International Law

Legal Outsourcing to India and Its

More on the nascent outsourcing of legal work to India. One shudders to see it, if only for reasons of professional ethics.

Gregg Kirchhoefer, an outsourcing lawyer with Kirkland & Ellis who spoke at last week's LPO summit, said there were still no industry standards for how a mishap or mistake would be handled.

"With U.S. lawyers, you always have the rules of ethics," he said. "Going to a service provider offshore, you have to replace that gap-filler with contract."

Good luck monitoring outsourced labor -- it is difficult enough when your people sit in an office down the hall.

But beyond the ethical problem lies greater danger to the welfare of the working American. When manufacturing left the United States, the battle cry was "Retrain for Services!" This left the man who works with his hands in the proverbial lurch.

And now, as service jobs begin their trek to balmier climes -- radiologists in India, customer service reps in the Philippines -- what will we have left here for the man of average drive, intelligence and skill to do?

Cheap goods at the local megafranchise. Adults earning just above the minimum wage for mindless work with ever lessening opportunities to advance. Serfs captive to bureaucratic business units -- are you not frightened by what this portends for the future?

Full post as published by Asia Business Intelligence on January 23, 2008 (boomark / email).