US Law Firms Bringing Business For Indian LPOs

The US is the largest trading partner of India.
Indo-US trade relations have been strengthened
following the liberal policies adopted by the Indian
government to promote foreign direct investment (FDI)
in the country in the early 1990s.

In recent times, Indo-US trade has increased by
25%, indicating ample scope of growth for Indian
companies*. Indo-US bilateral relations have been
further consolidated by the growing presence of the
Indian SMEs in the US. Significantly, an increasing
number of Indian SMEs in the legal process outsourcing
(LPO) sector can be attributed for fuelling this growth.
The market size of the Indian LPO business is estimated
at around $200-250 million. With Indian LPOs growing
at a steady rate, the industry is projected to achiev
e the $4 billion mark by 2015.

Windfall during recession
In the past few months, the ongoing recession in the
US economy has taken a heavy toll on the business
of Indian companies across verticals. However, in
sharp contrast to the SMEs in other sectors, smal
l LPO players in the country are finding the downturn
to be a blessing in disguise due to huge amount of
litigation work coming their way from the US.
With leading investment banks, large corporations and
finance companies going bankrupt in the US, the deman
d for legal services has increased manifold. In these
uncertain times, American firms are spending a
considerable amount on legal outsourcing to review
their risk factors, project terms and contracts. Indian
SMEs in the LPO business are thus gaining from the
high-end services that they are offering at competitive
rates. In fact, these rates are providing the Indian
SMEs an edge over their American counterparts.
More opportunities

Industry Experts expect the Indian SMEs in the LPO
space to gain further momentum in the near future.
This is because the volume of transactional work in the
domains of compliance, foreclosure, bankruptcy and
litigation is likely to grow in the coming months.
Indian LPOs dealing with the US companies operating
in India can also increase their turnover by gearing up
to meet the anticipated demand for litigation related to
post-meltdown issues. These include organisational
restructuring, rightsizing, closure of branches, winding
up of subsidiaries and serving termination notices to
collaborators and franchisees.

Apart from the litigation work, these firms can provide intellectual property (IP) support services such as drafting, contract reviews, patent searches and applications to attract more clients.
Hence, these tough times are proving to be an opportune time for the Indian LPO industry to become the next sunshine sector for the Indian economy.