Globalization and other forces such as financial turmoil and increased litigation are compounding complexities for law firms and legal departments. They are increasingly under pressure to reduce cost of their clients or companies to survive in the marketplace. This has led to law firms and legal departments offshoring their legal tasks to the low cost locations such as India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and other parts of Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe. Current market size of legal process outsourcing is about US $250 billion with US alone acquiring more than 2/3 of the markets.

India, like IT/BPO outsourcing has taken a leap in the field of legal outsourcing industry also. It emerged as a possible destination to outsource legal work for the US law firms and legal departments in early 2000 and since then has grown exponentially. Currently, Indian legal outsourcing industry accounts for US $320 million in 2008, while estimated figures suggest Indian legal outsourcing industry could reach the mark of US $4 billion by 2015. Presently, more than 100 LPOs are operating from India which includes the names of some of the leading companies like Pangea3, Mindcrest, Quislex, LawScribe, and Integreon.

The report discusses the potential opportunities in the legal services outsourcing industry¬—its growth, key drivers for growth, and challenges. The report also discusses Indian landscape in detail highlighting current trends, existing players, pricing structure, key advantages, and challenges in the legal offshoring industry. The report also makes a comparative analysis of current US legal industry providing—its overview, pricing structure, and current compensation of attorneys. The report also provides a brief overview of other LPO destinations including the Philippines, Israel, and others. The report is designed to help a number of stakeholders including:

• Law Firms, Legal Departments, Attorneys, and Legal Publishing Houses seeking to offshore or set captive centers
• Prospective Venture Capitalists and Private Equity partners/firms wanting to invest in the LPO industry
• Outsourcing consultants providing advisory services or wanting understand current scenario of the LPO industry
• Researchers and academicians looking for detailed information on the subject of outsourcing
• Other entities wishing to purchase, partner, or supply legal services in the LPO industry