BusinessWeek profiles the moves of DuPont to take more legal work offshore, in this case with OfficeTiger. Here’s some interesting quotes by the numbers:
— “By going offshore, DuPont aims to save 40% to 60% on document work and cut up to $6 million from its annual $200 million-plus in legal spending.”
— “If DuPont does well with this, you will find other companies taking a good look,” says Bradford W. Hildebrandt, chairman of the legal consulting firm Hildebrandt International Inc., which estimates U.S. firms can save 25% to 35% by farming legal work to Asia.
— “For OfficeTiger, success could mean a surge in business. By the end of 2007, [they predict the] Asian legal team could reach 1,000 with several hundred lawyers.
The entire article is worth a read. Some have been thinking this offshore trend was always years away. Certain (most?) law firms might prefer to ignore the news; forward-thinking firms would be wise to consider how they can be involved in developing higher value solutions for their clients.
If they don’t, someone else will…
Once companies get comfortable with document and discovery related services, you can bet they will start moving up the offshore chain.
A tip of the Wired GC cap to DuPont for making a move that many Fortune 500 GCs are probably thinking about, but up until now have settled for “… you go first.”
Here’s a summary for the visual types among us: