Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) In China

Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) refers specifically to the current trend of law firms or corporations in obtaining their legal advice and support services from an external law firm or company. When this occurs in conjunction with an outsourced entity based in a country other than that of the company seeking to outsource, the practice is known as 'offshoring'. 

Legal Outsourcing, or Offshoring, has gained remarkable credence during the past several years, both in the United States and the UK. The majority of Legal Outsourcing companies are presently located in India and the Philippines, and which have achieved high levels of success in providing such services as document review, legal background research and writing, drafting of pleas and briefs, and also in patent services outsourcing through Intellectual Property Offices (IPO) submissions. In recent years, China too has made great strides in developing its' legal training and development infrastructure, and continues to do so. For example, there now exists the China-EU School of Law (www.cesl.edu.cn) in Beijing, and which is a joint project between the Chinese Government and the EU. Presently the CESL, as it is known, offers both Masters and Ph. D programmes. Presently, India has about 37% of the World's outsourced services, whilst China is now on the rise with around 10%. Advantages.

1.      Access to a much larger labour pool at lower costs.

2.      A reduction in legal costs of anywhere between 30% and 70%, and thereby allowing firms to reap large cost savings.

3.      LPO also means that one can have round-the-clock services, due to time differences, and projects can be completed over night, so to speak.

4.      Greater flexibility, as companies utilise a combination of off-shore and on-shore legal talent to enhance cost savings and also relieving the stress of demands on the business.

Disadvantages.

1.      Offshoring work to foreign markets introduces certain cultural and language barriers that may encumber communications between both onshore and offshore teams.

2.      Outsourcing sensitive legal information across the globe inevitably gives the vendors with whom you're working access to confidential information. There are those who contend that in sending legal work overseas, this constitutes a waiver of the attorney-client privilege because the U.S. government monitors cross-border communications, and foreign countries lack the privacy rights afforded by the U.S. Constitution.

3.      It has been noted that a number of outsourcing ventures fail due to indistinct expectations, poor vendor responsiveness, and a general lack of understanding and ineffective governance over the process. Those companies with multi-shore operations must dedicate both time and resources in the management of their offshore relationships, and thus diverting attention from core business functions.

4.      In some instances, hidden costs might undermine the cost benefits of outsourcing work overseas. Hidden costs include vendor management, quality control, contract management, employee turnover, vendor profit margins and increased operational costs.

5.      Relinquishing control of complex legal processes to a party across the globe can result in a loss of managerial control over people and processes. The practice of employing remote workers also can increase certain costs such as travel and training.

However, having  a representative you can trust in the country where your Off-shore vendor is, and who can work the relationship for you, and keep ahead of the game, can mitigate all such issues described above. We at Your China Trading Partner know the East and we know the West; we know your expectations, and we can clarify them and put them across eloquently and succinctly to your Chinese LPO vendor. It is, therefore, our pleasure to assist you in your search for legal service vendors in Beijing, that Your China Trading Partner provide you with our LPO- Beijing, China directory of companies, and individuals, in the legal services sector guide. The materials in the Your China Trading Partner, LPO - Beijing, China directory of companies, and individuals, in the legal services sector guide, are provided without express or implied warranty of any kind. 

We have no relationships, and receive no monies or other form of remuneration for including those companies and individuals you will find in the PDF document on our website. 

If you run your own search in Google you'll find more or less the same information. We have simply collected and collated it for you as a customer service. 

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