It looks like businesses finally got tired of the unreasonable fees imposed by the legal community. Now, they’re going out of the country to receive basic legal services for a fraction of the cost. I understand why legal services shouldn’t necessarily come cheap: you’re paying for the expertise. Plus, many lawyers have student loans to pay in addition to overhead, benefits, et cetera. But $400 an hour? A bit much.
India’s legal outsourcing industry has grown in recent years from an experimental endeavor to a small but mainstream part of the global business of law. Cash-conscious Wall Street banks, mining giants, insurance firms and industrial conglomerates are hiring lawyers in India for document review, due diligence, contract management and more. . . .
Employees at legal outsourcing companies in India are not allowed by Indian law to give legal advice to clients in the West, no matter their qualifications. Instead, legal outsourcing companies perform a lot of the functions that a junior lawyer might do in a American law firm.
