By Mark Ross
LLRX.com recently published a white paper, Ethics of Legal Outsourcing (February 14, 2010), authored by Integreon’s Mark Ross. The paper examines the ethical and practical realities of legal process outsourcing in the US and UK, particularly with regard to the offshoring of core legal and support services to countries such as India, South Africa and The Philippines. Included are citations of key bar and bar regulatory authority opinions on legal outsourcing, such as from the ABA, which provide guidance on acceptable practices for firms that wish to ethically utilize outsourcing strategies.
Ross discusses such pertinent topics as:
- Avoiding aiding and abetting the unauthorized practice of law
- Competent representation
- The duty to disclose
- Protecting client confidences and secrets
- Avoiding conflicts of interest
- Billing for outsourced legal support
- Malpractice insurance and LPO errors and omissions
- Export control regulations
- UK specific concerns, including data protection export issues
A shortened version of this white paper was also published in the San Francisco Daily Journal (Legal Outsourcing: Ethical Compliance, February 9, 2010).