ARTICLE IN FINANSAVISEN
Can outsourcing of legal services to India
be the next big thing?
OCTOBER 19, 2006
Routine work or not - while outsourcing of
legal services is big business in the USA, it seems that sending
case documents to India is a rather far-fetched thought in Norway.
Rohit Kochhar - founder of one of India's
largest law firms - would like to do something about this.
"There is no reason why we should not
be able to take cases from Norwegian law firms", says Kochhar,
and adds: " Internationalisation is coming whether you
like it or not, and more international clients means that more
of the work is done in English. The past years we have received
more cases from countries which do not have English as a working
language."
Interlex
Kochhar was recently in Norway at the Annual
Meeting for the international network, The Interlex Group. The
meeting - which brings together lawyers from all over the world
- was this year hosted by Advokatfirmaet Steenstrup Stordrange.
Kochhar & Co. is one of three firms that
cover all of India, with offices in all of the largest cities.
The company has several Fortune 500 companies on their client
list, and Rohit Kochhar has received the Indian Bar Association's
Special Award for "Excellence in Corporate Law." But
now it is outsourcing that occupies him.
Confidentiality
"1 ½ years ago I established
a new company, Kochhar Lexserve. Because of the favourable Indian
tax regulations for IT-companies, we established the company
as purely a software company. Initially, I envisioned traditional
outsourcing, but fate wanted something else", says Kochhar.
In addition to "regular" outsourcing
services such as registration and filing, he has developed a
database system for handling confidentiality (Non-Disclosure
Agreements).
"We represent many companies for whom
we have electronically filed agreements for the past 20 years",
he says.
No time difference
"The company can now send an employee
to France, for example, to negotiate an agreement. There you
agree on terms, before you log on to our server in India. You
answer some questions, and in a couple of hours you receive
an automatically generated ready-to-sign Non-Disclosure Agreement."
There are several advantages with electronic
systems.
You eliminate the time difference - which
otherwise would have meant that you first had to wait until
the American head office was open, and thereafter the Americans
would have to wait until it was daytime in France, before you
could receive a signed agreement.
One third
Another aspect is that the labour cost in
India is lower.
"In Atlanta, we represent a company
named Church's Chicken. The company has filed for protection
of trade marks in 52 countries, and we administer all the applications
for them. Everything is organised and done manually at Kochhar
& Co. in India." According to Kochhar, Church's Chicken
is of the opinion that it costs 1/3 of what it would have in
the USA.
"We do all the work necessary with the
registration and updates, and receive a nominal amount for maintenance
of the database", he says.
Ambitious
Thus far, Kochhar Lexserve has concentrated
on the American market, but earlier this year they entered their
first contract with a major European company.
And in good entrepreneurial style, Kochhar
is everything but modest.
"In five years, the business will be
worth at least a half a billion dollars. Believe me", says
Kochhar.
When will the first contract with a Norwegian
law firm come?
"We will see, we will see", says
the entrepreneur.
