Legal outsourcing firms based in India are creating jobs for US lawyers in a new trend, according to the New York Times. US based employees of legal outsourcing firms describe their working environment as “truly global”.

In April, Pangea3 sent Kirit Amichandwala, a senior manager from Mumbai, to train new employees in Texas on how to conduct document reviews and other tasks the way the company’s lawyers do in India. The new hires ‘all have good document review experience,’ Mr. Amichandwala said, ‘but a lot of the processes we follow are pretty unique to us.’

Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

The “unique” processes are certainly related to Indian culture, which inform the Indian way of business: indirect norms of communication, intensive management of tasks, hierarchical decision making and beyond. Through the process of what we might call “modernization”, many technologies and methodologies have been transferred from West to East, but knowledge transfer for these firms has gone in the opposite direction. In a way, Mr. Amichandwala went to Texas to conduct a pseudo-intercultural awareness program for his American trainees – a key step in preparing a company for success with colleagues working across cultures.

One of Pangea3’s main competitors, UnitedLex, has started regularly swapping teams of lawyers between the United States and India so that employees in both countries can learn to work the same way.

The big challenge is ‘how do you get a bunch of American lawyers to believe that we might be doing things smarter’ by using a process developed in India, said Shelly Dalrymple, senior vice president for global litigation support at UnitedLex.

One American law firm was so won over that it asked a UnitedLex document review manager from India to train its own team in Boston, Ms. Dalrymple said.

The crossing of cultures in the legal world will likely be fraught with the same challenges BPO and other offshoring companies have found in working with its Western clients. It will be interesting to see how this industry continues to expand operations in the US, creating jobs when for years it took jobs.

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

According to the New York Times, outsourcing legal services to India has grown in the past few years, and is poised to expand at an even faster rate in coming years.

Cash-conscious Wall Street banks, mining giants, insurance firms and industrial conglomerates are hiring lawyers in India for document review, due diligence, contract management and more.

Legal outsourcing firms are also hiring experienced lawyers from Western countries to handle more complicated projects, something many lawyers would not consider in prior years based on a general aversion to outsourcing legal work and relocation to India. The article highlights the challenges of moving to India and working with Indians:

Moving to a legal outsourcing firm, especially in India, is not for everyone. About 5 percent of Western transplants cannot handle it and move back home, managers estimate.

Some find it hard to adapt to India. Other times, the job itself does not suit them — after spending years working nearly independently as a litigator, for example, it can be hard to transition to managing and inspiring a team of young foreign lawyers.

Cultural preparation is supremely important to living and working in a new culture. While many people are inherently suited to assignments in countries around the world, the vast majority of people won’t be equipped with the skills to succeed without sufficient intercultural training. How will this new trend impact internal needs for cultural training? The article predicts legal outsourcing will climb to over $1 billion in revenue by 2014. What are organizations doing to support global initiatives like this? What are the challenges of virtual, global teams that span time zone differences of 10 hours or more and cultural, linguistic and religious barriers?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard