As discussed in the webinar presented by the Lawyers’ Professionalism and Ethics Committee in December of 2010 (available as a podcast from DRI), outsourcing certain “legal” activities (as well as offshoring those activities) is viewed with great mistrust in the legal community. The Connecticut legislator’s recent attempt to regulate the industry, while certainly sympathetic, fails to comprehend both the activities generally being outsourced and the responsibilities of the supervising attorney. The activities which are generally outsourced (and sometimes offshored ) frequently involve document review – an activity frequently assigned to paralegals within larger firms. The responsible supervising attorney must be licensed to practice law in the appropriate jurisdiction. That licensure requirement is the same for document reviews being performed by in-house paralegals, just as it is when the review is performed by outsourced personnel.
Indeed, we are anything but unsympathetic to the plight of graduates of law schools not having jobs upon graduation. However, some of those same graduates might be able to find opportunities in performing work, such as document reviews, on an out-sourced basis.
Worldwide, the workforce is evolving and expanding into global markets. The relatively-recent innovations of the internet and other technological advances perhaps speed those changes. Rather than trying to resist change, we as a profession should strive to evolve with the changes to become a more professional and more efficient resource to our clients.