PANGEA3 LLC

The 44th Pacific Advisory Rim Council (PRAC) International Conference will be held in Mumbai on November 15-18. Pangea3 is proud to be part of the Conference and a guest speaker on the Legal Outsourcing panel scheduled November 17th from 2:00 – 3:15 PM alongside John Shirbin of Clayton Utz, Richard Scott of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP and Jorge Perez Taiman of Muniz, Ramirez, Perez-Taiman & Luna – Victoria, Attorneys at Law, Lima, San Isidro.

Selectica’s 2nd Annual Contract Management Summit is taking place on October 26-28, in Monterey, CA. The summit is tailored for Selectica’s clients, partners and industry experts. With breakout sessions along four tracks it will provide practical guidance on creating and driving contract management initiatives.

Pangea3 is proud to be one of the main sponsors for this summit as well as a speaker on the “Creating Greater Efficiencies in the GC’s Office: Legal Outsourcing” session on October 28th from 10:30 AM to 11:15 AM.

The NYSBA Intellectual Property Law Section Fall 2008 Meeting will be held on October, 16-19, in New York. I am delighted to be invited as the speaker on the topic, Ethics of Outsourcing on October, 17 from 2:00-3:00 PM.

ACC will be holding their Annual Meeting on October 19-22 in Seattle. The event provides ACC members with an opportunity to discuss key issues related to in-house counsel and participate in over 100 CLE seminars along with networking opportunities and meeting potential new providers. Pangea3 is proud to be one of the sponsors for the event as well as a session speaker.

I will be on the Considerations in Outsourcing Legal Services panel, session 009 on October, 20th from 9:30 AM -10:30 AM, along with Gabriel Buigas, General Counsel of Hewlett-Packard, Michael L. Goodman, Managing Attorney of NIKE and Daniel Reed, Chief Executive Officer of UnitedLex. This session will address pertinent issues related to legal outsourcing that are important for organizations that outsource their legal work or are evaluating the possibility of outsourcing.

In addition, we are one of the exhibitors at this conference. Stop by and speak with Pangea3 representatives at Booth 521 throughout the conference to learn more about our services.

Details:

ACC Annual Meeting 2008
October 19-22
Washington State Convention & Trade Center
Seattle, WA

click here for more information.

ACC Booth Map:

On October 7, 2008 Wesfacca (ACC) will hold a seminar on Advanced Outsourcing & Transformational IT Contracting : what really matters when outsourcing or engaging in other IT-related transactions. I am honored to be invited as one of the speakers for this seminar alongside Akiba Stern and Edward Hansen of Morgan Lewis. This seminar will focus on an increasingly important model for building strong outsourcing and technology relationships. It will provide an overview of the legal outsourcing industry and address many of the substantive concerns related to legal outsourcing, including what services to outsource, the recent ABA ethics opinion and the economics of outsourcing. The event will run from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

The American Conference Institute (ACI) is hosting a fall India LPO Summit on September 15-16th in New York. I am honored to be invited as one of the speakers of the pre-conference panel, Getting to Grips with Outsourcing your Legal Services Offshore: the A-Z of Enacting and Managing Outsourcing Relationships, along with Mark Ross, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Lawscribe, and Carrie Bowers, Director of Group Offshoring at UBS. The pre-conference workshop will be held at the Marriott East Side Hotel from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm on September 15, 2008. The topic will provide key information for attorney’s who are considering the possibility of offshore outsourcing.

Daniel A Masur & Sonia Baldia, partners at Mayer Brown LLP, published a very interesting and comprehensive article on legal process outsourcing in this month’s Global Services magazine. See the article on globalservices.com :Is LPO Right For Your Company? Objective Gating Analysis in Legal Process Outsourcing by Daniel A Masur & Sonia Baldia,08 September, 2008.

Daniel Masur and Sonia Baldia have been looking at the legal outsourcing industry for quite a long time, and it’s gratifying to see two partners at an AmLaw 100 law firm approach the topic on legal outsourcing so thoughtfully and carefully - and accurately.

Industry watchers have by now seen the extensive coverage of the dismissal of the anti legal outsourcing lawsuit filed in Federal District Court by Newman, McIntosh & Hennessey L.L.P. See the story on mddailyrecords.com: Outsourcing Challenge Dropped for Now by Caryn Tamber in the Daily Record Legal Affairs, Sept 3 2008 for a summary of what happened. What the dismissal of the lawsuit means for the legal outsourcing industry remains to be seen, but many of us were looking forward to Mr. Hennessey and his friends losing.

Leaving aside the veracity of Mr. Hennessey’s claims about why he withdrew the suit and what he plans next in his attacks on the legal outsourcing industry and outsourcing in general, Hennessey’s statements are troubling because they make clear that he’s prepared to waste the court’s time.

See the blog entry on ridethelightning.senseient.com: Newman Fires Back on Legal Outsourcing by Sharon D.Nelson, Sept 03, 2008, in which Hennessey claims that “we decided that rather than litigate an academic declaratory judgment action, we would bring an action for damages on a class wide basis.” I’m sure that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where the action was originally brought, would be delighted to know that the action, and the press that the plaintiff sought by filing it, was merely academic. Based on his own words, I can only assume that by “academic,” Hennessey means what Merriam-Webster defines as “3.a : theoretical, speculative ‘[an academic question]’ b: having no practical or useful significance.” In other words, the original action, as filed with a Federal court, was frivolous, just as everyone who read it had concluded.

Pangea3 and its colleagues in the legal outsourcing and offshore legal services industry will continue to oppose Mr. Hennessey and his new partners in their efforts to prevent law firms and corporations from lowering costs for their clients in an ethical, legal and now widely accepted and endorsed manner. See the recent ABA ethics opinion story on law.com: ABA Gives Thumbs up to Legal Outsourcing by Anthony Lin in the New York Law Journal, August 27, 2008, summarizing the recent ABA Ethics Committee opinion blessing legal outsourcing. Also see our recent blog entries: Lawsuit challenging legality of offshore legal outsourcing is withdrawn, 05 Sep 2008, and ABA Blesses Use of Legal Outsourcing;August ABA Ethics Opinion Confirms that Offshoring Legal Work is Ethical, 27th Aug 2008. And we will continue to expose the frivolous nature of the lawsuits filed by them.

Pangea3 has learned that the lawsuit filed earlier this year in the D.C. District Court challenging the legality of offshore legal outsourcing has been withdrawn by the Plaintiff firm, Bethesda, Maryland-based Newman, McIntosh & Hennessey.

The withdrawal comes only days after the American Bar Association (ABA) issued a formal ethics opinion that not only approves but endorses the use of legal outsourcing providers as a method to extend in-house capacity and to reduce costs. Please see our blog posting of August 27th entitled ABA Blesses Use of Legal Outsourcing; August ABA Ethics Opinion Confirms that Offshoring Legal Work is Ethical.

At this time, we can only assume that the Plaintiff firm realized the futility of prosecuting their suit in the shadow of the ABA’s opinion, and the opinions of the New York City Bar Association, Florida State Bar Association, San Diego County Bar Association and the Los Angeles County Bar Association, each of which affirmed that the use of offshore legal services providers like Pangea3 does not violate any ethical rules or regulations.

Please watch this space for more details on this development as they become available.