Activity in the LPO space is increasing. Wipro is the latest company to provide legal process outsourcing services to Microsoft. For those who haven’t heard of Wipro, let me enlighten you. Wipro is a $5.7 billion revenue IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organization with a presence in over 50 countries. What’s an IT/BPO giant like Wipro doing in the LPO space you might ask? It’s a good question. But if I were to guess, one has to think that they see the opportunity to service the growing demand for low cost, quality legal services. Wipro are reportedly planning to . . . [more]

Risk allocation is rarely the impetus for entering into an outsourcing, but it is often a critical element in long term, complex outsourcing contracts, particularly where business transformation is involved. Risk allocation can be addressed in an outsourcing contract in the same traditional manner as in any commercial agreement (such as representations, warranties, limitation of liability, and so on). You rarely, if ever, see a provision in the contract that lays out the allocation of risk between the parties. 

So how exactly is all of this related to the game of hockey?

Getting to the Playoffs

The teams have lined . . . [more]

The Amendments

I recently had an opportunity to speak with a representative in the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta in connection with Alberta’s new obligations surrounding notification and disclosure of outsourcing arrangements involving personal information. On May 1^st, Alberta’s Personal Information Protection Amendment Act, 2009 amended the provincial Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). Now, while I’m not an Alberta lawyer, it’s clear to me that the amendments impact all organizations that collect personal information from residents of Alberta. I have worked from time to time with my firm’s Alberta office when PIPA privacy issues . . . [more]

Cloud computing is a new and fascinating set of technologies that is changing the way the world does business. Is the legal profession ready for it?

Cloud computing is the generic term used to describe a variety of technologies that transfers the responsibility for a computing activity (storage or processing) from a local computer to a network of remote computers. The remote computers are generally operated by one or more third parties. The principal benefit of cloud computing is cost. By using the cloud, a business can reduce the amount of money it spends on procuring and maintaining its own . . . [more]

In a recent conversation over outsourcing at a conference, I was struck by the importance of governance to the ultimate success of an outsourcing. The individual I was speaking with (let’s call them the ‘customer’ for purposes of this article) described their situation as one in which their enterprise was late in the term of a BPO outsourcing involving the transfer of a certain business function to a service provider. As they drew nearer the end of the term and began to consider a renewal, this customer undertook a more detailed analysis of the health of the transaction with its . . . [more]

In outsourcing agreements, customers usually request the so-called most favoured customer (MFC) clause from their service providers. The MFC clause is a promise from the service provider to treat the customer not less favourably than its customers. The clause can take various forms but invariably it requires the service provider who offers lower charges to any other customers for the same or substantially similar services to reduce the charge of the customers. Some customers like the clause because it provides them with comfort that the charges under its outsourcing agreement will be competitive during the term of the contract. This . . . [more]

These days, service levels are an integral part of outsourcing relationships. Reflecting the principle that “What gets measured, gets managed.” , the parties to an outsourcing relationship will establish specific metrics to be achieved by the supplier in performing services under the agreement, e.g. 99.99% server uptime in an infrastructure outsourcing or a call abandonment rate of less than 6% for help desk services. The service levels will be linked to penalties for failure to perform and termination rights in the event of consistent under-achievement. Suppliers may not love the idea of committing to service levels, but they recognize the . . . [more]

Let’s face it. Lawyers aren’t well-known for innovation. It’s a fact. Pictures of law books, gavels and scales of justice adorn so many lawyer websites even today. That’s not exactly the vision of the 21st century is it? Over the last few decades, the role of the in-house lawyer has evolved from being purely a legal service provider to a strategy/risk/business adviser. Gone are the days where in-house lawyers are “merely” asked to opine on the state of the law. As such, in-house lawyers have become innovative industry leaders.

Part of the reason for this may be because the business . . . [more]

Ask anyone. It’s all about value these days. We have entered an era where costs no longer determine the price of legal services. Value determines the price. The drive to achieve value is challenging the status quo in the legal services industry. Historically, lawyers have set the price for their legal services by determining their costs; and then adding their profit margin in order to arrive at the final price for their services. Isn’t this the antithesis of the way in which most other industries determine the price for their goods and services?

For most other industries, the price for . . . [more]

There is still some sensitivity around legal process outsourcing (LPO); however as time passes, we are seeing a growing number of law firms and corporate law departments embracing LPO. Simmons & Simmons is the latest law firm to outsource some of its legal work.

Based on published sources, the list of corporations and law firms offshoring legal work and the type of work they are outsourcing includes:

Corporations
Accenture – support, contracts
American Express
Andrew Corp
Cadence Design Systems – document review
Dell – procurement and sales contracts
DuPont – document review
General Electric – contracts
General Mills – patent . . . [more]

Rio Tinto shocked the global legal community by announcing that they would be outsourcing significant legal work with an expected annual savings of about $20,000,000 (20% of an annual budget of about $100,000,000). This announcement is not so shocking if you consider that Microsoft, GE, Intel and other major players are already enjoying huge savings from legal process outsourcing (LPO).

As the value of LPO starts being realized by the broader legal community and confirmation of its permanence is made on a daily basis, it becomes necessary for skeptics to understand the applicability of this method of service to take . . . [more]

According the 2009 Chief Legal Officer Survey conducted by Altman Weil, Inc. [summary, PDF], there is deep skepticism among corporate law departments that their law firm counterparts are equally serious about change. When asked how serious law firms are about changing their delivery model, the answers were in sharp contrast. Only 5% of CLOs assessed law firms as highly serious. 20% gave firms credit for some level of effort. 75% rated law firms between zero and 4 on the scale, indicating little or no interest in change.

“This is a dramatic vote of no confidence from Chief . . . [more]