A similar phenomenon has happened in litigation, where corporate clients have chosen to defend themselves against meritless lawsuits, using both U.S. and Indian lawyers. The most high-profile examples are some of the cases filed in Los Angeles against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. They have been dismissed instead of settled, because of the successful teamwork among attorneys in the U.S. and India. Without legal outsourcing, there might have been no U.S. lawyers hired for any significant litigation work at all, because frivolous cases often are settled at the outset, just to avoid the usual U.S. litigation costs. The off-shore outsourcing of legal work is leading to a new breed of benign tort reform, as defendants facing bogus or inflated tort claims are choosing to litigate and win. This in turn discourages such claims. And the money that otherwise would be spent by defendants on nuisance payouts can be plowed by corporations right back into the U.S. economy.

http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2010/04/outsourced-indian-lawyers-help-sacha-baron-cohen-win-ali-g-lawsuit.html

Padmavathi Shanthamurthy
http://www.sddglobal.com
high-end legal outsourcing

The last two points are particularly important, and underscore why the Philippines is the best option for legal process outsourcing. When outsourcing U.S. legal work, a complete understanding of the U.S. legal system is imperative. It comes as no surprise that the Filipino attorneys have a complete understanding of the U.S. system. As a result of the Spanish-American War, the Philippines was part of the U.S. territory from 1898 through 1946. During that time the United States had an enormous influence on all aspects of Filipino life not only in government, law and business, but culturally as well. In fact, English (U.S. dialect) is one of the two official languages of the Philippines, and is the predominant language used by professionals, including Filipino attorneys who write briefs and motion papers and argue in English.

The Filipino educational system, including university and graduate school, is modeled after the U.S. system. As in the U.S., a prospective student must complete a four year undergraduate degree and then obtain a J.D. The Filipino law school curriculum includes subjects that mirror the typical U.S. law school curriculum. In order to practice law in the Philippines, law school graduates must sit for the national bar exam. Considered one of the hardest bar exams in the world, the pass rate fluctuates between 18% and 28%. Moreover, the Philippines legal system is very similar to that of the U.S. It adopted the U.S. government structure, legal system, and principles of common law. U.S. Supreme Court decisions are often used as guidance by the Supreme Court of the Philippines. The Philippine Rules of Evidence are modeled after the U.S. Federal Rules of Evidence. Its laws—contract, tort, the parol evidence rule, statute of frauds, securities regulation, intellectual property and negotiable instruments—are similar, if not identical, to the U.S. equivalent. The Philippines even has a codified attorney client privilege rule. The Philippine Bar’s ethical rules, which are set out in the Code of Professional Responsibility (S.C., June 21, 1988) (Phil.), and their disciplinary enforcement under the Revised Rules of Court (Phil.) are very similar to U.S. rules and procedures. Clearly, the Philippine legal education and legal system are comparable with those of the U.S. See http://www.americandiscovery.com.

American Discovery is a leading provider for legal process outsourcing. Its legal staff is composed of lawyers from AmLaw 100 law firms and Filipino lawyers who are admitted to practice before the state bars of California and New York with at least 10 year law practice experience in the U.S. American Discovery has performed high level legal work, such as the preparation of privilege logs, document review, legal research and analysis and discovery consulting for AmLaw200 law firms and Fortune 500 corporations. See http://www.americandiscovery.com.