Integrity Legal

The legal profession is being transformed in more ways than one. The rise of the legal outsourcing industry has resulted in a substantial change to the way in which individuals and firms practice law. Meanwhile, American businesses are becoming increasingly assiduous in analyzing expenses related to legal services. No matter what can be said about the legal profession one thing is clear: simply being a lawyer, particularly a young lawyer, does not automatically mean that one will become wealthy, or, for that matter, even employed. In fact, by many estimates, the legal profession in the USA might not be as lucrative as once thought, at least for young law school graduates. In a recent New York Times article entitled “Is Law School a Losing Game?” writer  David Segal writes about the travails of recent law school grads and their activities after graduation. It was not an uplifting article for those aspiring American attorneys with visions of sports cars and six figure salaries dancing in their heads. To quote directly from the aforementioned article:

[T]he glut of diplomas, the dearth of jobs and those candy-coated employment statistics have now yielded a crop of furious young lawyers who say they mortgaged their future under false pretenses. You can sample their rage, and their admonitions, on what are known as law school scam blogs, with names like Shilling Me Softly, Subprime JD and Rose Colored Glasses.

Everyone hates lawyers…until they need one. This blogger, much like the members of the legal profession noted in the opening credits of the film The Rainmaker, loves lawyer jokes; but the profession of law in America is a noble undertaking and should be treated seriously especially by attorneys. This is why the economic impact of recent downturns upon the legal profession is so troubling. In order to practice law, prospective attorneys need to receive proper training and instruction in the law itself and the many ways in which it is applied. Furthermore, law school should be an exercise in learning about the law and the application thereof, not learning how to run a creative statistics racket. It would appear that some Law Schools view their role as one which is solely fixated upon the profit motive, often at the expense of the overall legal profession. For example, at a time when there are fewer legal jobs and more students going into deeper debt to obtain a Juris Doctorate of questionable utility under current market conditions shouldn’t law schools be making an effort to take less students? The more newly minted lawyers roll off the conveyor belt of academia, the more the demand for jobs goes up, but wait, the number of actual jobs is decreasing and yet the conveyor belts roll on.

In what is seemingly an effort to raise profits, those whose fortunes are attached to that of the legal education business seem to be reporting rosily on the prospects of newly minted law graduates notwithstanding the fact that the real world situation for newly licensed lawyers is rather bleak (for now). The New York Times article noted above went on:

But improbably enough, law schools have concluded that life for newly minted grads is getting sweeter, at least by one crucial measure. In 1997, when U.S. News first published a statistic called “graduates known to be employed nine months after graduation,” law schools reported an average employment rate of 84 percent. In the most recent U.S. News rankings, 93 percent of grads were working — nearly a 10-point jump.

In the Wonderland of these statistics, a remarkable number of law school grads are not just busy — they are raking it in. Many schools, even those that have failed to break into the U.S. News top 40, state that the median starting salary of graduates in the private sector is $160,000. That seems highly unlikely, given that Harvard and Yale, at the top of the pile, list the exact same figure.

How do law schools depict a feast amid so much famine?

“Enron-type accounting standards have become the norm,” says William Henderson of Indiana University, one of many exasperated law professors who are asking the American Bar Association to overhaul the way law schools assess themselves. “Every time I look at this data, I feel dirty.”

This situation is simply absurd. The Law Schools in the United States bloat the appearance of the post-graduate legal prospects in order to bring in more law students. Meanwhile, the legal profession itself is taking serious hits in terms of economics as more businesses in the United States begin using outsourcing services and the number of jobs in the legal profession declines. Again, to note the New York times Story:

Today, countless J.D.’s are paying their bills with jobs that have nothing do with the law, and they are losing ground on their debt every day. Stories are legion of young lawyers enlisting in the Army or folding pants at Lululemon. Or baby-sitting, like Carly Rosenberg, of the Brooklyn Law School class of 2009.

“I guess I kind of assumed that someone would hook me up with something,” she says. She has sent out 15 to 20 résumés a week since March, when she passed the bar. So far, nothing.

Jason Bohn is earning $33 an hour as a legal temp while strapped to more than $200,000 in loans, a sizable chunk of which he accumulated during his time at Columbia University, where he finished both a J.D. and a master’s degree.

The stories noted above are quite disturbing, but one thing should be brought to the reader’s attention: licensed lawyers, in good standing, can practice law in their jurisdiction, they do not need a “job”. This blogger finds it interesting that the so-called Millenials seem so transfixed by the idea of “jobs”. An attorney’s profession is his or her job. Therefore, those who cannot get on at a law firm could begin practicing law as a solo practitioner. When getting started, the pay is usually not so great and it is likely that one will not have clients lining up outside the office from day one, but it is, at least arguably; better than waiting by the phone or babysitting. Law Students and lawyers should look to unorthodox strategies for making money in law school and upon graduation. This blogger worked at a Casino as a part-time poker and blackjack dealer throughout law school and, illuminatingly, this was the only vocation offering employment upon graduation notwithstanding all of the supposed job offers which were to have materialized upon passage of the Bar examination.

Clearly, the machinations of US Law Schools, the American Bar Association, and U.S. News and World Report need to be addressed in such a way that post-Law School prospects are accurately reflected prior to matriculation, but fault can also be found in the Law students, and presumably eventual lawyers; themselves. Later in the article, the author went on to note that some students used student loans to finance all manner of, questionably useful, expenses. The author of the previously mentioned article noted one law student’s expenses:

[He] rented a spacious apartment. He also spent a month studying in the South of France and a month in Prague — all on borrowed money. There were cost-of-living loans, and tuition of about $33,000 a year. Later came a $15,000 loan to cover months of studying for the bar.

Today, his best guess is that he should be sending $2,000 to $3,000 a month in total, to lenders that include Wells Fargo, Citibank and Sallie Mae.

It is difficult to argue that this gentleman could choose to pay tuition since one cannot hope to ultimately receive a law degree without doing so, but common sense should at least tell the reader that studying American law in the South of France, on borrowed funds, is something less than an exercise in austerity. Also, the month in Prague looks more like a vacation than a pedagogical exercise since there is no mention of studying in that location. Furthermore, this author personally has never understood the necessity of a “bar exam loan”. While studying for the Bar examination, this blogger toyed with the notion of taking such a loan, but in the end the decision was made to simply continue working as much as possible, living as cheaply as possible (which included living back at home for a brief period), and trying to pass the bar as quickly as possible in order to move on.

Borrowing funds to study for the Bar examination is not irresponsible per se as some truly need such a loan in order to maintain themselves during the interim between law school graduation and bar exam passage, but those taking on more debt simply to study for the Arizona Bar examination in the South of France should perhaps rethink the logic of such a plan. Individuals thinking of doing taking a bar exam loan should analyze such an action before making an irrevocable decision especially since it is never a foregone conclusion that one will pass the bar on the first, or for that matter; any, attempt.  The limbo zone between Law School graduation and Bar passage is not an enjoyable place, but trips to the South of France and Prague do not seem to be in line with the usual legal curriculum.

As can be seen from this very interesting article, and those reading this post are well advised to read the whole thing for themselves, the practice of law and the legal profession are not recession-proof. However, some financial common sense on the part of law school applicants, students, graduates, and attorneys would likely lead to less stories of unemployed lawyers with a quarter million dollars in debt. That said, law schools really should be in the business of educating legal professionals and not devoted to “massaging” numbers to look good in U.S. News. Hopefully, some new statistical methods can be utilized by the ABA and U.S. News which will provide real insight to prospective law students about the actual prospects for new lawyers after law school and/or the bar examination rather than “pie in the sky” statistics used to inflate the public perception of one Law school over another.

For information about legal services in SouthEast Asia please see: Legal.

Tags: Bar Exam Loans, David Segal, Is Law School a Losing Game?, LAw SChool Loans, Legal Process Outsourcing, Legal Profession, Practice of Law, Student Loans
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This author is a frequent reader of the Economist magazine. The legal service industry was the main topic of an article printed in a recent issue. This article succinctly and truthfully got to the heart of a significant issue in the international legal community, that of Legal Process Outsourcing. The whole dynamic in the legal service community is changing as a result of the internet, world wide web, and the ramifications thereof. These ramifications are being felt in other industries as well, but they seem to be having the most interesting impact upon the legal service industry because the industry, or more precisely; profession if used in a more individualized sense, has not had to retool its customary payment structure or hierarchy for a relatively long period of time. To better understand the significance of this development one needs to read some passages from the online article itself:

Lawyers hate keeping track of their billable hours. Clients hate them even more; each month they receive bills showing that their legal representatives have worked improbably long hours at incredibly high rates. Billing by the hour often fails to align lawyers’ interests with their clients’. The chap in the wig or the white shoes has an incentive to spin things out for as long as possible. His client would rather win quickly and go home. Since there is clearly a demand for an alternative to the billable hour, you would expect someone to supply it. And indeed, this is starting to happen.

Many legal tasks, although not quite easy, are variations on a theme. The production of a certain document (such as a trademark registration) does not differ vastly from one instance to another… Automating the automatable stuff allows lawyers to spend more time talking to the client.

One of the most important aspects of an attorney’s (or lawyer’s) job is direct contact with clients, Courts, or government agencies. The more time that an attorney can devote to direct interactions which result in direct, immediate or long term, benefits to clients, the better. The more services that a lawyer can provide, the better. The more satisfied clients, the better. In short, if a strategy, service, system, or technology works, and it is legal and ethical; then an attorney or lawyer should take all reasonable measures to provide the best service required based upon the totality of the circumstances in a given case. As the technological advances in developed countries and developing countries continue creating new avenues for efficiency in the legal profession, the overall situation is having a collateral impact upon the very practice of law in many parts of the world:

More and more firms’ in-house lawyers, who typically hire and manage outside lawyers, have turned to alternatives to the billable hour since the beginning of the global recession in 2008. According to a survey by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), which represents companies’ in-house lawyers, 44% of members asked their lawyers for alternative billing to cut costs in 2009, more than any other cost-reducing measure. Susan Hackett, the ACC’s general counsel, says that just a few years ago what she calls “value-based” billing was only 3% of her members’ legal spending. Now, she says, surveys show the average client laying out between 15% and 30% of their legal spending this way.

The idea of so-called “value based” billing is an interesting one as this trend becomes increasingly prevalent. Many companies, individuals, and corporations have begun making increasingly informed decisions regarding the retention of legal counsel as many areas of the legal profession are becoming increasingly specialized in tandem with the demands of prospective clients. This sometimes requires attorneys and/or lawyers to practice law in a very narrow context. This can be problematic if over-specialization occurs and the lawyer finds their expertise is decreasingly in demand. Fortunately, a naturally occurring economic phenomenon in combination with recent advances in technology will hopefully see to it that lawyers and attorneys maintain diverse and highly unique areas of expertise across a field of areas while being able to provide advice and counsel for an increasingly large and novel set of practice areas. The aforementioned naturally occurring economic phenomenon is: The Long Tail. For those unfamiliar with this as an economic concept, it may be best to provide a quote from Wikipedia on the subject:

The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a ‘normal’ or Gaussian distribution. The term has gained popularity in recent times as a retailing concept describing the niche strategy of selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities…

The Long Tail’s statistical property noted above can also apply in a service context and this author would dare say that the ramifications in terms of demand for increasingly novel services in increasingly novel fields is astounding as more consumers (or prospective clients) demand services which did not even exist in the very recent past. This property can be extremely beneficial to those in the legal profession as demand for legal services will be further reinforced by the differing aspects of the laws and statutes in various jurisdictions. These statutory and structural legal differences can be explored for further efficiency in an international trade and business context. As the long tail continues to further stratify consumer demand, client needs will continue to evolve, thereby leading to new avenues for further expansion for legal service providers. By sorting out the issue of legal fee payment in an efficient manner law firms in the future can reap the rewards of new opportunities in the interstate, supranational, regional, and international business communities. Then, lawyers and/or attorneys can focus on providing cutting edge legal service while the client can enjoy more reasonable fee structures which accurately reflect the costs of an attorney’s, time, advice, and expertise. A final note from the Economist article may put it most succinctly:

Both sides can then focus on the case at hand, rather than the bill.

This is important to note as most attorneys or other legal professionals prefer practicing law or providing services to discussing fees. Although all can understand that fees are required before services can be rendered, many legal professionals feel that fee negotiation with clients is not an effective use of time compared to time spent actually providing services to clients. Therefore, the increasingly innovative legal services that are being required as the long tail reshapes the business world will provide innumerable benefits to legal service firms world wide while providing clients’ with peace of mind in knowing that bills will not become unreasonable nor will the level of service suffer due to lack of specific expertise in a given area.

For related information please see: ecommerce law.

Tags: E-Commerce, E-Commerce Attorney, E-Commerce Law, E-Commerce Lawyer, Ecommerce, Ecommerce Attorney, Ecommerce law, Ecommerce Lawyer, ECommerce Long Tail, Legal Process Outsourcing, Legal Processing, legal processing abroad, legal processing offshore, legal processing overseas, Legal Service Outsourcing, Long Tail, Long Tail Demand, Long Tail E-Commerce, Long Tail Ecommerce, Long Tail Economics, Long Tail Services, LPO, Offshore Legal Processing, Online Legal Service, The Long Tail
Posted in Ecommerce, General Legal Information, Legal Opinion, Legal Process Outsourcing, News, Thailand Business, US Business | 1 Comment »

Legal Process Outsourcing has been a major issue in the international legal community recently. This author is of the personal opinion that the legal process outsourcing industry will have a positive overall impact upon the American legal profession as increased efficiency will allow attorneys to provide more services to more clients in many jurisdictions, both in the United States of America and abroad. The following quote is from another American lawyer who became involved in legal process outsourcing through his experiences in India:

I’m one of those U.S. lawyers who outsourced themselves to India. I did not do it for lack of a job elsewhere. I’m a Columbia Law graduate and one of the founding partners of a successful New York and London based media law firm. I went to India enthusiastically, to take part in a much-needed revolution in the way legal services are delivered in the West.

Imagine a new legal landscape where high-quality services are affordable. Imagine deals getting done, because the attorneys don’t kill them, with overlawyering and overcharging. Contemplate court cases and other disputes being resolved on their merits, rather than simply on the basis of whether one side cannot or will not pay the absurdly high costs of litigation. Think about legal professionals located in places that suit the interests of clients, rather than in the most expensive parts of the most expensive cities in the world. Consider the resultant savings when legal bills are based on services, not real estate. Envision deals and cases staffed by the most talented and enthusiastic lawyers available. Open your mind to the possibility that some of those lawyers are in India. I know from experience that they are.

And consider the fact that this kind of outsourcing actually creates more legal jobs in the West, rather than cutting them. Every time a deal is done, or a litigation is waged, because legal services are suddenly affordable, it means more work for the Western lawyers involved in supervision, editing, negotiating, and/or appearing in court. This is not only a dream. It is happening every day, thanks to legal outsourcing…

The notion that outsourcing may create more jobs may seem somewhat counter intuitive at first blush, but after careful thought many will note that the reasoning behind the assertion is sound. Legal process outsourcing is likely to increase in the near future. This increase will probably result in new efficiencies being discovered which will then increase processing efficiency further. Meanwhile, lawyers in the United States will be freed up to handle more pressing matters than routine processing issues. This should thereby allow attorneys to take on more clients which, in turn, benefits the American attorney through increased revenue in the form of consulting fees.

Although legal process outsourcing promises many benefits, there are concerns among many about confidentiality issues and effective processing. Those worried about efficiency often worry that non-US attorneys cannot handle processing tasks as efficiently as their American counterparts. In reality, this is generally not the case as many foreign trained attorneys have the requisite skills to provide legal processing services to attorneys in the United States as an attorney in the USA can oversee the work and ensure that quality work product is produced.

Those concerned about confidentiality issues are prudent to take this issue into consideration. However, with advances in technology the so-called “chain of confidentiality” from the client to the American attorney to the outsourcing firm can be maintained at relatively minimal cost. However, ethical attorneys must take measures to ensure that client interests are protected at all times.

For related information please see: Legal.

Tags: American Lawyer, American Legal Outsourcing, chain of confidentiality, India, International Legal Processing, Legal, Legal News, Legal Outsourcing, Legal Process Outsource, Legal Process Outsourcing, legal processing abroad, legal processing offshore, LPO, LPO India, Outsourcing Legal Processing
Posted in Legal Process Outsourcing | 1 Comment »

With the rise of the Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) Industry it is increasingly imperative that firms and individuals in the United States conduct due diligence in order to fully ascertain the credentials of those handling legal processing tasks offshore. There are many jurisdictions in which the legal profession is relatively young. As a result, there are relatively few rules and regulations regarding those individuals and companies which operate in areas that may be considered within the bailiwick of legal practitioners in the United States of America.

For American firms, proficiency in the English language is a major asset that is often assiduously sought when trying to find a legal process outsourcing service abroad. Furthermore, those overseas firms with staff who have fluency in both English and other languages can provide significant benefits to law firms in the United States handling cases in multiple international and interstate jurisdictions. That said,  language proficiency is not the only important attribute of a foreign legal processing service. There are many other aspects of a firm that must be examined before making a decision to retain legal processing services.

For those unfamiliar with the legal process outsourcing industry it has been growing in recent years due to consumer, corporate, and practitioner demands for faster and more efficient legal processing. Furthermore, many law firms in the United States are increasingly seeing the benefits of affordable legal processing services provided by competent legal firms abroad. In the vast majority of factual scenarios, the work of a practicing attorney cannot be effectively replicated through mere usage of a legal processing service, but an individual American attorney (or attorneys) could achieve large economies of scale in a practice area by utilizing the efficient and reasonably priced legal services of foreign legal processing professionals.

Although the “common law” system is not ubiquitous around the globe, this system of adjudicating cases is used by many jurisdictions throughout the world. Countries such as India have a long history of common law jurisprudence. Many legal processing firms in India can complete legal processing tasks faster and more efficiently than similar services in the United States and other English speaking countries.

As the world becomes increasingly “smaller” through globalization there is strong evidence to suggest that more countries will be doing business in and around Asia. Those with business in Asia often find that legal services are a necessity. Assistance is especially effective where the firm can provide reasonably priced legal services in both English and those languages used with great frequency throughout Asia such as: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Vietnamese.

For information related to this post please see: Legal.

Tags: Law Firm Abroad, Legal, Legal Process Outsourcing, Legal Processing, Legal Processing Issues, legal processing offshore, LPO, Overseas Law Firm
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At first glance, the rise of legal process outsourcing services might seem like a detriment to the legal profession in the United States of America. In this author’s opinion this is not the case as legal process outsourcing is a natural and organic by-product of gloablization and will likely lead to more demand for legal services both in the United States and throughout the world. This increasing demand should result in new business for American attorneys in the United States and abroad. This demand is likely to increase on both a local and international level as new technologies and methods of doing business create new demands for legal services.

One of the reasons that this trend is so important is due to the fact that legal process outsourcing is poised to change the very nature of legal service. Many are accustomed to the notion of a “Brick and Mortar” law office, but, like many other fields, “Brick and Mortar” enterprises are being replaced by more flexible and adaptable legal service providers that can quickly adapt to client needs and requirements. Mobile technologies and high speed internet makes it likely that flexible legal processing solutions will be sought out by more individuals and businesses in the future. That said, there are many ethical considerations that must be dealt with as legal service becomes a globalized industry. The American Bar Association has provided some insight into the ethics of legal process outsourcing, to quote directly from the ABA’s Formal Opinion on the subject of legal process outsourcing:

There is nothing unethical about a lawyer outsourcing legal and nonlegal services, provided the outsourcing lawyer renders legal services to the client with the “legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation,” as required by Rule 1.1. Comment [1] to Rule 1.1 further counsels:

In determining whether a lawyer employs the requisite knowledge and skill in a particular matter, relevant factors include the relative complexity and specialized nature of the matter, the lawyer’s general experience, the lawyer’s training and experience in the field in question, the preparation and study the lawyer is able to give the matter and whether it is feasible to refer the matter to, or associate or consult with, a lawyer of established competence in the field in question. There is no unique blueprint for the provision of competent legal services. Different lawyers may perform the same tasks through different means, all with the necessary “legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation.”One lawyer may choose to do all of the work herself. Another may delegate
tasks to a team of subordinate lawyers and nonlegal staff. Others may decide to outsource tasks to independent service providers that are not within their direct control. Rule 1.1 does not require that tasks be accomplished in any special way. The rule requires only that the lawyer who is responsible to the client satisfies her obligation to render legal services competently.

The above cited passage should not be construed as definitive. Those interested in the ethical issues arising from legal process outsourcing should read the above cited opinion in detail to obtain a deeper insight into all of the ramifications of legal process outsourcing.

In this author’s opinion, the demand for legal services in America is going to increase exponentially as more individuals and companies begin conducting business on the internet. This will lead to an increasing demand for adaptable, creative, and innovative legal services that can be provided with alacrity by American firms utilizing outsourced legal processing services. Law firms in the 21st century must be prepared to provide clients with fast effective legal service in a relatively short period of time. The upside of legal process outsourcing is that it frees up time for American attorneys to provide evermore streamlined services to increasing numbers of clients.

For related information about the impact of the internet upon legal services please see: Ecommerce.

Tags: Ecommerce, Ecommerce law, ethical legal process outsourcing, Integrity Legal Processing, Legal Process Outsourcing, Legal Processing, legal processing abroad, legal processing India, legal processing offshore, legal processing outside of the USA, legal processing overseas, Online Legal Services, Outsourced Legal Processing
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The spread of Ecommerce is one of the major business trends of the past 15 years. As the internet and world wide web have become ubiquitous throughout the world the international economy has seen an overall increase in sales of goods and services over the internet. Communications technology has allowed online businesses, big and small, the opportunity to deal with customers directly. However, many once settled legal issues are the topic of much discussion in legal circles as the multi-jurisdictional nature of the world wide web has completely changed the landscape of international trade and commerce.

An example of the legal paradigm shift in contract law can be seen in the drafting of so-called “Terms of Service” Agreements or TOS agreements. These types of agreements are becoming increasingly common as more social and business interaction occurs online. TOS agreements generally stipulate the type of services that will be provided by a website, or network of websites. Furthermore, the TOS agreement usally stipulates what type of conduct will be permitted on a given platform and the type of conduct which may give rise to a termination of services. Some in the legal community feel that usage of Terms of Service Agreements (TOS Agreements) is likely to increase in the foreseeable future. However, the increased usage of such agreements is likely to occur in countries which may not use English as a primary language. This is particularly the case in emerging markets where the language of courts and tribunals is not necessarily English. This will likely lead to an increasing demand for legal professionals from non-English speaking countries to assist in the drafting of TOS agreements. How non-English speaking courts view these types of agreements remains to be seen in some jurisdictions, but this author has little doubt that drafting of TOS agreements will be increasingly necessary as global ecommerce increases in markets such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, India, China, Africa, Brazil, Greater South America, and Oceania.

Transactional Law is a key component of ecommerce as usage of credit cards and other online financial instruments has increased exponentially with the spread of the world wide web. As established payment platforms grow and new payment platforms come into existence, the role of legal professionals will change dramatically as lawyers and attorneys are likely to be sought to assist in both the structuring of online payment platforms and drafting of documents ancillary to online payment for goods and services. Specialized legal counsel may be necessary for e-businesses, depending upon the structure of a given online enterprise and its payment platform.

As the needs of international business evolves so too will the services provided by legal professionals. As the internet creates new opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs, lawyers and attorneys will likely be providing ever more innovative legal solutions for Ecommerce business owners, managers, and professionals.

For related information about the rise of outsourced legal processing services please see: Legal Process Outsourcing.

Tags: Attorney, E-Business, E-Law, EBusiness, Ecommerce, Ecommerce law, Lawyer, Legal Process Outsourcing, Online Attorney, Online Business, Online Contracts, Online Law, Online Law Firm, Online Lawyer, Online Payment Platform, Online Payment Platform Law, Online Payment Platform Setup, Online Transactions, Terms of Service, Terms of Service Agreement, TOS
Posted in Ecommerce, Legal Process Outsourcing | No Comments »