heading abroad?
MyShingle pointed today to a more-informative-than-usual article about the outsourcing of actual lawyer work (not merely back-office functions, which Milbank Tweed is reported to be planning to do in a large way). The article, “A Passage to India,” by lawyer Rich Smith appears as Commentary on the Motley Fool website (Jan. 26, 2004).
Smith intelligently discusses the causes and likely consequences of moving legal work offshore. He notes, for example:
“In coming years, expect to see more and more companies outsourcing their legal work to offshore countries — most likely former colonies of England with English-speaking workers, lawyers versed in common law, and highly educated populations. “
In particular, companies with big contingents of in-house lawyers, like West and its staff of legal editors, will be moving more legal jobs offshore.”
The article describes West’s offshore operations, and General Electric’s outsourcing of in-house work to India. Smith predicts that trickle-down savings by publishers will soon reach subscribers, and that “The double-savings to the American companies that buy the [far cheaper foreign] legal services will then trickle down further to the great mass of American consumers of the companies’ products.”