Get Yourself A Lawyer From India

Would you like to user a less expensive lawyer from India? Pangea3 is a legal firm that has entered in this legal outsourcing business in India, which according to some estimates riches to $640 million dollars. Studious, young employees in costume tailor or are aligned in front of rows of flat screens. All lawyers are paid between 300 and 500 euros per month, the equivalent of three or four hours of consultation with a colleague in the United States. They form the new battalion of subcontracting in India: that of legal services.

According to the ValueNotes firm based in India, the sector is expected to generate $ 640 million in sales and employ 24 000 people in 2010. Unlike their elders computers, subcontractors for legal services benefit from the crisis. "Between the disputes arising from the financial crisis, calls for bankruptcy and budgets revised downwards, contracts rain," says Kamlan Sanjay, a founder of Pangea3.

The pioneer of the sector is an American company, General Electric, who in 2001 employed a lawyer to help India to draw up contracts with its customers. In the first year, the company saves $ 500 000. Microsoft followed the address for legal issues relating to the protection of its patents. In 2008, the company saved $ 6.5 million in Bangalore by relocating some of its lawyers.

Today, law firms or legal departments of companies Anglo-Saxon and Asian, reduce their costs by 50% to 80% by outsourcing part of their activities. Often, only the simpler tasks are carried out: legal research, which includes the review of hundreds of contracts, essential before buying a business, intellectual property law, the analysis of thousands of electronic documents in the case of disputes and finally, the drafting of contracts. Confidentiality is important. In the confidential rooms, where sensitive information is kept, only employees working on the project are admitted through a system of fingerprint recognition.

In addition to its low wages, India speaks the same language as its customers, and uses the same legal system, that of the common law.

Since its inception in 2004, Pangea3 has increased from 15 to 300 employees. "We will select the best in us making camp directly on us," says Sanjay Kamlan. Over 100 000 law graduates leaving universities each year.

Companies subcontracting of legal services do not work with their clients from only in Indian offices. "The more complex tasks require geographic proximity. So when the need comes the lawyers travel to Europe and America for a more close consultation.

The turn may be the public's. Would you hire a lawyer from India?

Translated from a story from LeMonde.fr.