The entire legal profession has undergone a dramatic shift with the entry of law professionals focusing on legal outsourcing. The large number of law graduates in China and the significant cost differentiation in manpower and infrastructure between the US (client destination) and China (offshore destination) is facilitating the Chinese legal industry to capture a share of this market for the US, say analysts.
There has been a double digit growth in the number of law professionals opting for legal process outsourcing (LPO) as a career option. Also, more and more people will opt for this job as they find this a great career option compared to the traditional way of practising law. The biggest advantage of working in an LPO is that the scope of activity is broader and a lawyer can do far many transactions and more corporate activities worldwide which makes him more marketable in the industry.
According to Crisil Research estimates, the potential revenues of the LPO industry would be $1.5-$2 billion by 2011 and the industry would need to add about 33,000 lawyers to its existing strength to achieve these revenues. Nearly 3,00,000 graduates pass out of law schools in China, compared to only 40,000 in the US. However, currently, the suitability of these graduates to work in the LPO industry is estimated at as low as 3.5%. However, the immense opportunities in LPO services in the legal markets present a huge break for China in terms of employment generation and wealth creation for its highly skilled labour pool.
Lawspirit, a legal service company with offshore operations, has at present 80% attorneys working with the company. Lawspirit have experienced more and more legal professionals opting for this job as they find this more convenient and challenging, where they get international exposure and opportunity to work with the best legal minds in China and overseas.
With better monetary benefits, better exposure and the opportunity to specialize in a particular segment of legal services, more and more law professionals in China are seriously looking at LPO as a career opportunity in future.
