IAOP Chapter: Legal Outsourcing

Next Meeting planned for July/August 2009!

The next meeting of the IAOP Legal Outsourcing Chapter, chaired by Mark Ross of LawScribe, Inc, will be collaborated with the Southern California Chapter, chaired by Nick Owen of PA Consulting Group.  Program details are in the works for a meeting in Q4 of 2009.

Stay tuned for more details!

IAOP Members:  To register for the upcoming meeting, please email our chapter coordinator at amanda.corbett@outsourcingprofessional.org

 
If you are not as yet a member of IAOP and would like a guest pass for this meeting, please request a Guest Pass.

 IAOP Members:

Click here and login  to download past meeting presentations for all IAOP chapters.

Meeting held - December 10, 2008

The third Legal Outsourcing webinar chaired by LawScribe, Inc was  held on Wednesday, December 10 from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm (EST). 

Chapter chair Mark Ross introduced Patrick J. Hatfield of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP, recognized authority on drafting and negotiating BPO and LPO agreements, who spoke on the topic of “The Legal Outsourcing Agreement and Key Terms to Include.”  Whether it is your law firm or your law department engaging in LPO resources, this session identified some key terms to include in the agreement.  For the law firm, why the typical engagement letter may not be enough and for the law department, why the engagement letter with the LPO firm or the law firm using LPO resources should include more than the usual terms.

The program continued with Tariq Hafeez of LegalEase Solutions who spoke on the topic of “What Not to Outsource.”  He covered an overview of the types of legal functions that are currently being outsourced and what not to outsource from a client and LPO Provider’s perspective.

Meeting held – July 16, 2008

The second Legal Outsourcing Chapter webinar, chaired by LawScribe, Inc, was held on Wednesday, July 16, 2008.

Chapter chair, Mark Ross provided an introduction of the IAOP Legal Outsourcing Chapter as well as the expert panelists who spoke to the topic of “Legal Outsourcing: A Practical Perspective.” It was a great opportunity to delve beyond the rhetoric and obtain a practical understanding of where the legal outsourcing industry currently stands plus gain insight from real life case studies shared by legal process outsourcing “buyers” and “providers.”

The webinar began with insight into “Document Review” and “Patent Support” delivered by Arun Jethlamani and Neeraja Kandala of Value Notes.

Next, Connie Brenton, Assistant General Counsel for Sun Microsystems, provided an in-depth case study which dealt with Sun’s decision to “offshore” a large-scale document review project, from the search for the provider through the RFP process and concluded with Sun’s analysis of the projects outcome. 

Lastly, Anthony DeJohn, U.S. Attorney and LawScribe Vice President of Intellectual Property, presented a client case study that related specifically to a leading technology company’s decision to outsource offshore all their patent searching activities.  The case study included an examination of the practical requirements incumbent on the client corporation to ensure full compliance with the U.S. Export Control Regulations as they impact on the export of technological information.

Inaugural Meeting held November 7, 2007

The inaugural Meeting of IAOP’s Legal Outsourcing Chapter took place via webinar on Wednesday, November 7, 2007.

The topic for the first meeting was:  Legal Outsourcing:  2007 and Beyond, and included:

- An Overview of the Legal Outsourcing Marketplace  in 2007

- BPO Entry into the LPO Marketplace

Future meetings will cover a wide variety of legal issues related to  outsourcing, and not simply those confined to the Legal Process  Outsourcing arena. Possible future meeting subjects for discussion may  include:

- Topical discussion around key terms within outsourcing contracts  where there is obfuscation, confusion or conflicts (e.g. Intellectual  Property Rights in BPO, Limitation of liability as a result of privacy  act violation, safe-harbor act provisions)

- Lessons learned from negotiating sessions

 - Global agreements and terms that affect a global agreement (e.g. enforcement of judgment in another country, IP rights, local laws and  their impact on agreement - supersedence)

The primary purpose of the IAOP Legal Outsourcing Topic Chapter is to provide a platform for Legal Outsourcing solution providers, clients, potential clients and other interested parties operating or intending on operating within the emerging Legal Outsourcing space to share ideas, concepts, practical guidelines and contacts with each other. This should allow for the commencement of discussions among providers and clients aimed at developing an industry-wide recognized standard and accreditation program through IAOP, which will assist in improving the performance of both existing and future Legal Outsourcing relationships. Once established, the Chapter members will also consider the institution of a Global Legal Qualification for attorneys employed by Legal Process Outsourcing companies.