Legal process outsourcing refers to the off shoring of the various legal processes outside of the traditional 'in house' model either by law-firms or in-house legal department of various corporations. Although the industry has been around only for a very few years, yet it has matured considerably having had the benefit of learning from the many lessons of the outsourcing industry in general. However, it would be a constructive and fruitful exercise to take stock of various issues which need to be addressed positively for a successful legal off shoring experience, both from a client as well as from vendor’s perspective.

Attorney–client privilege is the very premise which grants the special and strong character to the relationship between an attorney and his client. In essence it casts a positive obligation upon the attorney to ensure that all communication between the client and the attorney shall not be revealed to any other person. The concept has been sanctified in some way or the other by jurisdictions across the globe¹. The issue gains immense importance once again in light of newer technological changes which are bringing about a gradual shift in the traditional ways of the legal industry. The paper analyses this issue from an objective point of view to understand it’s implications with respect to outsourcing.

The present paper is an attempt to analyze some of the strengths and weakness of the LPO Industry that surfaced during the past year and to apply the understanding towards predicting some of the opportunities and threats that lie ahead for the LPO industry.

2009 was a definitive watershed event in the history of outsourcing and legal process was an equal party to the game. It marked many firsts in the industry- with majors like Rio Tinto upping and upsetting many long established industry standards. The recession that originated in the United States had by now spilled on to the rest of the world and specially Europe. Although by the second half of the year, boardrooms were again buzzing with the talks of ‘green shoots of recovery’, still uncertainty was yet to give way to the confidence of the better days of up until 2006-07.

The latest entrant on the Legal Process Outsourcing horizon is the Southeast Asian archipelago nation of Philippines. The outsourcing industry in the country has seen an exponential growth over the past five years. As of today it is the second largest outsourcing destination in Asia, with first being India.