US' poison is India's pudding

[OhioChick]

Who gains when a US firm goes bankrupt? An LPO in India


Pratima Harigunani

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

PUNE: When the US sneezes, the whole world catches cold.

This has been proven once again in the last few weeks as one giant corporate after another, ranging from big old investment banks to mighty financial institutions and insurance giants, filed for bankruptcy and as they did the ripples ran all across the global stock markets and industries linked to US, both directly and indirectly.

If Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual and Wachovia go under the axe, the blade cuts deep worldwide. Here's however another side to the dreaded Aaachu!

When the US sneezes, isn't there also the need for someone with a tissue paper or napkin, even if we don't talk about anti-cold pills for the time being.

It comes out that among these rare tissue-paper providers who can make cream with the spilled milk, stands the LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) industry. And that's where Indian LPO players are reaping the opportunity in a period of global crisis.

Because when bankruptcy strikes or various form of bailouts or sail-outs (with M&A) happen, there is clearly a big need and bandwidth for the legal work associated with such events. That could mean a mine of opportunities for LPO, that is expected to be worth $4 billion by 2012.

A typical document review work differs between $300 per hour in US and $25 to 50 per day for the same work being done in India, illustrates Manisha Kanojia, legal expert for Verve Communications, a very nascent LPO in Pune that now has scale-up plans of about a 1000 attorneys by 2011.

"Apart from the LPO work that comes from pharma, IPO, IP infringement etc, of late there is a surge in work owing to the bankruptcy cases being filed. Specially from cities like Chicago, there is a lot of opportunity lying."

Another Legal Services offshore operations firm, Mindcrest that will ramp up to 800 heads by EOY also sees the current US meltdown as a downpour of opportunity. The fall-out of the financial events would be followed by many legal ramifications like shareholder suits or bankruptcy processing, shares MD Rohan Dalal.

More: http://www.ciol.com/News/News-Reports/US-poison-is-Indias-pudding/191108112820/0/

[Azlady]

1. Bring our jobs home...AND the security of our privacy! n/t