Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices

Answer Your Outsourcing Questions

• Why do some corporations and law firms outsource legal work while others do not?
• What ethical issues arise in outsourcing legal services?
• Who is doing the outsourced work and what qualifications do they have?
• What type of legal work is being outsourced? What are the concerns regarding the outsourcing of patent drafting and patent searches?
• What impact, if any, will legal outsourcing have on the elite guild nature of the U.S. legal profession?

I suggest you decide whether your firm can afford not to have someone attend.

For more information, contact The Institute for Global Challenges and the Law at  the University of California, Berkeley School of Law:

Telephone: 510.642.7830
Fax: 510.643.2362           
email:GCL@law.berkeley.edu

Registration is a modest $150.

For questions or to register by phone, please contact Emily Arntz: 510-642-7830

To see a full description on line, go to the Institute for Global Challenges and Law

Here are some teasers/excerpts:

"Attacks on the competence of Indian lawyers and law graduates are about as valid as saying that Indian software engineers are incapable of handling sophisticated IT (information technology) work. To the contrary, the Indian IT industry is a world leader, and the same will be the case with offshored legal services."

"A recent study conducted by Harvard Law School and LexisNexis reveals that 75 per cent of US law graduates admit they do not have the necessary skills to practise law."

"So you would expect that these deficiencies would be met by rigorous training programs undertaken by Western law firms. Guess again! The Harvard-LexisNexis study reveals that 64 per cent of young lawyers receive no organised, on-the-job training."

"By contrast, reputable legal services offshoring companies in India provide rigorous training to their lawyers, and the hours spent on training do not appear on invoices to clients."  

"…at least in the US, law graduates for the most part are notoriously incapable of writing effectively in English. The problem is so severe that some large US law firms now assign a writing coach to each incoming associate. However, most lawyers in the West never receive this kind of training. By contrast, reputable legal services offshoring companies in India train all their attorneys in English writing."

"The future of the legal services offshoring industry in India appears very bright."

"Corporations, not Western law firms, will drive the market in the years ahead."

"Another way that corporations will drive the market, indirectly, is by obtaining flat (or fixed) rate billing from their outside counsel, instead of hourly billing. For example, the mega law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, now handles all of the litigation for Cisco Systems for a fixed annual fee."

"Every sector of the legal offshoring industry will grow dramatically, including lower end services, such as document coding and legal transcription. Ultimately, however, the biggest impact, the long-term mother lode, will be higher-value services such as legal research and drafting – services that constitute the bulk of the legal work now done in the West."

"Long-term, India’s enormous, mostly untapped population of over one billion citizens will continue to make India competitive in relation to other offshore destinations… ultimately it will not only decrease poverty, but increase the number of law graduates."

"On the most positive note, the growth and development of the legal offshoring industry in India will help bring about a major change in the way legal services are delivered in the West."

The despised business of videoconferencing is about to get a new lease on life.

This weeks Economist has an article on Telepresence.  The full title is “Behold, telepresence - Far away yet strangely personal”.  (Requires subscription).  Image above is from the article.

Here are a few excerpts to whet your appetite for the story – the headings are mine:

The Problem:

Videoconferencing was supposed to put an end to corporate travel. But positioning people in front of a camera, fiddling endlessly with controls and then either giving up or proceeding to stare at a tiny picture of a blurry face often seems less satisfactory than the humble telephone.

The Solution:

Designers want people in telepresence meetings to appear life-sized, and the tables and rooms at the two ends to blend together seamlessly. (Rooms, furniture and even wallpaper are often identical, to aid the illusion.) People must also feel that they are making eye contact, which involves multiple cameras and enormous computing power. The delays in sight and sound must be negligible (ie, below 250 milliseconds, the threshold at which the human brain starts to notice), so that people can interrupt each other naturally. Sound must be perceived to come from the direction of the person speaking. And getting things started must be simple—ideally involving a single button or none at all.

Saving Money and Time (law firm example driven by client):

In addition to saving money, Cisco argues that telepresence saves time. The firm recently completed a takeover in eight days (as opposed to the usual weeks or months) by putting the lawyers in telepresence rooms instead of on aeroplanes.

More examples:

Lee Scott, the boss of Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, is said to see great scope for improving his supply chain. DreamWorks, a Hollywood studio that helped HP develop its telepresence system, says the technology will help it make movies cheaper and faster, by allowing creative types to collaborate without travelling.

My Punchline:

Managing Partners – don’t think about this opportunity from the law firm’s perspective but rather your client’s.  You may have some clients who will acquire this technology and will want you to participate – I welcome this as I believe that most law firm technology comes because the clients want us to have it (sometimes, “insist”).   If top corporations in your markets populate your client list, perhaps you should become familiar enough with this technology to initiate the discussion with your major clients.  After all, wouldn’t it be refreshing for your client to believe of you that your firm is progressive enough to be at the forefront?

Footnote (Greetings from Uruguay):  Speaking of technology and the world becoming more virtual, I posted this blog entry from my hotel room in Montevideo, Uruguay following an assignment with an MDP (accounting and law) firm here.  The Economist arrived promptly on my desk top this morning and I was able to effortlessly post this story.  Perhaps before too long I will be able to conduct the kind of assignment I traveled here for by video conference.

About The Economist: You can of course buy the hard copy or subscribe on line. This story is marked: Aug 23rd 2007 | SAN FRANCISCO
 From The Economist print edition

    BEN STEVENS
THE MAC LAWYER

If you are a lawyer and you use a Mac (even if you only use it at home) and you do not already know Ben Stevens of The Mac Lawyer Blog, then allow me to introduce you.

Ben is a bright Spartanburg, South Carolina, lawyer with an all Mac-based practice.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Financial Management and a minor in Accounting in addition to his law degree. 

You may want to start with Productivity Programs For Mac Lawyers and then scan a few other of his extremely helpful posts.  There is not a chance in the world that you will (or should) resist subscribing to his site.
 
 
 
 
 
(Gerry's) DISCLAIMER:  I am a stark raving mad Apple zealot having acquired my first Mac in 1984 as a Managing Partner and I have not missed an Apple beat since.  My close friends and business associates, (except for the enlightened ones who also use Macs) remind me that there are many people who just don’t understand.  That’s OK.   I do not apologize for my enthusiasm but perhaps I should for my dogma.  By the way, new Macs will run Windows at the same time as the Apple operating system so compatibility is an excuse relegated to history.

The Seattle Times wrote about Kevin O'Keefe today, the creator of my blog (not to mention the blogs of my Edge colleagues Ed Wesemann and Robert Millard).  They featured Kevin in a "Business and Technology" article called: LexBlog teaches lawyers the basics of blogging.

It is no surprise that he understands the legal profession - read these bullet points on Kevin:

• President and founder of LexBlog, the leading provider of marketing blogs to lawyers and other professional service firms.

• Founded Prairielaw.com, the leading online law community for consumers and small businesspeople, acquired by LexisNexis in 2001 and now incorporated into Martindale-Hubbell’s lawyers.com.

• Served as a VP of Business Development for LexisNexis' Martindale-Hubbell.

• Trial lawyer of 17 years, ceased practicing law in 1999.

• Successfully marketed own law firm on the Internet in such a positive way that USA Today said “If O'Keefe isn't careful, he may wind up giving lawyers a good name.”

• While practicing law served as sustaining member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and board member of state trial lawyers association.

Richard Susskind says:

the 'really exciting stuff' [is] due to take place in the next decade

Richard goes on to say:

By and large, most lawyers have now got their BlackBerrys, they Google regularly, and they think they are on their way — the transformation has occurred," he said. "The plumbing is in place, the infrastructure is in place, and the really exciting stuff that will go to the heart of legal services, the heart of legal process, is coming in the next decade.

Read the entire article titled: Susskind predicts a decade of crucial growth for law firm IT in Legal Week

FASTFORWARD: Susskind is the thought leader on law firm technology. He is worth watching and reading because our collective guesses as to where law firm technology is going are likely limited by our natural preoccupation with what we know as opposed to what will be.

See my two previous Susskind-related posts:

The Future of Law Books, and

Guru Richard Susskind Speaks - We Should Listen

Richard Susskind opines on the future of law books.

In his article: It's a book, but not as we know it, reader Richard explores whether (or when) we will give up law books in favor of devices like the Sony® Reader.

PUNCHLINE: Susskind is probably right - it is not whether; it's when will law books go electronic. Perhaps a more important question is what other uses will become common place for such a reader - perhaps clients will review draft agreements on such devices soon, or even reports on transactions. Imagine a law firm that gave the "reader" to clients and then sent documents (like agreements or opinions) electronically, ready to read with the quality of paper? Would such a practice create a competitive advantage?

Today's story in the Register, Server bug cripples Dublin law firms, is about Dublin law firms getting one-half million unwanted emails on top what Is likely a large volume in the first place.

I contend that the usual flow of emails is crippling. So, at Edge International, we are working with pilot clients on dramatically reducing the volume of emails through the use of internal Blogs and Wikis.

If you are involved in the senior management in a law firm (or other professional services firm) and are very interested in strategies to reduce email volumes without losing the beneficial data and communications, drop me a note and I will happily keep you posted on our progress.

Bruce MacEwen mentioned his attendance at our global Edge International meeting in London last weekend (see his post Dateline London). What his modesty prevents him from telling you is that his own presentation was "killer". His inspired ideas have already found their way into a discussion with a large network of European law firms (earlier today in London).

The idea proposed by Bruce called for the use of private blogs and wikis behind a firewall. Why not allow blog technology to intuitively drive knowledge capturing and why not let wikis create private knowledge repositories. (I don't plan to discuss his ideas in detail — besides, he'd explain it much better than I could anyway.) Suffice to say that at Edge, we think his ideas "rock".) If our client likes the concept, we'll see if Bruce will collaborate in creating a preliminary model and help us demonstrate it. From there, who knows…

Collaboration in the blogosphere is now going well beyond the theoretical — "Ideas into action"

Richard Susskind is not short on credentials. Richard has a first class honours degree in law from the University of Glasgow and a doctorate in law and computers from Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Computer Society, and was awarded an OBE in the Millennium New Year's Honours List for services to IT in the Law and to the Administration of Justice.

In his article: "Why going online is better for everyone" in the TimesOnLine, Richard explores, as an example, use by Eversheds of an online service:

that automates the process of drafting employment documents. The web-based system is designed for human resource professionals in large organisations

There is a link in the article that allows you to see a demo - incredible (see for yourself).

PUNCHLINE: For those who still think it's cool not to understand technology or tease that "that's something my kids do" maybe it's time to remove the cranium from the sand and stand erect as we move further into this new century. There will be two classes of firms soon… which one do you think will be thriving over the next ten years?

The Winter 2005 edition of our quarterly magazine, Edge International Review, is now available for downloading as a PDF.

This is a full color 40 page magazine so may takle a few minutes to download. (Some browsers will display the magazine without downloading it.)

Senior management team members in law firms may request a complimentary subscription to the hard copy version by sending me an email.

With nearly four million air miles in the last 10 years, I often joke that I "live in the sky". The impact of allowing cell phone usage during flights is significant to me. This could either be an opportunity or a disaster. I think it is an opportunity for all of us and we can have our cake and eat it too. I found readily available technology to accommodate both interests: those who want to make calls, and those who do not want to be forced to listen to them.

For peace and quiet:

Slip on a pair of QuietComfort® 2 headphones - you will neutralize not only the talking around you but the ambient airplane motor noise. You can also plug them in to the aircraft's system (domestically and internationally with adaptors provided) and hear the plane's entertainment system or your iPod®, or leave them unplugged, and hear pretty-well nothing — at least nothing very loud — almost silence.

For a quiet distraction-free conversation:

Not only does this Boom Quiet® have incredibly effective noise-canceling earphones, but the microphone is awesome – you can whisper no matter how loud the noise around you is and you will be heard, clearly. This is very important because you can speak quietly enough to be discrete and still be heard. You can visit their web site and hear a demonstration of these being used on a Blackhawk helicopter (click the sound icon near the center of the page--under the lady with the coffee).

For people like me - owners of talkative birds:

I have both headsets and love them. I never travel without my Bose® earphones and Quiet Boom® headset is a life saver when our two cockatoos are noisy during a client call. (They roam freely outside our house in Anguilla)

Food for Thought: While others whine about in-flight cell phone use, let's exploit the opportunity for competitive advantage by being more responsive to our clients. And if we want the solitude, maybe a chance to catch up on reading... or just watch the in-flight movie, there is a solution for that too.

I just wish the Quiet Boom® had an adaptor so we could use the device for both purposes (and we wouldn't have two things to carry).

Note #1: I have no relationship with either company and would not accept any consideration from either (not that they are likely to offer any), and

Note #2: Thank you to Tom Peters who brought this subject to mind in his TP Wire Service reference to the subject today.

Monica Bay (known as The Common Scold in the blogosphere) is a keynote speaker at the Raindance Conference produced by the LSSO (Legal Sales & Service Organization).

On the LSSO website, at their Raindance Tab, if you click the words "Listen to Monica" you get a very brief interview with her, complete with her take on the philosophy she intended to espouse at the conference.

What I want you to look at and think about is how cool this usage of technology is, thanks to Peter and Barbara Marx at Legal Insight.

Check it out and let me know what you think.