Knowledge Services

The legal profession around the world is not confined to the courtroom anymore. The new generation lawyers in collaboration with technical experts are designing several automation tools to enhance productivity, reduce cost and generate revenue. Automation tools are used for a range of legal services ranging from legal searches, contract management, document review, process automation, e-discovery and intellectual property, etc.

The US and UK had Westlaw, LexisNexis and Bloomberg law as leading search engine tools for a long time, making life easier for  lawyers and law students alike. Law information product movement in India started with the introduction of Grand JURIX in early 90s, followed closely by Manupatra and LexisNexis India.

For decades, Westlaw and LexisNexis kept serious competitors away, but with the launch of Bloomberg Law in US, the scenario has changed. Bloomberg not only provides lawyers with primary legal content but also enables them to monitor their clients' businesses by harmoniously integrating law and news, making it more lucrative than its competitors. However, Bloomberg still has strong competitors in Westlaw and LexisNexis as these two companies have been used by law firms and schools around the world since a very long time.

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In India, Manupatra has been more popular than its competitors, LexisNexis India and Westlaw India because of being the first online Indian legal tool. However, it's only a matter of time before Westlaw and LexisNexis take over the Indian legal software market as well with their superior technical knowhow and ability to make continual investments. The latest entry in the Indian market is the Legal Information Institute of India (LII of India) which is a free legal portal on Indian legislations, treaties and case laws, with the aim of free access to law movement throughout the world.

Since 2002, the International Criminal Court started a series of electronic legal services project known as Legal Tools project. The aim was to provide a comprehensive collection of resources relevant to international criminal law, combining modern technologies into the investigation, adjudication, prosecution and defense of complex international crimes. The UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), with the aim of facilitating effective implementation of international drug control and organized crime treaties has also developed a variety of legal tools such as the mock trial case training tool, the mutual legal assistance request writer tool and the omnibus survey software .

At present there are several tools in US such as, FASTDRAFT 1.3, MASTERDRAFT 2.0, NOVADOCS 2.0 and SCRIVENER 3.2, etc., which have been developed to help in computer-aided document drafting and document assembly.

Many lawyers have wanted technological revolution to take place in the legal profession. The lawyers today have a better understanding of software tools and technology and therefore are able to collaborate with software developers to develop relevant technology and lower costs. Law firms and lawyers that are able to take advantage of these technology interventions will be able to serve their clients better by lowering costs and significantly increasing their productivity, thereby serving their clients better.

Sources:

1. http://www.unodc.org

2. http://www.icc-cpi.int

3. http://www.westlawinternational.com

4. http://www.lexisnexis.com

5. http://www.ejurix.com

6. http://www.bloomberg.com

7. http://en.wikipedia.org

Posted by Sandhya Singh at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Consumer Protection Act of 1986 ("Act") is a benevolent piece of social legislation. The Act was enacted so that it could be developed into a very useful social legislation that safeguards the rights and protection of the consumers. The Act aims to provide speedy, inexpensive and summary redressal of consumer disputes by superseding traditional common law rule of 'CAVEAT EMPTOR' (i.e. Let the buyer be aware) and adopting 'CAVEAT VENDATOR' (i.e. Let the vendor be aware). This is an attempt to shed light on the present scenario of the consumers in India.

The Act provides four-tier structure consisting of the Supreme Court, National Commission, State Commission and the District Forum. These authorities have readily interpreted consumer usage terms in favor of consumers.  The Act also helps to curb anti-consumer activities like misleading advertisements and fraudulent Multi Level Marketing (MLM) schemes. It is noteworthy that investors are taking assistance of this Act as an effective tool to file cases against defaulter banks, financial institutions rather than concentrating on traditional remedies. It can be seen that the consumer courts have held directors of such defaulter banks and financial institutions as jointly and severally liable. Hence, it can be said that the Act has accomplished its object in one sense, but still has long way to go to acieve its objective due to its lack of speedy remedy etc.

Currently, there are 604 District Forums, 34 States Commissions, and a National Commission.  However, these are underfunded and more so, overburdened. According to the National Commission report, 87.51% cases were disposed in National Commission, 78.98% in State Commission and 91.23% in District Forum until September 6, 2010. However, 8223 cases are still pending in National Commission, 1,08,384 in State Commission and 2,52,149 in District Forums. Statistically, it would take many years to dispose all the pending cases.

Recently, the Supreme Court expressed its concern over the 3.5 Crore cases pending across all categories in the country and also mentioned that filing of cases has grown by 28% in the past few years. Although the Government makes the consumer aware of their rights through various activities like 'Jago Grahak Jago', however there is a lack of basic requirements like funding to ensure smooth disposal of cases.

Until now, there is no strict procedure for filing complaint. A simple letter containing details of the grievances are treated as a complaint in front of the Consumer Court. In fact, the consumer is required to give a brief about the grievance which should include important clauses like limitation and jurisdiction. Therefore, a common man is compelled to appear through his advocate. Moreover, it has been observed that additional staff from the Food and Drug Adulteration departments are moved to the Consumer Courts and they are not well versed with the consumer redressal procedure.

My hearsay experience is that in 2008, there were numerous cases filed in the District Forums, but they are still pending in their preliminary stages. Due to the heavy burden of pending cases, the Court grants a minimum of 3 months adjournment. Respondents also do not take the summons of Consumer Courts seriously. Ultimately the Courts have to give a reasonable opportunity of 2-3 dates to appear and file his "version" (1) of the case, or give an ex-parte decision. As a result, in many cases, the actual hearing starts only after a year from the date of filing the complaint. However, the Act says that the decision has to be pronounced within 90 days from date of the filing of the complaint. 

Few pointers if taken as a suggestion can bring a change to the whole consumer redressal system:

• Consumer Courts should be empowered to execute Power of Attachment and Sale of Property for an order made under Section 25 of the Act. Currently, these powers fall within the purview of the District Collector. Although, the consumer has the order of Court in his hand, he still has to wait for several years for its execution, which leads to disappointment amongst consumers.
• The provision of the Circuit Bench should be made at a District level where huge numbers of cases are pending. Currently, the Circuit benches are available only at the State level.
• Consumer Courts should be empowered to take cognizance of any misleading advertisement, hazardous goods suo-moto within its jurisdiction and in absence of actual complainant.
• There should be a provision made for interim damages, where the respondent admits claim. However, a final decision on the quantum of compensation and damage should be ascertained later on
• The President of District Forum should be appointed with the same powers as that of an Additional District Judge.
• The President and other members of the District Forum should be provided compulsory training that is provided to the newly appointed Judges through the Judicial Academy, so that they appreciate the plight of the consumers.

Speedy remedy was a paramount object of Consumer Protection Act. However, at this present juncture, the social legislation is not properly executed due to various hurdles in the judgment delivery system.

(1) 2002 Amendment of Section 13 from Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

References:

1. http://ncdrc.nic.in/statistics.html
2. Consumer Protection Act,1986

Research for this blog is courtesy: Kamlesh Limaye

Posted by Judhajit Ray at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was just going through the popularity of LLP's (Limited Liability Partnerships) in India. LLP Act, 2008 in India was notified on March 31, 2009 and the rules were notified on April 1, 2009. The first LLP was registered on April 2, 2009 and 2780 LLP's were registered until November 12, 2010.  This shows that LLP's allow businesses to run with flexibility which young and innovative entrepreneurs find attractive as the act provides flexibility to devise incorporation agreements as per their choice.

In light of this encouraging statistic, if one compares legal corporate structures in India and western countries, one will find scope for incorporation of a one more such form of corporate structure in India - Limited Liability Company (LLC).

LLC: Need of the hour

Limited Liability Company is a type of corporate structure which is very popular with small to midsized entrepreneurs in USA and UK.

What India currently requires is a legal corporate structure for small and medium enterprises that provides the advantage of limited liability, simple registration, minimum legal and compliance requirements and filings access to capital and most importantly avoidance of double taxation - at the corporate and personal level.

Surely, this type of structure can help in ushering transparency (as most of small and medium businesses/enterprises run as proprietary businesses in India and notorious for evading taxes and shoddy book keeping) and a vibrant corporate culture.

Thus, introduction of LLC in India will revolutionize the corporate structure as people will be interested in running small to midsized businesses that are currently running as proprietary businesses.

What is LLC?

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a flexible enterprise that has the essence of both a partnership and a corporate structure. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners. LLC's can represent non-profit organizations as well.

Advantages of LLC:

• Going concern - the entity does not runs the risk of liquidation in event of death of any Directors and other unforeseen circumstances

• Limited personal liability for business debts and obligations

• More capital raising options as compared to a proprietary business as it is a legal entity.

• Simplified registration and record-keeping (annual meetings and minutes are not required)

• Tax Flexibility: Similar to sole proprietorship or partnership, an LLC enjoys pass-through taxation. This implies that owners (also known as "members") report their share of profits or losses in the company on their individual tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not assess taxes on the company itself. This prevents "double taxation".

• Owners/members are not required to be citizens of the country or permanent residents
Today India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. At this juncture of time, adopting LLC's and similar concepts will provide the much needed corporate structures for small and medium enterprises that constitute the backbone of the Indian economy. This will also provide legal status to proprietary businesses that are hereto out of the purview of white economy and hence starved for capital. Hence it is high time that Government of India brings in legislation to facilitate corporate structure of LLC.

References:
1. Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India: www.llp.gov.in/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_liability_company 

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Continue reading "Video: Contract Lifecycle Management - An Ecosystem Approach" »

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Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) companies came with lot of excitement in one hand and insecurities on the other hand. The development and growth of LPO's in India has benefited lawyers due to the lucrative pay packages as compared to their counterparts who are practicing law. Also 'law' now seems to be an attractive career opportunity for students pursuing higher studies in India. However, an often overlooked area or flip side to this is that fresh graduates are apprehensive about their fate as they are no longer tagged as an advocate according to The Advocates Act, 1961.

Professional practice of law in India is governed by The Advocates Act, 1961; however, the term legal "practice" is not defined in the Act. Dependence is thus often placed upon an interpretation concluded from reading of Sections 30 [1-See below] and 33 [2-See below] of the Act which indicates that "practice" is limited to appearance before any court, tribunal or authority. It therefore excludes legal advisory, documentation, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and similar work that lawyers do.

However, most of us are unaware that India is a signatory to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), an organ of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Being a signatory, it is under an obligation to open up the services sector to all member nations. The legal profession is also taken as one of the services that are included in GATS.

The Indian government needs to act as a catalyst and facilitate the influx of outsourcing work to India by making necessary arrangements, which include defining "legal practice" in The Indian Advocates Act, 1961, making necessary amendments to the existing policy framework and extending the present tax concessions available to the IT and ITES industry to the LPO industry as well.

[1] Section 30: Right of advocates to practice. Subject to the provisions of this Act, every advocate whose name is entered in the 1*[State roll] shall be entitled as of right to practice throughout the territories to which this Act extends,--
(i) in all courts including the Supreme Court;
(ii) before any tribunal or person legally authorized to take evidence; and
(iii) before any other authority or person before whom such advocate is by or under any law for the time being in force entitled to practice

[2] Section 33: Advocates alone entitled to practice.- Except as otherwise provided in this Act or in any other law for the time being in force, no person shall, on or after the appointed day, be entitled to practice in any court or before any authority or person unless he is enrolled as an advocate under this Act.

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Overview

Legal Case Management/Matter management in United States is an effective system to manage events and timelines for a lawsuit. In this blog, I would outline some of the potential challenges encountered by the attorneys, law firms, corporate legal departments and judicial departments in establishing the timelines to effectively manage a legal case from initiation to completion. These risks/ challenges would highlight the need for specialized consultation/heat mapping required for scheduling realistic timelines for cases and the role play of techno-savvy Legal Service Providers.

As per the Federal Judicial Case Load indicators for the twelve-month period ending March 31, 2009 there were 1,413,498 cases pending in US Bankruptcy Courts.

(Reference)

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts Office of Public Affairs reports:

"Bankruptcy filings rose 20 percent in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2010, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. A total of 1,572,597 bankruptcy cases were filed in federal courts in that period, compared to 1,306,315 bankruptcy cases filed in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2009. This is the highest number of bankruptcy filings for any period since many of the provisions of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 took effect".

"Non-business filings for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2010 totaled 1,512,989, up 21 percent compared to the 1,251,294 non-business filings for June 30, 2009. Business filings totaled 59,608, up 8 percent from the 55,021 filings reported in June 30, 2009".

(Reference)

Potential Challenges:

Some of the potential challenges associated with setting up of timelines for lawsuit management include: a) accurately defining the scope of the  "matter"; b) high costs involved in conducting case studies on matters decided under similar circumstances to prepare realistic and effective timelines; c) connectivity with outside counsel; d) lack of adequate trained resources and operational challenges to manage existing ones; e) inability to focus on effective communications and change management process throughout the lifecycle.

Mitigation through effective partnerships:

Sound analysis and project management methodologies could mitigate most of the challenges outlined earlier. Law firms, attorneys, corporate legal departments and judicial departments can partner with specialized vendors to conduct case studies of the matters decided in similar circumstances. Based on such analysis the entire life cycle of the case lifecycle could be mapped to near realistic timelines.This task should ideally be off shored to vendors with capabilities in both, legal and technological sphere. The legal professionals can understand the nuances of the matter and leverage the expertise of technology experts to design the end to end lifecycle of a matter. The process would also reduce unethical legal billing and improve customer relationships.

As the new web-based collaboration tools are fast replacing the conservative matter management systems, law firms and corporates can meaningfully partner with offshored service providers to take this quintessential part of matter management to the next level.

Posted by Anil Kumar at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Drafting contracts makes every attorney feel like they do high-end legal work. Even when doing outsourced contract management services, we feel we are at par with actual in-house contract attorneys. The reason is that contracts are entered into for the purpose of doing business, which always involves high-risk and therefore gives us a high. For example, real estate sales contracts, commercial contracts are entered into with the prospect of doing business with profits. Therefore, drafting a good contract and considering the business and legal risks involved is essential to save our clients from expensive lawsuits in future.
 
Here are a few things that I learnt from my experiences in contracts management projects that kept me "connected" to my client's contracts -

1. Getting to know the client's business - whether by reading up on them, their industry or asking the client to give us background information on themselves
2. Asking the business heads why they entered into such contracts - get some background information on the business requirements that prompted them to enter into this deal
3. Asking myself how adding/deleting/modifying some of the clauses would help the clients
4. Trying to understand the internal need or purpose of reviewing/abstracting/redlining contracts that deviate from the client's set standards or fallback provisions for the same type of agreement

All contract management professionals should be trained on all kinds of contracting work such as reviewing, drafting, negotiating, abstracting, redlining, re-drafting etc. and gain expertise on all types of agreements such as MSA, SLA, NDA, Partnership Agreements, Joint Venture Agreements, Purchase Agreements, Sales Agreements, Commercial contracts etc.

Execute mock projects/assignments that would help in getting familiar with all types of contracts. For example: A reviewer may initially be assigned to perform contract abstraction work only on MSA's. After that he or she should then be asked to review NDA's etc. Constant feedback should be provided they should maintain a training database that can record their improvements over a period of time.

Contract reviewers could also practice negotiating contracts with the help of sample agreements amongst their team members. This would boost their confidence in the art of negotiation with third parties and striking good deals for their clients.

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There has been an explosive growth in the LPO industry in India in last few years.

Currently, bulk/majority of the revenue in LPO currently comes out of Document Review which is considered to be lower end of LPO value chain. The fear surrounding such work is always that over a period of the time these services get commoditized. The commoditized business is easier to replicate and hence entry barriers for competition is lower. To add to woes of LPO Service Provider beyond cost arbitrage client do not perceive any value add of the service provider. This creates significant long term sustenance issue for LPO service provider. 

LPO service providers in India have also ventured in the following services:

• Contract Management
• Intellectual Property Services
• Legal Research Services
• Litigation and Administrative Support Services

I have an analogy here.

One can't help but notice the growth of IT services just a decade ago. The services offered then were largely on labor cost arbitrage, application development and maintenance (ADM) to be specific. Now India is a leading IT Service provider. Now, top IT services providers manage end to end processes rather than just ADM.  Moreover the nature of outsourcing has moved  deeper  from  one that required single capability to multi-capability like ADM, Infrastructure Management, Project Management, Consulting, PLM, Validation and testing, analytics, business intelligence, predictive modeling, BPO  to name a few .

LPO Industry as it matures will also move from primarily traction processing to process outsourcing to being a value added legal services partner.

However to be a true legal service partner, clients will require transformation partners who can understand their business and provide value added services.
This leap however requires a different set of skills, mindset, organizational capabilities and strategies.

If one goes by the same trend as IT Services, I reckon that the following skills and capabilities (not exhaustive though) will be a part of any legal services engagement in very near future:

Quality and Process Management: These skills are key to any successful engagement.

Utilization of Technology for LPO Domain: This involves continuous improvement on the quality, process, turnaround time, consistency etc., through development of specific and reusable technology, IT tools, most of them developed in house.

Knowledge Management: This is key for knowledge intensive services like LPO. As any (fast) growing industry, attrition will be a problem in future in thin industry which makes this skill critical for this industry.  Every client in LPO space has its own associated processes, terminologies, methods, procedures, rules, nuances, a lot of which may change routinely.  A robust KM process will ensure alignment of the LPO engagement with the client.

Project Management and Transition Management: These capabilities will be required for management of any large/complex project or engagement especially in a multi service LPO environment.

Associated BPO Services: There are associated services with any process and LPO domain is not an exception. These services will be required as the client engagement in LPO domain deepens.

Global Sourcing: Getting right skills at right place and time will go a long way in maintaining competitive edge for LPO firms. Deeper engagements will require onsite-offshore model.

Consulting: These services are provided as a value add and for upselling. These services will be offered as the LPO firms build domain expertise. The services can be as varied as consultation on CRM to benchmarking for law firms.

One may simply argue that any new service starts as a simple offering and progressively gets inclusive, deeper, complex with interdependent disciplines as the service matures. Hence, the same will also apply to LPO services. My point is that though that is true, standalone transaction focused LPO service providers will find it incredibly hard to scale up on the skills mentioned above.

Hence the LPO industry today requires multi-service players as it matures. These players are/will be much better placed in terms of business value add to customer and also in terms of overall competitiveness.

Standalone transaction processing oriented players unless they are able to find niche or acquire domain skills, will be acquired or loose competitiveness.

Posted by Tushar Anand Jiwane at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Legal Departments need to delve deeper into the "Process" aspects of the legal activities handled by them. Due to increasing pressure on Legal departments, to increase efficiencies and decrease cost it has become necessary for them to analyze their current processes and ascertain the gaps. The methodology that can be followed is:
− Interviewing: Detailed discussion with various stakeholders to understand current processes, criticality/importance of certain activities, existing process documentation, performance metrics, knowledge sharing, industry perspectives etc.
− Data & information collection: Collate all information gathered by various stakeholders and evaluate current challenges/pain points faced by the Legal department. The next step is also to Identify and review key dependencies, hand-offs and controls.
− Process Map creation: Prepare detailed as-is process maps and validate these process  maps with the Legal Department
− Final Analysis and Recommendation and Validation of Hypothesis: Recommendation where applicable for process reengineering, improvement and consolidation (centralization, automation, elimination, outsourcing) and preparation of strategy for addressing challenges faced by legal department.
 Create detailed To-be Process maps (with proposed handoffs and controls) based on recommendations and strategy which should be  validated by the Legal Department.
 Evaluate outsourcing potential of certain activities and support the same along with proposed roadmap and implementation plan.

Posted by Arti Dhananjay Joshi at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every corporate legal department is looking into implementing new tools and methodologies, to curtail costs involved in E-discovery. One strategic approach to save cost would be to store the relevant corporate data with a  third party cloud provider. 

In a cloud computing scenario, Company X's data would be stored by a third party cloud provider and if there is a discovery request, the data can always be extracted. However, there are challenges when hosting data on the cloud:
1. The role of the third party cloud provider and whether they need to comply with the obligations under litigation hold.
2. Applicability of privacy laws of different jurisdictions, due to the virtual nature of the cloud. 
3. Issues relating to preservation of metadata, the admissibility of ESI on cloud as evidence etc. 

Some of these legal concerns could be addressed by expressly negotiating specific clauses in the contract for services with the cloud provider, which could describe in detail the obligations of the provider with respect to preservation and production of the data hosted on the cloud. However, the companies need to formulate policies for data on cloud in advance, as any failure in production and preservation of ESI could lead to sanctions from court. As cloud computing becomes more prevalent, it would be interesting to see how  e-discovery and cloud computing can go hand in hand.

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Contract Management Goals 

Large organizations having high volume of transactions with several trading partners, face an eternal challenge of tracking contractual compliances. They invest their time, money and resources in a wide range of activities which culminate in the so called "Contract Management exercise". Traditionally teams looking after contract management, whether it be the legal department or the sourcing & procurement dept, would rely on tracking mechanisms built out of Microsoft excel sheets and access databases; but with time this evolved and organizations adopted and implemented popular contract management software tools which were easily available in the market. By adopting the CMS, the organization tried to ease out the pains of contract management.

The entire aim of the contract management exercise is to ensure that each party performs according to their intended agreement. This can be achieved by adopting some basic practices listed below -

a)     Convey important information about the critical contractual terms and requirements to the project team members. This can be done through a training session which highlights the scope / deliverables/ milestones/ penalties/ change control processes/ IP and confidentiality clauses amongst others.

b)    Track changes to the signed document as the relationship grows and evolves during the contract period ( or its extension) - to capture any changes to the agreement by means of change orders/ processes outlined in the contract and ensure that this information is passed on to the project team.

c)     Create visibility of the executed contracts by providing a centralized repository (provided through digitized contracts present in the CMS).

d)    Ensure compliance of the various terms in a contract which will eventually help mitigate risks

Adopting the above listed practises will enable the contract manager to reduce the risks and enable efficiency in the long run.

Posted by Anita Mary Thussu at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I listened in on a recent webinar led by one of the leading Contract Management System (CMS) providers.  Their value proposition was that a CMS is a requirement in order to streamline and improve the performance of contracting.

As a former head of a two contract management teams I have seen first- hand that we could we improve client satisfaction dramatically and improvement efficiency and client satisfaction by more than 30% through process improvement alone.  It is a well known fact that CMS vendors advertise similar performance improvements through automation.  The downside of deploying a CMS is that it takes at least 12-18 months to implement, especially work-flow.  Time is eaten up by developing a detailed RFP, vendor selection, definition of user requirements, implementation and training of power users, feedback and modifications, and finally training of the rest of the team. Costs are high given the number of stakeholders and system experts involved. Normally, this process is repeated for multiple feature releases.  Another well kept secret is that user adoption of work flow automation is fairly low. 
There are other alternatives (not listed in order of importance) that should be explored prior to committing to a full-blown and costly CMS.  As I mentioned, the first alternative is to clearly define the contracting process.  One of the most valuable aspects is defining the interface between the multiple departments that are involved with the negotiation of a contract - legal, business divisions, finance, and executive management, to name a few. Clearly defining repeatable processes and stakeholder roles can have an immediate impact on cost and team performance. This can be done in less than 3 months.
The other approach that can be implemented in parallel with process improvement is the installation of a contract repository. There are many companies today which lack basic repository features such as electronic contract storage, search, alerts, contract folder structure, secured user access, and reporting. The repository function can be implemented in 3 months and is visible to your stakeholders immediately. (Note: a repository is available as part of a CMS but is rarely sold as a stand-alone module.)

With the goal of leveraging your current staff the final alternative is to outsource the lower value/higher volume contracting work to a third party LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) firm.  This approach can be implemented immediately and unburdens contract management and legal so that they can focus on larger transactions and more strategic work related to the business. LPO providers offer highly qualified contract management professionals and lawyers at a fraction of the cost of hiring additional staff or engaging your outside law firm. Examples of the type of work that could be handled by a LPO include contract review/drafting/negotiation, abstraction, document review, RFP/NDA reviews, creation of contract clause libraries/negotiation playbooks, etc. Note that LPO firms, such as Infosys, offer consulting services that are helpful in accelerating process improvement and managing your data base function. 
 
The bottom line is that there are some alternatives to a CMS investment which should be seriously considered when you are developing a strategy for improving the performance of your contracting team. These alternatives can be implemented in unison or independently.
Your internal clients want improvement now and are typically not willing to wait 12-18 months. Of equal importance is that a combination of these alternatives can yield greater cost savings (40%) than CMS and at a lower cost.

Posted by Robert Henry at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While drafting "Governing Law" clause in cross-border contracts for sale of goods, if the companies entering into the contracts would want governing law of a particular country to apply they must ensure the following:

• It is pertinent for the companies entering into the contract, to check if the countries where they carry on business or countries where they are headquartered have ratified the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG)*.
• If the answer to the same is yes, then it is essential for both parties to expressly state in their contract that they disclaim the application of CISG.
• Parties must ensure that the preferred "Governing Law" is clearly mentioned in the contract, and that any law that directs the application of another jurisdiction's law is expressly excluded/disclaimed, in the contract

* The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods was adopted by a diplomatic conference on 11 April 1980. CISG establishes a comprehensive code of legal rules governing the formation of contracts for the international sale of goods, the obligations of the buyer and seller, remedies for breach of contract and other aspects of the contract. The Convention entered into force on 1 January 1988.1
As of today CISG, has been ratified by 74 countries and therefore a significant proportion of world trade, is governed by this Convention. It is important, therefore for all legal professionals involved in drafting contracts for their clients/company, to note that unless excluded by the express terms of a contract - CISG would still govern, at least on the plain meaning of this clause. The parties, therefore, have to make it clear if they want to derogate from the CISG, by stating that the CISG should not apply.2

1 http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/uncitral_texts/sale_goods/1980CISG.html
2 http://www.austlii.edu.au/nz/journals/VUWLRev/2005/36.html#fn15

Posted by Arti Dhananjay Joshi at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the past few weeks, I had the privilege to have conversations with many law firms. Based on my discussions, I see more opportunities to service the law firms by being their transformational partners rather than an LPO provider. Let me explain this.

The legal industry is around USD 600 billion. There are multiple value levers or cost heads that result into or contribute to this huge industry value. Law firms pay for infrastructure ( office space,  technology infrastructure), content ( raw content - value added content-insights & opinions), leadership & strategy, talent, technology ( applications) and most importantly processes ( sales, accounting, HR, client management, matter management, risk & compliance, project management). They cost all these and weave these costs in their billable hours. Different vendor partners contribute to different cost heads and therefore have opportunities to significantly impact these value levers for the law firms and thereby creating an impact for the legal industry. E.g. Legal publishing firms provide raw content as well as value added content that impacts the content lever. By creating content that can be searched through more efficiently, they can bring about significant shift in the content and research costs.

Through LPO as a horizontal service, we create a significant impact on the content and the talent lever by providing services like litigation support and legal research. However, if we view the Law firm industry as a vertical in itself and holistically look at how we can create an impact on multiple other levers, the conversation becomes very different. I believe that outsourcing industry can have a much wider play across multiple spend areas of a law firm through different services. E.g. consulting can provide process re-engineering consulting, BPO industry can provide process support as well as "platform as a service" around HRO, Procurement etc.  thus impacting the process costs, IT industry can provide cloud based applications thus bringing about a sea change in the way technology costs get spent, KPO industry can provide competitive intelligence, country analysis, prospect research etc. impacting leadership & strategy and last but not the least, LPO industry can provide additional talent pool including training thereby impacting the talent pool for this industry to leverage. This approach can enable the industry to leapfrog as now the law firms will have a proven reason to partner with the outsourcing industry.

Posted by Rahul Shah at 7:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Clients should assign a resource at their end to respond to any questions that their Vendor's team may send through e-mail and provide feedback within 24 hours. They should remember that the off shoring team is like their extended team that they are paying for. If the team is kept waiting 72 hours because someone from the client's team was on leave and could not respond, then they are possibly creating confusion while the offshore team assesses their contracts, which will lead to re-work on the contracts finished until then at their cost.

Posted by Pakhi Bagai at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There has been a paradigm shift due to reliance on computers and electronic information. The attorneys involved in litigation try their best to understand the policies and practices that have been put in place by the IT department to restore electronic data. Given the complexities of modern litigation and the wide variety of information, electronic discovery often requires IT professionals from both the parties in litigation and the attorneys' offices to communicate directly to tackle technology incompatibilities and agree on production formats. Failure to get expert advice often leads to additional time and unexpected costs in acquiring new technology or adapting to accommodate the collected data. It is an imperative business prerequisite that one craft and deploy a good record retention policy. The key ingredient of the policy is how and where the information will be stored so as to facilitate trouble-free restoration of the information as per business exigencies. To avoid severe legal penalties one must be able to demonstrate the existence of a well designed retention policy.

Posted by Kodaneth Sunil Kumar Nair at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

  You are outsourcing a contract management or an M&A project for the first time. You have spent weeks selecting a vendor and think you have a good deal in place. Chances are that everything will go off smoothly as per the project plan the Vendor submitted to you. However, keep the following in mind and remember that it's a team effort at your end and at the Vendor's end to manage and assess your contracts.

  To bridge the gap between stories of outsourcing projects that went bad and reality, I will try and enumerate through real project examples how misunderstandings and complications occur while outsourcing legal projects. If any body else has first hand experience of mistakes that they made while outsourcing their project or during delivery of legal services, do feel free to chip in or comment on my post.

Continue reading "Contract Management Outsourcing Bloopers Part I" »

Posted by Pakhi Bagai at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For most corporates, investing in a Contract Management System (CMS) is not high priority. In fact, it often takes some mishap to even start thinking of evaluating one in the first place. But, over the last year or so, I have seen the number of discussions and queries on this topic increase and one is now presented with a healthy response when one searches google for this topic. Even after the need has been identified, its a fairly involved route to get it to a stage where the investment is sanctioned. One needs to be aware of some of the key factors that influence the outcome.

Continue reading "Contract Management Systems: Building a business case" »

Posted by Nikesh Shah at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Traditional route to automating contract management is to go for enterprise CLM (Contract lifecycle management) applications. This leads to multiple challenges. Firstly, it involves a high upfront cost in terms of CLM implementation, customization and user training. Secondly, the time to market for these type of implementations is long as clients go through a long process of product selection, business case presentations, customization and implementation. Thirdly, the existing contracts take quite some time after the implementation to get uploaded. This limits the CLM’s capabilities to provide insights and analytics to the management till such time that all contracts are uploaded.

Continue reading "Future - Bundling Legal Contract Services with a Contract Automation Tool on a SaaS Model" »

Posted by Rahul Shah at 5:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)