Legal Outsourcing refers to the practice of solo attorneys, small or large law firms, in house legal departments and/or legal organizations of obtaning legal support from independent legal support companies which could be based onshore, offshore or nearshore. This new legal support model has been mostly offshore and gained ground in the past few years in UK, Canada, Australia and mainly in the United States of America.
One of the main concerns of outsourcing offshore is the application of the rigorous and strict ethical principles required for the legal profession in the United States of America. The aforesaid concern has arisen several discussions regarding the ethical considerations of the offshore legal outsourcing, specially when the services is provided by no-US licensed and foreing attorneys.
It has been said that outsourcing offshore is permissible as long as the respective lawyer preserves the client's confidences and secrets, avoids the conflict of interest, oversees and supervises the non-lawyer and ensures that the non-lawyer's work contributes to the client's representation, charges properly the client for the outsourcing and when possible, obtains advanced Client's consent.
In summary, if solo attorneys, small or large law firms, in house legal departments and/or legal organizations follow such guidelines, there is no problem of doing legal outsourcing. The American Bar Association has blessed it since August 2008.
For further information, I recommend you consulting the opinion 08-451 of the Committee on Ethics and Professional Resposability of the American Bar Association.
One of the main concerns of outsourcing offshore is the application of the rigorous and strict ethical principles required for the legal profession in the United States of America. The aforesaid concern has arisen several discussions regarding the ethical considerations of the offshore legal outsourcing, specially when the services is provided by no-US licensed and foreing attorneys.
It has been said that outsourcing offshore is permissible as long as the respective lawyer preserves the client's confidences and secrets, avoids the conflict of interest, oversees and supervises the non-lawyer and ensures that the non-lawyer's work contributes to the client's representation, charges properly the client for the outsourcing and when possible, obtains advanced Client's consent.
In summary, if solo attorneys, small or large law firms, in house legal departments and/or legal organizations follow such guidelines, there is no problem of doing legal outsourcing. The American Bar Association has blessed it since August 2008.
For further information, I recommend you consulting the opinion 08-451 of the Committee on Ethics and Professional Resposability of the American Bar Association.
