PANGEA3 LLC

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 Also see our recent blog entries: Lawsuit challenging legality of offshore legal outsourcing is withdrawn, 05 Sep 2008, and ABA Blesses Use of Legal Outsourcing;August ABA Ethics Opinion Confirms that Offshoring Legal Work is Ethical, 27th Aug 2008.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.