LEGAL SOLUTIONS AT 'EASE'

LEGAL SOLUTIONS AT ‘EASE’
The legal industry has seen a sea of change with Legal Process Outsourcing emerging as a necessity for legal departments and law firms to cut costs and stay competitive. After the laudatory BPO success, India, with its huge pool of English speaking and common law system trained lawyers, is treading fast toward becoming the global leader in the LPO sector, and by 2015, the LPO sector is expected to be worth $3 billion with India stealing 60% of the market.
Legal services continue to be less affordable with law firms increasing their billable rates every year in the Western nations. Especially in the US, global corporations are realizing that in order to survive heavy competition, the need of the hour is to keep their legal costs tight, while continuing to combat the increasing amount of litigation they face. In order to face this challenge, Legal profession as such is undergoing a transition, depending heavily on LPOs for support. At this juncture, LegalEase has gained timely market recognition as the leading LPO provider.
LegalEase Solutions is a Michigan based legal outsourcing company with significant experience and expertise in the legal and business fields. The company began its operation in India with 5 employees at Cochin in November, 2005. At present, LegalEase has three offices world-wide, in Michigan, Chennai and Cochin, and has clients in 38 States in US, in Canada and the U.K. The company’s clientele includes experienced solo practitioners, reputed law firms, major automobile manufacturing companies, insurance companies, Fortune 500 and Global 2000 legal departments, large legal auditing and analysis firms etc.
To quote Tariq Hafeez, the Founder cum President of and General Counsel for LegalEase Solutions LLC, “our mission is to help lawyers and departments become more competitive, efficient and cost effective by providing high quality, accurate and affordable legal products and services. Further, the company aims at making a difference in the global communities it operates by providing opportunity and leveraging our expertise in the legal field to make a social impact.”
LegalEase offers various legal technology products and support via its strategic partnerships which include:
· Legal research and writing
· Transactional work
· Document review
· Litigation support
According to Tariq Akbar, CEO of LegalEase, “there are enough reasons why the clients can expect top notch quality from the company. LegalEase uses a blended model to provide its services. Experienced US attorneys control all projects through their lifecycles while Indian offices provide them with all support they might need. Attorneys in India are given intensive training on US law and use of online tools such as Lexis Nexis before any work is allotted to them. Once the work is done by the Indian attorneys, the finished product is reviewed by the US attorneys. All products citing case law will be accompanied by a list of shepardized cases so that one can always be certain that the cases are good law. Further, all information from clients is collected using standardized templates and exchanged via secure encrypted mail, avoiding any concern over security issues.”
A recent research memo prepared by LegalEase on the recognition of UK bankruptcy judgment in Canada speaks volumes on how big a role LPOs like LegalEase can play in the global legal scenario. The Legal Memorandum prepared by LegalEase facilitated a speedy out-of-court settlement between a divorced UK citizen, declared as bankrupt by the UK bankruptcy court, and a Canadian lady, in a suit filed by the lady before the Canadian court. The Canadian law firm representing the husband contacted LegalEase US, which in turn, sent the matter to its office in India. Though the case presented uneasy factual conundrum where the subject matter was intertwined by the laws of two independent sovereign nations, LegalEase managed to prepare the research memo in a quick turnaround time of 4 working days. The research finding by LegalEase practically sealed the opposite party’s case since statutes and precedents provided ample authority for recognition of UK bankruptcy judgment in Canada. Interestingly, reading the memo prepared by LegalEase Solutions, the opposite party opted for an out-of-court settlement. In an industry where time is money, it is amazing that a Legal Outsourcing Company could provide premium legal support solutions like this to busy lawyers in record time. Obviously, LPO’s like LegalEase can afford the top notch technology and make use of talents worldwide.
LegalEase’s progress has been the result of a concerted effort of the company’s employees, management, Board of Advisors, and especially clients, for their continuing faith in the quality of the legal support provided by the company. According to Seema Sarathkumar, Associate, LegalEase, Cochin, “At LegalEase, training is not just provided at the beginning, but is an ever-going process.” “At LegalEase, we work together as a family, upholding our motto, “Think Forward; Think One” which helps us stay focused on what we do, and interestingly, the company probably has the lowest rate of employee attrition among Indian LPOs” says Pooja Mohan, Manager of Operations, LegalEase, Cochin.
In this era, where legal profession is set for a major change, LPOs like LegalEase have a promising future. The clients started realizing that they can get better legal service from LPOs at a much lower cost than that of traditional law firms. LPO is emerging as an attractive proposition not only for outside corporations, but also for domestic entrepreneurs. Commoditization and standardization of legal services being the modern ‘mantra’, LPOs can play a much bigger role in the coming years.
The time is not far when LPOs like LegalEase, with its judicious blending of legal cost with time, productivity and quality, come to the forefront of the mind of clients when they seek quality legal service. The client testimonials underscore the progress that LegalEase has made so far in the industry. Clients have begun to perceive LPOs as future legal support providers, and indeed, we look forward to the future and move ahead, with elan.

MANOJ.P.M.
(The author holds Masters Degree in Commercial Law and is presently working as Junior Associate at Legalease Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. Cochin.)