SL's first international LPO seminar in Feb

Sarath MALALASEKARA

Sri Lanka's first International Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) seminar titled Outsourcing versus Restructuring, organised by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) will be held on February 9 and 10 at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo, said BASL President Shibly Aziz.

The BASL President said outsourcing has for long become a commonly recognised way for organizations to save on resources and costs. While, with millions of ongoing business processes and re-engineering projects, there are considerable advantages. Many industries have in the meantime started to look at the overall outsourcing trend with a more critical eye. The potential for market growth and cost savings at the same time cannot be ignored and offers promising returns.

The current growth rate of the global LPO market is estimated at 34 percent per annum, expecting a market size of around US $ 3 billion by 2015.

However, there is criticism over confidentiality, attorney client privilege and ethical issues when looking at the global market place and minimum guaranteed legal requirements in many jurisdictions, the BASL President added.

The BASL President emphasised that Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) offers to provide more routine legal services at attractive rates, leaving the more complex legal work to specialized law firms and lawyers.

Many LPO providers have since started operations in Canada, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, US and many others. Initially, sources predicted that the global market place would see a transfer of routine legal work from the US/UK markets towards Asia, but in the meantime, these markets saw growing development in this sector internally and many firms responded to the challenge by reviewing their own billing structures.

As the latest global surveys indicate Sri Lanka is rapidly rising in the ITBPO firmament. With a highly skilled and resourceful workforce, a significant cost advantage relative to other regional players, well-developed infrastructure and generous government assistance, Sri Lanka represents unique outsourcing opportunities, the BASL President said.

The keynote speakers at the seminar are Gaurav Jabulee, Senior Counsel- Asia Texas Instruments, Bangalore, India, Attorney-at-law Jayantha Fernando, ICTA, Colombo, Anne Saizer, Cabinet Saizer, France, Filip Van Elen, Brussels, Belgium, Rahul Mattha, India, Ravishankar Pandit, Mphasis, Sri Lanka, Martine Hoogendoom, Netherlands, Marta Trindade, Portugal, Ravi Peiris, Director General, Employees' Federation of Ceylon, Leslie Devendra, Secretary General Sri Lanka Free Workers Union, Dinesh Weerakkody, Sri Lanka, Avinash Vashista, India, Isabelle Lux, Luxembourg, Eugenia Chuang, Taiwan, Vishal Gandhi, India, Ranel Wijesinghe, Institute of Chartered Accounts of Sri Lanka and Attorney-at-Law John Wilson, John Wilson Partners, Sri Lanka.