I for one am surprised this hasn’t happened sooner, but outsourcing administrative
and staff functions—if not yet paralegal and even attorney
functions—just
got a high-visibility boost from the entry of Hildebrandt consulting
into the sector. They’ll be partnering with OfficeTiger,
a firm with 1,600 staffers primarily in Chennai, India, that has
already signed up firms the likes of Allen & Overy and Milbank. As
I said, so far it’s staff only, but Mindcrest,
another India-based firm founded by a former McGuire-Woods partner,
also is gaining traction in the outsourcing sector by providing U.S.-trained
Indian lawyers at rates one-fifth to one-half that of their domestic
U.S. counterparts.
But will lawyers really suffer the perceived loss of control?
Dennis D’Alessandro, executive director of Dewey-Ballantine, says
it’s premature as far as his firm is concerned. So could it
happen down the road? Pithily, he admits that more and more
firms might try it, and once that happens, "It’s a herd mentality."
Personally, I think the high-end law firms will hold out longer
than the outsourcing evangelists predict. I say this with great
fondness, but in candid recognition of the combination
of pride, culture, control, and plain old experience—law
firms have been late adopters of almost every technological,
economic, and managerial innovation, so why should outsourcing be
different?
Instead, I predict the steep adoption curve will be elsewhere: In
sophisticated in-house departments.
