Lawyers in the United States have given their blessings to the legal outsourcing business claiming that this was a salutory step for a globalized economy.

The so-called LPOs are offering legal services across countries in the labour-intensive aspect of US Law, especially those relating to massive litigation. India is at the forefront of this revolution, thanks to the common legal system and the wide use of English language in the country.

Legal experts in the United States have welcomed the latest decision by the American Bar Association's ethics committee to accept the LPO as a major step forward in a nascent industry.

"Several of us were waiting for this," says the US legal website Law.com quoting Ram Vasudevan, CEO of New-York based Quislex that runs a BPO with 170 lawyers in Hyderabad.

The ABA had announced earlier this month that sending legal work overseas is ethically permissible as long as the lawyer doing the outsourcing takes steps to ensure the protection of client confidences and preservation of attorney-client privilege. The advisory also states that attorneys should check to make sure that foreign lawyers are suitably trained and competent and that bills for outsourced work be reasonable.

The website quotes Vasudevan as saying that major LPO companies have taken all of the precautions outlined by the ABA but said the advisory would help set industry standards for newcomers and also comfort potential clients still wary of outsourcing legal work.

The advisory also says that outsourcing "affords the lawyers the ability to reduce their costs and often the cost to the client to the extent that the individuals or entities providing outsourced services can do so at lower rates than the lawyers' own staff."

The website says that the most vociferous opponents to LPO lawyers performing document review work on a contract basis, many of them working on a contract basis at paltry sums. These lawyers fear that outsourcing will further eat away from their already meagre wages.