Trade in Everything: Legal Services

From the WSJ law blog, it looks as though the impact of trade is becoming a little more personal for us lawyers:

The WSJ reports today that outsourcing legal work to India continues to be a booming business. As the economy has soured, the business has only picked up, since in-house counsel are desperate for cost savings wherever they can be found. Indian outsourcers now draw about $250 million in annual revenue.

The math behind the story is simple. Experienced Indian lawyers bill $75 to $100 an hour, less than many U.S. paralegals and half the billing rate of starting associates at many top firms. If you ever want to see a corporate counsel get red in the face, ask them whether BigLaw associates are worth their billing rates.

Indian lawyers typically do routine tasks for U.S. clients, like legal research, due diligence, title searches. But the “sophistication is increasing,” according to an Indian lawyer, who seems to have worked on pretty sexy stuff, such as researching U.S. laws on drug labeling and representing banks in auction-rate securities matters.