders, contract lawyers, immigration experts, estate law lawyers, forensic analysts, personal injury lawyers, market research analysts, digital marketing experts, business development managers and global client relationship managers. TLB has a separate division for every area of service having the knowledge of the best tools platforms and technologies used in this industry. TLB has secured work environment and works on Microsoft cloud services to ensure data protection. The processes are strong enough to provide end-to-end support to the law firms.