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Indian BPOs fight US court battles
US court battles are now being outsourced to India. In a fiercely-competitive market where cut-throat deals have slashed voice BPO rates to $5-6 per hour, a segment of the industry is making a niche for itself in the name of legal BPO. An estimated 35,000 US lawyer jobs will move to low-cost-destinations like India by 2010. he number will reach 79,000 by 2015.
Just 700 people, employed across 50-60 companies in the country command up to $125 per hour to generate business worth $70 million per annum. That’s higher than the 2004 revenues of $60.5 million generated by EXLServices, one of the largest BPOs in India employing 500 people.
Major third-party players in legal outsourcing in India include Evalueserve, Pangea3, Lawwave, Manthan, Lexadigm, Atlas, Integreon and Office Tiger. In-house (captive) legal outsourcing by MNCs like GE, Oracle, Sun and Cisco has also been very successful. Subsidiaries of large US law firms in India like Intellevate (Noida) and IPPRO (Bangalore) are also successful.
Infact, for the sector, legal outsourcing is one of the most lucrative businesses. At an average billing rate of $75 per hour, just 700 LPO employees generate a business of $420,000 (Rs1.8crore) everyday.
Drafting patent applications and conducting infringement studies attract billing rates of $25-80 per hour. Proof-reading contracts and providing legal counsel via phone or emails attracts high billing rates of $30-125 per hour. Paralegal services like document management, archiving and XML tagging are billed at $12-25 per hour.
It’s well paying too. Sanjay Kamlani, Co-CEO, Pangea3 told FE: “Lawyers can earn between Rs 1-10 lakh per annum. Engineers, medical practioners and PhDs are in great demand as they are required for filing patents related to their fields. They earn between 4-8 lakhs per annum depending upon experience.” Outsourcing legal work to India helps US law firms operate 24x7. Not to forget the cost savings. Said Ashish Gupta, country manager, Evalueserve: “Drafting a patent in US costs around $8-10,000. In India, it can be done at less than half the cost. There is a huge market potential as more than 300,000 patent applications are filed in the US every year.”
Sunil Mehta, Vice-President NASSCOM told FE: “Legal outsource-able market from the US alone is pegged at $3-4 billion. Only about 2-3% ($60-80 million) of the potential market has been tapped so far.”
