On a scale of 1 to 10 if the requirement for training in IT enabled services like financial research, claims review, contract review and generally KPO services is 8 then the need for LPO training for the employees of LPO’s in India is 10.

The reason is that the work may be more value add and may require higher order skills like legal writing, research, organization and analysis. It also requires developing familiarity with certain areas of foreign law where the work is outsourced from. As an example- without having an understanding of the US court structure, citations and civil procedure, it will be very hard for an Indian attorney to do research in US case law.

LPO marketplace is booming. Within LPO’s there is tremendous need for individuals with training. This can form the basis of a standard in LPO industry that several LPO providers are talking about. Currently LPO’s hire and train individuals in one off projects rather than developing a comprehensive program for training the individual. Most LPO workers therefore do not see a long term career path as they are too narrow in their skill set.

Apart from LPO’s there are several multinational corporations in India who in one way or other accomplish certain legal tasks for their US/UK/foreign general counsel or legal department. They have a tremendous need to hire people with training. One India head of legal for a multinational corporation quoted that they take about 6 months to an year in developing a resource internally and many times the length of the projects that they have is less than that.

An LPO employee’s career path should lead them to working for a foreign multinational in their legal department. This should be the motivation for the LPO employees to get training and diverse project experience in an LPO firm. It takes about 3 years to get basic experience in different kind of value add work inside an LPO firm.

It counts and some lawyers are very good in what they do. However they may need some more exposure in the following-

Exposure to corporate work culture- LPO’s and KPO firms require a very high standard with respect to writing, corporate communication, project management, organization and most importantly working in a deadline oriented environment.

Exposure to laws and legal environment in some foreign countries where the work is outsourced from- Although a lot of laws are similar, interpretation of those laws the legal environment and the legal systems/civil procedure is different. Training helps in bridging this gap.

Exposure to process outsourcing environment and client communication- In an outsourcing firm the work environment is deadline oriented and there are several short deadlines. To fit in this kind of work environment, the lawyer needs to be excellent at corporate communications. Anyone with limited communication ability may not be able to rise fast in this career path. Excellent analytical, reading and writing skills are a must.

Ethics, data security and non disclosure- While working with multinational clients, the attorneys need to sign back to back confidentiality agreements and respect the workplace ethics and policies in place for safeguarding the security of client data. Several times they may need to get background checks done.