Pangea3 Awarded 2011 LPO of the Year by India Business Law Journal
November 2011 
India Business Law Journal
A year after business information giant Thomson Reuters acquired a leading legal services outsourcer, Pangea3, the deal continues to be talked about as the most important recent development in legal process outsourcing (LPO).
While Sanjay Kamlani, co-chief executive of Pangea3, says it has enabled his company to deliver "unprecedented hybrid governance and compliance solutions", others see it as conclusive evidence of the maturing of the LPO sector.
A more telling sign of the coming-of-age of the LPO sector is that the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Law Society of England and Wales are for the first time considering if the rules that govern lawyers need to be tweaked to take account of their increasing use of legal outsourcing.
A commission on ethics established by the ABA is currently drafting proposals on possible amendments to its model rules of professional conduct. This follows on from a formal opinion on outsourcing published in 2008 by the ABA, which had in general given the go-ahead for the outsourcing of legal and nonlegal services. In the UK, on 13 October the Law Society issued a practice note on regulatory issues that lawyers and practices need to consider while outsourcing legal tasks.
Following the sun
A further sign of the deep roots being put down by LPOs is a recent trend to establish onshore delivery centres, which some refer to as "follow-the-sun" workflow models. This has resulted in LPOs racing to set up bases close to their users in the US, to complement their teams of lawyers operating from low-cost locations such as Gurgaon and Cochin in India. Clients in the US – both in-house legal departments and law firms – continue to provide the largest volume of work for LPOs. On 9 November Integreon, a knowledge process out sourcer ( K P O ) with a significant LPO business , announced that it had begun operating a "dedicated document review centre" in the Washington, DC, area. Others with recently established delivery centres in the US include Pangea3, which set up shop in June outside Dallas, and UnitedLex, another leading LPO, which moved into a 24,000-square-foot office in Kansas around the same time.
While an onshore presence can significantly reduce margins, it is often vital in winning over clients who may be reluctant to entrust their work to an offshore location. To staff these onshore centres LPOs have been hiring locally trained lawyers. In doing so, they provide a "glimmer of light" in a bleak employment market in the US, albeit from "a surprising direction", as the New York Times reported a few months ago. Moving out of the shadows and into the mainstream is clearly adding to the growing stature of LPOs.
It is against this backdrop that India Business Law Journal unveils its third annual Legal Process Outsourcing Awards.
The awards are presented in six categor ies – Best Overall LPOs , Legal Support, Litigation Support , Intellectual Property 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 description of the scope of each award, along with details of the methodology and judging criteria, is provided on page 43. A full list of winners can be found on page 45.
LPO of the Year
For the third year running, India Business Law Journal's LPO of the Year award goes to Pangea3. While excelling in providing cost-effective and quality services, it continues to be the trendsetter for the industry. Pangea3 received significantly more votes than any other LPO in our cl ient survey and also won glowing endorsements from clients. It is also the only LPO to win an award in each of this year's award categories – a feat which it also achieved during India Business Law Journal's inaugural awards in 2009.
The company's impressive list of clients includes Deutsche Bank, which began using its services in February 2008. While commenting that the relationship "continues to grow", Rose Battaglia, global chief operating officer (legal) for the bank, says Pangea3's work process "logically addresses our concerns and ensures notime is wasted". She adds the "the value we receive from their MIS and playbooks produced is immeasurable" and that Pangea3 consistently delivers quality service.
Another satisfied client is Philip Morris International. Its VP for regulatory policy Till Olbrich says: "Pangea3 is fast, client-oriented and easy to work with". He adds that he has particularly appreciated "their willingness to listen and learn in order to best adapt to evolving client needs".
Pangea3 has 850 full-time employees in India alone – up from 650 in 2010 and 300 in 2009 – of which around 700 are lawyers. The company has delivery centres in Mumbai and Delhi and is known to attract graduates from India's top law schools.
Pangea3 attributes its success to not getting involved with building the technology and "non-lawyering expertise" that is part of every LPO's products. By partnering with leading providers of such technologies and services it creates "dramatically impactful" products that combine its "lawyering services with best-of-breed industry leading partner technologies".
This appears to be what Pangea3 has done in combining forces with Thomson Reuters, which boasts "an extensive and market-dominating suite of legal information assets, tools and delivery channels".
But despite Pangea3's spectacular success, it is not all smooth sailing as clients are always looking to get a better deal. There is little respect for the status quo in this industry, which thrives on innovation. As a result at least one client, Sony, has moved on to a more "creative and cost-effective" outsourcer after around five years of using Pangea3's services.
Sony's senior vice-president for intellectual property, Toshimoto Mitomo, says that over the past year or so Sony began making a gradual shift to Evalueserve, which he sees as "more flexible at customizing their services to accommodate my desires".