November, 2009 

India Business Law Journal

India Business Law Journal is proud to recognize and reward the country's leading LPO service providers. Lesley Sutherland reports.

The following is an excerpt from the Legal Process Outsourcing Intelligence Report by Lesley Sutherland published in the November issue of the India Business Law Journal.

Legal process outsourcing (LPO) is a highly significant and fast-growing part of India’s legal mix. At the same time the services offered by leading LPO providers have become increasingly essential to corporate legal departments and law firms around the world. The inescapable financial stringency imposed by the recent market calamities has reinforced this trend, which has seen LPO providers form ever closer and more integrated service relationships with their clients.

Driven by market demand, LPO providers are racing up the value chain. The routine low-value tasks for which the industry was originally known are rapidly being supplemented with more complex, high-value functions. As a result, the industry is in a state of tremendous flux and competition between providers is intense.

In this new and demanding business environment, the LPOs that are prevailing are no longer those that simply offer consistent service and value-for-money. Innovation, specialist expertise and the ability to customize services to meet specific objectives are equally important to today’s discerning clients.

As India Business Law Journal’s inaugural LPO awards demonstrate, many of the leading India-based LPOs are successfully rising to this challenge.

The awards are presented in six broad categories – Best Overall LPOs, Legal Support, Litigation Support, IP Services, Contract Services and Corporate Services – with five winners of equal standing in each category. An additional award of LPO of the Year has been given to a single service provider.

A clarification of the scope of each award, along with a detailed description of the methodology and judging criteria, is provided on page 45 [of the main report]. A full list of winners can be found on page 48 [of the main report].

LPO of the Year

India Business Law Journal’s top award of LPO of the Year goes to Pangea3. With over 300 staff, Pangea3 is headquartered in Mumbai and has another facility in Noida. The company emphasizes the integration of its legal support activities with its high-end legal research, business and competitive intelligence service lines, which Sanjay Kamlani, the company’s co-CEO, says “provide tailored business information and legal research solutions to corporations and law firms”.

Among its clients is Sony, where vice-president and chief patent counsel Toshimoto Mitomo says, “Pangea3 has provided a cost-effective outsourcing alternative for litigation discovery related matters, At UPS, another of Pangea3’s clients, vice-president Norman Brothers says: “The work has been consistently of a very high quality – accurate, timely and excellent value.

Pangea3 is the only LPO provider to win an award in each of this year’s awards categories, often with a marked statistical lead over its rivals. In all five service areas considered by the judges, the company was among the most prominent and highly rated providers. Its credentials are supported by a diverse portfolio of complex projects that Pangea3 has completed in industries as diverse as financial services, travel, electronics,entertainment, food and beverages, investment banking, insurance and industrial equipment. Many of its clients are Fortune 500 companies and the company has also undertaken work for several international law firms.

What underpins the company’s success? “Our quality starts with the pedigree of our lawyers and engineers,” says Kamlani. He also points to strict quality control and project supervision processes, the use of Six Sigma methodologies, ongoing training programmes and regular review processes.

Innovation has also been crucial to the company’s development: “Since none of the off-the-shelf products catered to the unique needs of our industry, we developed and integrated products that address specific aspects of our business,” Kamlani says.

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Methodology and judging criteria

India Business Law Journal’s LPO Awards are based on quantitative survey data combined with the qualitative insights of key outsourcing clients

With India’s legal process outsourcing market evolving so fast, the task of judging India Business Law Journal’s LPO Awards was far from straightforward.

A survey was sent by email to more than 600 prospective and existing clients of legal outsourcing services. Recipients were typically senior in-house counsel at major international corporations and partners at regional and international law firms. They were asked to confidentially score the work of all LPO providers with which they were familiar in the following areas of service provision, each of which corresponds to one of the award categories:

• Legal Support includes functions such as coding and indexing; document management; database support; legal billing; preparation of motions, pre-trial briefs, summonses and notices; statutory reports and filings; demand and mediation packages; summaries and timelines; internet research; legal publishing, such as compilation of databases; optical character recognition; and legal transcription

• Litigation Support includes functions such as document review and analysis; e-discovery; legal research and analysis; factual research; and the preparation of briefs, arguments, memoranda, summaries, depositions and pleas

• IP Services includes functions such as literature and prior art searches; patent portfolio analysis and proofreading; docketing services; drafting patent applications and preparing patent drawings; and prosecution

• Contract Services includes functions such as contract review, analysis, drafting and management, and the preparation of abstracts

• Corporate Services includes functions such as corporate governance, due diligence and compliance management.

In giving their scores, survey respondents were requested to consider five key performance criteria that are often used to benchmark LPO providers: quality of service; consistency and reliability of service; the level of innovation demonstrated by the service provider; the service provider’s ability to customize its services to meet client objectives; and value for money. In addition, survey respondents were invited to provide qualitative comments on their level of satisfaction with each LPO service provider. All such comments were taken into account by our editorial team during the judging process. Some have also been quoted in the awards coverage, but a significant number of respondents requested anonymity.

A separate survey was sent to more than 50 LPO providers. Each was invited to support its candidacy for the awards by submitting details of notable achievements, client references and a concise explanation of how it strives to attain the five key performance criteria listed above.

LPO providers were also asked to indicate which of their competitors they judged to be leaders in each of the awards categories.

In reaching its final decisions, India Business Law Journal’s editorial team used a combination of objective data and subjective analysis. The numeric data collected from the two surveys formed the basis of the results, but was considered alongside the subjective comments and insights received from LPO clients around the world. The submissions received from LPO service providers were also considered as part of this process, as were the references provided by their clients.

Five winners of equal standing have been announced in each of the service area categories, while an award for Best Overall LPOs is shared between the top five all-round performers. An additional award of LPO of the Year has been given to a single service provider.

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(c) India Business Law Journal, November, 2009

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 About Pangea3 LLC

Pangea3 is the leading provider of legal process outsourcing solutions to Fortune 1000 corporations, in-house counsel and law firms. Utilizing dedicated teams of U.S, U.K. and Indian attorneys, scientists and professionals, Pangea3 offers superior quality corporate, litigation, intellectual property and risk management services. Pangea3's advantage lies in its people, technology, and process expertise including Six Sigma and Lean tools and methodologies -- to deliver U.S. quality services at a compelling cost.