The Times of India featured a front-page splash for legal process outsourcing, in both the print and online editions the other day. It is already causing controversy. Here a few excerpts from the article, the headline of which reads, "Indian Lawyers a Model in English for US Firms":
If you have the flair, flaunt it and make a fast buck out of it. That's what desi lawyers are doing with their proficiency in English.
Many top US law firms are hiring Indian lawyers to edit and make grammatical and syntax corrections in legal drafts/contracts prepared by their lawyers.
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A recent American Bar Council [sic] Journal article compared the scenario to a "man bites dog" story. It says highly-trained LPO (legal process outsourcing) attorneys in India have been assigned the task of correcting grammatical and other mistakes of partners and associates at some of the top 100 law firms in the US.
The last time the TOI promoted Indian legal outsourcing like this ("Hollywood's Legal Work Is Done in Mysore"), the story created shock waves all the way to Los Angeles. Nikki Finke, whose "Deadline Hollywood" is the U.S. film and television industry's number one blog, followed by everyone in the business, went so far as to wonder, half-jokingly, whether LA's entertainment attorneys would go on strike in protest. In this case, America's leading law-related website, Law.com, has also jumped on the story, based on the first scoop by the American Bar Association Journal.
As the current TOI article and related stories continue to proliferate across the web, with 4,870 sites already linking to the TOI story alone, a backlash is inevitable. One problem is the article's implicit suggestion that all or most Indian lawyers are so well-trained in English writing that they are actually superior to American attorneys on that front. As Sanjay Bhatia pointed out in an article on this blog, such a conclusion would not be quite accurate:
The quality of Indian lawyers ranges from the shockingly incompetent to the simply brilliant. However, a harsh reality regarding the available recruits is that most of the lawyers or law graduates who want to join the LPO industry are precisely the ones you should not be hiring! Sadly, a majority of the candidates have never mastered English, even as a second language. Most of them have severely limited written and comprehension skills.
As evidence, Sanjay produced some downright comical examples of job application cover letters sent by Indian attorneys or law graduates. My favorite: “I went thru yr ad in job portal and am very much interested in offering services to yr esteemed organ.”
High-end legal outsourcing / legal process outsourcing / LPO / legal services KPO in India is producing some amazing and accurate success stories. Some of them even involve the ability of some Indian lawyers to actually provide supervision and editing for some U.S. lawyers who are assigned to supervise the Indians. But the industry still has a long way to go. Fasten seat belts!
The crowning irony is that the brief TOI story contains multiple factual and/or grammatical errors. First, as you noted, the article refers to the largest bar association in the U.S. as the American Bar Council, rather than the American Bar Association. Second, the article contains the following "quote" from the ABA Journal:
"Indian LPO companies have taken a lot of heat from US lawyers for siphoning work, but they now may need to steal themselves against editors," said the article. It further said, "High quality and effective English writing has been out of fashion in the US for several decades."
While I haven't gone back to read the original article, I doubt it said that "they now may need to steal themselves against editors." Indeed.
Posted by: Lisasolomon | July 28, 2010 at 07:26 AM
well i am totaly agree with u Lisa... thats a good point though
Posted by: english grammar | July 28, 2010 at 10:21 AM
This has forever been a problem with us Indians. We do a thing once but immediately see it to be our ability of being the best in doing that thing. We have such desperation of being seen to be successful that we we celebrate minor glories too much. It is time we got real.
Posted by: DesparateIndian | July 29, 2010 at 01:45 AM