Legal Process Outsourcing refers to the service industry wherein legal and paralegal support services of the Client firm or an individual is performed by the outsourcing party. Cost, resource and speed advantage are the levers responsible for the mushrooming of this phenomenon across the world. The common law system, huge pool of English educated attorneys, time zone advantage, quality, confidentiality and security are the factors supporting the growth of legal process outsourcing industry. There are three eminent aspects of an LPO transaction:-

The client – from where we get the outsourced work. In other words, who is the source of work.

The provider/vendor – who processes the work i.e. the organization that provides the LPO services.

The project – the work which needs to be executed.

The services provided by the LPO industry ranges from preparation of pleadings, drafting of contracts, litigation support, legal transaction, IPR, proof readings, research and due diligence. The growth and development of the legal offshoring industry in India will help bringing a change in the way legal services are delivered in the west. This will also help in improving the economies of different countries.

LPO industry is mounting because of mutual benefits of clients and service providers. The increasing prominence of the LPO industry in the world today, is owing to the benefits listed below:-

Cost effectiveness:- Outsourcing legal work to India results to a cost saving of 60-70% which facilitates an organization to gain efficiency and staying profitable in the competitive world of business. Offshoring legal work is very cost effective for law firms/corporate in the UK and US.

Time zone:- The time difference and the availability of 24×7 support staff encourage outsourcing of legal work even more. By outsourcing research and paralegal tasks, the in-house counsel are able to concentrate on core legal issues. As law firm attorneys or in-house counsel in the West close their offices, their assigned work is attended to and completed in India due to the time zone advantage.

Language- English being the language for education and business in India is an advantage. There can never be a communication gap as Indian lawyers are well versed in English and all courts in India function in English.

Eminence- The Indians are known for their intelligence and intellect. The same may be applied to Indian legal brains. Indian legal professionals have brilliant proficiency in working with the tools and systems in the outsourcing industry. Their writing skills and legal knowledge enhancement has resulted in making them an important pillar of the outsourcing operations.

Confidentiality- The most important factor in outsourcing legal services is the privacy of information of solicitors. The data outsourced by a solicitor firm to an LPO is always privileged information. This information has to be protected so as to maintain the confidentiality of the client. At all levels, confidentiality is being maintained.

Variety of services- An LPO provides variety of services to its clients. Solicitors and Law firms not only cut their costs but also get various services from one service provider. Solicitors/Law firms can broaden their areas of working by relying on the back office support of LPO.

Resources: By outsourcing, the foreign law firm or the corporation frees its resources to concentrate on its core competencies thus increasing the client base and court appearances vis-a–vis the competitors

Though this list above is not mutually exhaustive but is indicative of the main triggers of the industry.

The LPO industry in India has invested significantly in systems and process to ensure data security-often to a greater degree than their overseas clients.

The legal process outsourcing has been growing at a geometric progression growth rate. has been in geometrical progression. It has reached only to the level of 3% to 5% of the total estimated market. According to one of the latest surveys, it has been predicted that about 35,000 US lawyer jobs will move to low cost countries by 2010. At present, there are more than 15,000 professionals employed in various LPOs across India and it is growing.

The LPOs which started with 4-10 professionals a year back have grown to the strength of 400. The service industry like BPO had multiplied significantly and similarly LPO industry is also passing through the same phase. The future of LPO can be visualized with the glance on the following facts:

• “79,000 US lawyer jobs to be outsourced by 2015. (Source Forrester incorporation).
• “LPO service providers in India likely to generate revenue of US dollar 300 million in 2010-2011. (Source Evalueserve).”
• “LPO service providers in India likely to generate revenue of US dollar 960 million 2015-2016 (Source Evalueserve).”
• “A US based technology and Market Research Company indicates the current value of legal outsourcing is $80m (£40m) [about 3% of the estimated market] (Source Forrester incorporation).”
• “A US based technology and Market Research Company indicates the current value of legal outsourcing is $60 m more than (£30 m) in India alone (Source Forrester incorporation).”

The practice of law is changing at an exponential pace and clients no longer accept automatic increases in billing rates and escalating costs without question. To retain existing clients, and gain new ones, firms need to offer creative cost saving alternatives.
One such alternative is to have high cost, more routine legal work performed, at the outset, by fully licensed Indian lawyers charging $30 – $50 per hour, in contrast to the hundreds of dollars typically charged by law firms for their associates and paralegals. Because the Indian lawyers are working in a time zone almost 12 hours away, your “down time” is their “up time” and the work essentially continues around the clock. As a result, you often get real results the next working day.

Outsourcing allows both a law firm and a corporate law department to have their respective staffs focus on the higher value work for which intimate knowledge of the client, its business, and the nuances of the legal specialty are necessary. Outsourcing not only better serves the needs of the client, but it also makes the practice of law more interesting.

• Experienced senior lawyers in charge; manage & operate business, and serve as your direct link along with our senior U.S. account management team for all communications (For more information, see Our Team)
• Well financed and secure
• Solid infrastructure – certified to International data security and information protections standards, state of the art technology, and our own headquarters building (For more details, see the Security page)
• Worldwide presence
• Satisfied Clients (For more information, see the Clients page)

• All work performed by licensed, trained English speaking attorneys and specialists in India; are supervised by seasoned Indian lawyers (each with over 15 years of experience)
• Statement of work (SOW) prepared in advance, and in writing, with clients; establishes specific standards and timelines for services to be delivered
• Periodic reviews with clients to ensure project requirements are being met

• Common law legal system rooted in England – foundation for both India and US
• English language common to governments, business, and lawyers in both countries
• Substantial cost savings (for example, Indian lawyers’ average earnings – 60-70% less than comparably experienced US lawyers)
• Time zone differences advantageous; allow question generation in US and solutions from India, often within 24 hour period (although matching Indian and US time shifts possible)

• All Draft n Craft employees – subject to elaborate pre-screening and background investigation; must sign conflict of interest/secrecy agreement prior to employment
• State of the art security systems, and 24x7security guards
• Internationally recognized ISO 9001:2008 certification.
• Security – has met rigorous standards of US banking industry
• Access strictly limited by ID badges and biometrics
• When required, separate areas devoted strictly to one client
• Same employee performing client work cannot work for competitor of that client
• Back up data servers and electrical generators

Draft n Craft Legal Solutions is not a law firm, and we are not providing legal advice to clients. We are providing services to attorneys in law firms and corporations. Our goal is to form a partnership with the lawyers who are providing the advice and services to the clients and add value to the attorney-client relationship by helping to bring efficiencies and cost savings to that relationship. Our work will be supervised by our US attorneys for quality, who in turn will forward it to the lawyer with the client relationship.

We can help your law firm compete for new business from existing or new clients by helping you craft proposals that differentiate your firm from its competitors. We can help your law firm differentiate itself from its peers by helping you demonstrate to your clients that you are as global in your business thinking as they are in their business operations.

The attorney-client privilege applies to the services delivered by Draft n Craft. We are retained by lawyers only, either from corporate legal departments or law firms. Under applicable law, the attorney-client privilege applies to a client’s communications with, and in the litigation context, to the work product of, a lawyer providing legal services to a client. The attorney-client privilege also extends to a lawyer’s communications with, and the work product of, any vendor providing services to that lawyer under a direct engagement relationship. As a result, our communications and work product are privileged, since we provide our services to lawyers who engage us directly.

The fiduciary obligation to keep client documents and communications confidential applies under both Indian and U.S. law. In addition, we sign non-disclosure agreements with clients and, if requested, with the underlying client of any of our law firm clients. All Draft n Craft employees sign standard non-disclosure, covenants not to compete and non-solicitation agreements prior to employment.

Draft n Craft takes the issue of protecting Client Confidentiality very seriously. The company has implemented comprehensive security measures to ensure that no client data is accessed by anyone who is not authorized to have such access. All employees who deal with client material must sign non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements.

We will not assign people to a project for one client if we are advised that a separate project, for the same or a different client, may create a conflict of interest or raise confidentiality concerns.

In light of Draft n Craft’s history of managing financial data for large banks and corporations, we are very sensitive to the issues of data security and client confidentiality, regardless of the actual content of that data. Draft n Craft treats client data with careful regard for the client’s confidentiality needs and concerns. The company has implemented comprehensive security measures to ensure that client data is not accessed by unauthorized personnel, and that data which is accessed is only utilized to the extent permitted by the scope of our undertaking with the client.

Draft n Craft has dedicated training facilities in India. We understand that training is an ongoing activity. We regularly provide training classes there concerning legal topics and procedures that are applicable to work we do for our clients. We also provide training for any significant upgrades that are made to the software applications we routinely use on behalf of our clients, as well as training for new applications that are added to our portfolio of technology tools.

Our Senior Management personnel regularly attend seminars and conferences that deal with topics related to the services we offer – Litigation Support & document review, Contract Management, Intellectual Property, and Legal Research. In addition, to the extent that they have Continuing Legal Education requirements, they fulfill those obligations.

Draft n Craft takes a proactive approach towards Information security controls. These controls are standard built-in features of the network architecture created by Draft n Craft. Company controls are deployed at each layer of Draft n Craft’s operations.

• Confidentiality of customer data on LAN Network: A separate VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) is created for each client project. Also, we apply ACL (Access Control List) filters to restrict to and from traffic from a customer assigned VLAN to the Internet.
• Confidentiality of customer data stored on local servers: All data resides on centralized servers. The servers are NTFS (New Technology File System) partitioned, and access is restricted with Active Directory authentication. Draft n Craft employees are not allowed to store any data on local systems or portable drives.
• Confidentiality of customer data on workstations: In order to control access to the workstations, the OS (Operating System) on each is hardened and group policies are applied. Only Active Directory user IDs are allowed to login to the workstations, and users can only login to the group in which their membership has been established.
• Perimeter Control: Firewalls are deployed on the Internet Perimeter to restrict inbound/ outbound access.

Business confidentiality is a key consideration in our security measures. Some of our Physical security precautions include:

• Security guards on 24X7x365 basis
• Compulsory ID card beyond reception area, coupled with obligation to carry ID card at all times
• Visitors have to be accompanied during visits
• Operations floors with access control and restricted access with proximity/biometric access for Authorized Personnel Only
• Visitor access limited to floor dedicated to support functions
• Premises monitored by CCTV (closed circuit television) network

You do not leave driving simply because you met with an accident, you simply become more cautious. The advantages of outsourcing are enormous. Draft n Craft has a team of immense Indian legal talent that will surely change your perception and prior outsourcing experience.

• Your clients are going to increasingly require that you reduce your expenses to them. Outsourcing some of the work you do on their behalf demonstrates that you are responsive to their needs, and that you are approaching their legal work with the same kind of “business thinking and planning” that they use to run their companies.
• Outsourcing will help distinguish you from your competitors as you seek to gain more work from existing clients, or attract new clients.
• Your work will be supervised by one or more of the members of the US management team of Draft n Craft Legal Solutions. The 3 senior members of Our Team each have 15+ years of experience as lawyers in major corporations, with governmental agencies, and in private practice. They will be your direct contacts to Draft n Craft’s team of Indian lawyers and paralegals.
• Instead of boring your associates with assignments to review mountains of discovery, they can be used on higher value work. You can take time to really train them to work in accordance with your firm’s culture and “way of doing things”. You will reduce their dissatisfaction with work they consider “basic, low value and routine”. You will thereby reduce associate turnover and the wide range of costs associated with such personnel churn. Your bottom line will improve and your firm’s reputation as a desirable place to work will spread among your junior-level, lateral prospects, thus enhancing your future recruiting opportunities.

We can help your law firm compete for new business from existing or new clients by helping you craft proposals that offer client’s real cost savings. We can help your law firm differentiate itself from its peers by helping you demonstrate to your clients that you are as global in your business thinking as they are in their business operations.

Draft n Craft is proud to offer quality services in cost effective way. We are transparent enough to fix a reasonable cost that will fit your budget. Our pricing models are flexible enough in order to cater the needs of all clients. We charge on project basis, per attorney, per contract. For more information, please click here.

The AptCaptive™ is an advanced Legal off shoring model tailored and run as per client’s requirements by Draft n Craft, retaining all in-house benefits at reduced costs.

Of the many prevalent modules of outsourcing, we compare The AptCaptive™ Model with the two traditional models namely outsourcing through a Third party service provider/vendor (TPSP) or alternatively setting up one’s Captive Unit. Our Model intelligently combines the merits of both these traditional models while hedging the client against the demerits of both. All this and much more, at very cost effective rates and at quality standards set by client.

To wit, a few differentiators of AptCaptive™ Model from the two traditional modules of outsourcing are as follows:

Being at its nascent stage, the LPO industry working today elicited a gap between what ought to be and what was, and so erupted the obvious need to innovate with newer concepts of offshore outsourcing. The idea was to let the prospective risk averse client enjoy the fruits of outsourcing while at the same time safeguarding him from the associated risks and uncertainties. AptCaptive™ transcends legal outsourcing to a new level never thought before. Being the advanced level of the LPO industry, AptCaptive™ has enhanced features and an edge when compared to older and other modules of outsourcing.

We offer various legal and paralegal services. A near exhaustive list includes:

Legal & Paralegal Services: Document Review, Document Management, Contract Review & Management, Deposition Summary, Legal Research, Legal Transcription, Social Security Disability, Debt Collection, Bankruptcy, Foreclosure and Personal Injury. Secretarial Services: General Transcription, Data Entry, Data Archiving/Retrieval, Document Conversion, Calendar Keeping, Coding/Indexing and Data Storage.

Accountancy Services: Form Filling, Accounts Payables/ Receivables, Maintenance of Ledgers, Payroll Processing, Processing Expenses, and Generating Client Invoices.

The cost of AptCaptive™ is surprisingly low and highly affordable. For any inquiries on this, please feel free to contact our AptCaptive™ team.

Captive and TPSP’s are in no instant a cost rival to AptCaptive™.

Confidentiality is the most important contention in the mind of prospective clients. We are committed to give in-house confidentiality at offshore location to our client’s under AptCaptive™. I am sure that contentions like confidentiality will wither away for anyone who in-toto comprehends the AptCaptive™ concept.

We have a systematic process in place to make AptCaptive™ a pleasant offshore outsourcing experience. Since inception to conclusion a team of dedicated and experienced professionals analyze all the aspects, risks and needs of our client. Our continuous engagement and additional inputs in the process makes it smooth and seamless.